The above would be my definition of "sport" if I were asked...And since I'm not likely to be asked, I would further classify "popular sport" as:
"Organized physical activity requiring coordination of mind and muscle in either an individual or team effort presented for its entertainment and/or commercial value..."
Thus we are brought to the Olympics...Begun as a collection of sports thought to represent skills needed in battle by individual warriors, and beset upon by politicians demanding allegiance and religious factions claiming credit for success to their respective gods, it soon turned into a spectacle recognized by its followers for its entertainment value...
Long championed as the arena for non-paid strictly amateur athletes in pure and equal competition to determine who is best in a field, it quickly became a showy presentation of gaudiness by the politician who could afford to buy the best professional...A noted early example was Sotades, who dominated as a Cretan runner in the 95th Olympiad of the ancient world, then was bribed to present himself as an Ephesian by the political leaders of Ephesos when he competed at the next games...
In more recent memory, we can point to the 1936 Olympic games in which Adolf Hitler and his racist toadies attempted to fix the outcome so as to promote their Aryan supremacy theories...Facing international boycotts from several nations and individuals, the German team managed to eke out 33 gold medals against a world which did not present its best athletes...
In addition to the well known victories of black US athlete, Jesse Owens, the first Muslim women to ever compete as Olympians refused personal introductions to Hitler, adding to the Reich Chancellor's humiliation...Ironically, the women stated flatly they did not wish to shake hands with the dictator due to his hatred of the Jewish people, a position which might be little understood by modern observers...
In later years, the East European communist bloc, taking its direction from its Soviet masters, began experiments with the goal of constructing stronger, faster athletes possibly with the long-term ambition of using the knowledge gained in creating a more effective military creature...Since the recognition had been made of the obvious strength difference between male and female competitors through separate, gender-segregated classifications by governing sports bodies, communist controlled scientists and coaches were ordered to focus some effort toward infusing male strength into female performers...
Their early efforts were obvious even to the casual observer, since the formerly female monsters they created by way of testosterone and steroid injections took on the more masculine characteristics of their male counterparts, making it very apparent that something other than nature contributed to their enhanced performance...The reverse process attempted to convert male athletes to female while retaining the superior male strength, an experiment which probably would have caused Dr. Frankenstein to turn in his medical license...
The long term confusion brought onto the athlete/victims compelled a number of them to seek gender reassignment surgery with varying degrees of success...A notable example is Andreas Krieger who, following a gold medal win as a female, emerged from the operating room as a male, subsequently married another doped East German competitor, and today can only walk for short periods without pain...
The public audiences, whose approval was always the main target of politicians, power-seekers and financiers looking to broaden their spheres of influence, were also the victims as their champions' victories were cheapened and degraded following disclosures of the true nature of the triumphs of their heroes...The adage, "Cheaters never win, and winners never cheat" might have some value in this discussion...
A step towards restoration of honor to the sporting world might be to pay athletes like the professionals we all know them as anyway...Olympic basketball was only advanced by including NBA players on the list of competitors...
On a personal note, I'll continue to watch the female gymnasts and figure skaters as they typically own the best looking legs on the planet...And that's entertainment!...
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Don't forget volleyball, what's attached to their Gluteus Maximus is every bit as nice to look at as the skaters. IMHO
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