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TITLE: The Olympic Games Are Due Into London In 2012, But Will They Really Live Up To Expectations Or Will The Bad Side Of Sport Ruin The Party
I’ve been into various sports since childhood, having been introduced to football by my buddy when I was approximately eight years old. John was able to get a ticket for the F.A. Cup Final one time, and I, with childish innocence, spent the afternoon following the match on TV hoping that I would be able to find him in the crowd. Of course, I didn’t see him, but I had got enthusiastic about the spectacle of the big match. Once in my teens I evolved into a dedicated football fan, with the results round-up at five o’clock|5pm|tea-time on a Saturday afternoon impacting on my mood for the rest of the weekend. Fortuitously for my parents, I supported a club who won more regularly than they lost!
In the years since, I started to watch a lot of other sports on television. Test cricket became a favourite at a time when an attack of glandular fever left me holed up indoors during a series in the West Indies, snooker got dragged from the pubs and clubs of the British Isles and turned into primetime viewing thanks to some creative branding and the realisation that here was a game that was comparatively cheap and simple to broadcast. And then there was the Olympic Games, an incredible sporting spectacle which took place every four years and in which all the world participated on equal terms. Or so we were led to believe.
Since my earliest memory of anything relating to the Olympics was the dreadful events which took place in Munich in 1972, it’s perhaps strange that I loved the whole concept of the event as much as I did. But the same games also produced Mark Spitz’s outstanding collection of seven gold medals in the swimming pool – an achievement only bettered in 2008 by Michael Phelps. Hours of watching East European athletes effortlessly beating all the other athletes aided by performance enhancing drugs which were not identified didn’t dull my enthusiasm either, and I have fanatically watched as much television footage as I could in past years – until now. (Is it surprising that I now have to wear glasses to see properly and am considering having Laser eye surgery? Too many days spent watching sport on television!)
No matter how much I try, I’m finding it difficult to build up any enthusiasm for the London Games. Even relations who really don’t have any interest in sport think that they’d probably like to go and see a couple of events, as it could be the only chance that they have in their lifetime, yet I, who claim to be such a keen sports fan, and can get to the main Olympic site in less than an hour from my house, have little interest in trying to buy tickets.
I think that there are a few reasons for this. Firstly, I am tired of the number of scandals and unpleasant events that are starting to tarnish many sports – pub fight footballers, bribed cricketers, drug using athletes, jockeys accepting backhanders, and behind all of them, the dubious types who instigate most of the damage and who encourage such havoc entirely for personal financial advantage.
Secondly, big business has an iron grip on so many events now. Everything has corporate branding, events are planned to fit in with television executives wishes rather than the fans, sportsmen and women are told whose clothes they must wear and which products they have to endorse, including diet supplements and Laser eye treatments – aren’t these actually ‘legal’ cheating? But the reality for sports lovers is paying crazy prices to watch a tournament in order to line the corporate pockets of the businessmen who are running the show, and without in reality being convinced if teams or competitors are actually competing against each other on equal terms. The golfer who sings the praises of Laser eye surgery - doesn’t the operation give him an unfair advantage? The football team whose owners have employed some obscure sort of therapist – is everything he asks the team to do totally legal?
Finally, I don’t notice the wealth of personalities in sport these days. There are a few characters who would be described as entertaining, but because of the money now involved, a lot of sportspeople don’t believe that they can say a few crazy things every now and then because anything they do or say may impact on their contract. I find myself wishing for another Daley Thompson, James Hunt, Malcolm MacDonald, Henry Cooper or John McEnroe (though I can believe that he’d probably be promoting Laser eye treatment if he was still playing at his best now – but for the tennis officials rather than himself!)