There might have been some good reasons to protest these Olympics but there’s no need to continue protesting them. These Olympics are protesting themselves.
As Napoleon once said: “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” And make no mistake, Vancouver is making some huge mistakes.
The whole thing has been a mess and a disaster. It might be the worst Olympic games ever staged and Canada has come out of the whole thing looking like a hypocrite, a bully and an incompetant. Our mask has slipped.
Because we’ve decided to use the rules and technicalities to cheat other nations of practise time, any of our wins are meaningless. Only our losses have meaning. Our losses say that even given a major and unfair advantage, Canada still can’t “own the podium.” It’s like losing with a head-start.
These Olympics had a head-start on losing.
Before the opening ceremonies had even begun, a mixture of Canadian carelessness, stupidity and greed for gold killed a Georgian luger.
Since then, ice has failed, concession stands have been shut down, thousands of ticket holders have been turned away, the poorly designed medal ceremonies have been unattended, the opening ceremony was marred by malfunctioning hydraulics and a performance by Bryan Adams, there’s been a lack of zambonis and snow, events have been cancelled due to completely seasonal weather, our media has revealed itself as a cheerleading team instead of reporters and Canada, in spite of its cheating ways, has still failed to “own the podium.”
Any sensible protester would have to ask themselves what exactly are they protesting here? The public failure of their enemies? What more could they possibly add to this clusterfuck? Can they make the Olympics look worse than the Olympics have already made themselves look? I don’t think so.
At best, they could be scapegoated,
It’s so bad that I spent four years looking forward to Olympic hockey –the only hockey that I really love– and now I can’t bring myself to cheer the Canadian team. The arrogant hubris, the desire to win at the expense of fair play, all of these things make me regard Canada with an even deeper loathing than before.
Whatever my problems are with this country, hockey has always remained untouched. These Olympics touched it. Touched it right in its special place. And it makes me feel dirty. Not even dirty in the good way. Dirty in the I need sixteen hours in the shower type of way.
I just can’t say: “Go Team Canada.” I just can’t feel it.
This actually hurts me. Though I lack nationalism, I express my tribalist instincts through my support of sports teams. It seems a safe venue for the feelings, which are natural, and I believe all that cheesy nonsense about how sport exemplifies the human spirit. It does.
Sadly, these days. cheating to gain gold is what the human spirit is about. Sports can’t change the worst or the best in us. They just show it. Just as the gladiatorial contests of Rome illustrate the cruel values of that society, the Olympics show the shallow, moronic and chintzy values of ours.
Blaming them for that is like blaming the mirror for your haircut.
The problem is not that the torch malfunctioned. The problem is, the spirit has. Although I should know better, I’m still disappointed.
Being old fashioned, I cling to the belief that it’s not whether you win or lose but how you play the game. Bigger than any team, bigger than any athlete and bigger than any championship, accomplishment or accolade is the game itself.
The game must be respected. It must be a fair and square match. No one wants to win on a technicality. No one wants to lose that way. You want to play your best against an opponent who is playing their best. And you want to win.
There’s no shame in being beat but there’s shame in losing. Just ask any kid who dropped the ball. Ask any cheater if it was worth it. If their victory was real. Only a psychopath would say yes but, then again, only a psychopath would cheat.
Canada has forgotten this. It only sees value in gold and none in how the gold is won. As such, its victories are meaningless. By granting our athletes more practise while limiting that of their opponents, we have only cheated them out of victory. Not all the media cheerleading in the world can change that.
And I’ll cheer a lot of things but I will never knowingly cheer a rigged match or the team associated with it. I’ll cheer a loser playing hard before I cheer a juicer breaking records and I’ll cheer a champion playing hard louder than either. Because that’s sports. That’s the Olympic spirit.
It’s a shame Canada forgot that and a disgrace that Canada cheers for it.
4 comments
The Chairman
February 19, 2010 at 12:15 pm (UTC -5)
How refreshing it is to read an Olympic revue free of nationalistic propaganda.
Thank you for that.
I’m going to puke if I read another mainstream media ecstatic description of pride
all Canadians are feeling since Sunday, the day the first historic Canadian gold medal won
by a Canadian on Canadian soil, by a Canadian Olympian, in Canada, for the first time
in Canada during the Olympics, when Canada was hosting them in Canada (for the first time)
This pride shit is unbearable. Humility suits us so much better.
And where did we get the arrogance from?
“We own the podium”. Yeah right.
And by the way is it just me or are these podiums ever hideous.
They look like some horrible stained wood flee market clocks from the 70′s
Picture of Jesus and a Portuguese flag are the only things missing.
Let’s apologize to the world, fire the Olympic spinsters,
boycott the “independent” media towing the party line,
abandon pride, embrace humility.
There is nothing we have to prove to the world.
The way we are is just fine. Let’s not be such dicks.
J. LaRue
February 21, 2010 at 12:03 pm (UTC -5)
You guys have to get over this. We own the podium, so it’s our right to rent it out and I think we’re doing a pretty good job of that. Every day we’ve got more tenants up there and once those rent cheques clear, who’s gonna be laughing?
The Chairman
February 22, 2010 at 2:31 pm (UTC -5)
We do not own the podium after all.
Chris Rudge, the chief executive of the Canadian Olympic Committee, conceded Monday morning that Canadian athletes will not meet the COC’s goal of finishing first in the medal standings at the Winter Olympic Games.
So it was not just a metaphor, they actually thought it possible. Amazing.
On a bright note we now qualify for the laughing stock hall of fame.
Patrick M
February 22, 2010 at 3:57 pm (UTC -5)
All I can picture when I hear “Own The Podium” is a handful of Canadian athletes winning medals and 30 million other Canadians getting smug about it while sitting back in hockey sweaters (“MuuMuus with numbers on them” — Tom Scharpling) and slurping sugared-up Timmie’s.
If we must have a program like Own the Podium, could we at least have had more fun with it, and called it something like “Destroy All Challengers and Pave Our Roads With Their Bones?”