Thursday, August 18, 2016

Manifesto

I haven't been able to watch as much of the 2016 Olympics from Rio as  would have liked to. My TV watching time has been very limited in the last two weeks.

But, as I watched during those times that I was able to watch, I found myself thinking the same kinds of things that I had thought while watching other Olympics.

So I decided to take the plunge and finally start a blog in which I would address those thoughts I had about the Olympics, the Olympics spirit, and how I wished the networks covering the the Olympics would alter their coverage.

Victory Laps

One thing I've always thought of was the nationalistic fever of the games. Not sure how long it's been going on, but the "victory lap" whenever the winner(s) of a track and field event would win a medal, they'd grab their country's flag and do a victory lap with the flag streaming in the wind...

Why not grab an Olympic flag, or a "peace on earth, good will toward all people" flag, and use that in your victory lap? Is that any more of a political statement than someone running around the track with the flag of their country (or adopted country, in the case of those individuals who moved to different countries and switched citizenships so they could compete)?

Yes, I think it's of interest to see how many medals each country wins, and I have no problem at all for the flags of the appropriate nations to be unfurled while the three medal winners are receiving their medals.

But for a victory lap, the "victory" should be the triumph of the Olympic spirit...and thus the flag should be something demonstrating the uniting of that spirit.