Re: [Paddlewise] Paddling Sports in the Olympics

On Mon, Sep 25, 2000 at 09:53:27PM -0400, Michael Daly wrote:
> I've been thinking of the same recently with respect to the 2008 
> Olympic bid by Toronto.  They announced the WW and flat water 
> venues and I went "Whaaa?".  The WW is at Twelve Mile Creek in
> St Catherines - not a place noted for its spectacular WW.  Why 
> not the Gull River at Minden (a world-class, natural location),
> MKC on the Madawaska or the Ottawa river.  Twelve Mile Creek will
> be a man-made course in an existing creek.  

I've paddled the Madawaska at MKC and the Gull at Minden -- both are
beautiful places, and Minden (which has hosted a World Cup or two)
would be terrific for the whitewater race...except, as you point out,
that the wonderful preserve surrounding it would probably be destroyed.
(And Madawaska is also far too pretty to survive the invasion of the
games.)

> The Aussies, an amateur sports crazed country [...]

And there you've hit the mark.  Unfortunately, here in the US, gifted,
hard-working, role-model amateur athletes are ignored while lazy,
greedy, and sleazy professional athletes are glamourized at every
available opportunity.  As a result, the press here focuses on the
idiots on the "Dream Team III" while neglecting the true amateur athletes
competing in wrestling and fencing and water polo and other sports.
This is true not only in re Olympic coverage but at all other times
as well: and that, combined with an insane "winners/losers" mentality
that is also beaten into the masses' heads at every available opportunity
("The USA leads in medal count...") makes us, frankly, a nation of very
poor losers and graceless winners (with some notable and welcome exceptions).

> Return the summer olympics to Greece with a _permanent_
> installation, find a suitable spot for the winter olympics and stop
> the money, greed and politics surrounding the Olympics.

I'd certainly be all for that.  The IOC is horribly tainted by
corruption and is clearly running the games to maximize their
profit and their perks, with total open disregard for the true
ideals of Olympics competition.  Their greedpig-motivated actions
in censoring all coverage of the games via the web (except of
course for their lapdogs at NBC) is as predictable as it is selfish.
It's time to throw out the entire lot of them, and their outrageous
mismanagement of the games (what in the HELL is professional tennis
doing in the Olympics?), return it to its roots as a *strictly* amateur
competition with as broad a base of participation from around the
world as can possibly be attained.

---Rsk
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