Have the Olympics lost their spirit?
 

Now to start I don't want to hear any 'sport..what's that?' jokes. I know that it is possible to be at least somewhat athletic and follow sports without being dumb and still like 'geeky' things.
But that is not my point.

I have always enjoyed watching the Olympics, but it seems a lot of people have lost confidence in the games, and what they represent. Do you believe they are right? Have the modern Olympics(not the ancient Greek Olympics) lost touch with what it was meant to represent(Healthy sportsmanship and understanding between nations) and given into commercialism and rabid competition?

My opinion on the matter is this, I am glad any international event ever gets this much attention and sponsorship, I mean let's be serious, how many times do we actually get to see people from other countries compete in sport. For a lot of these athletes it is their only opportunity to shine on the international stag, and if they win that is even better. For this reason I have not really lost my confidence in the event, plus curling is definitely a cool sport to watch.

i don't necessarily think the olympics have lost its spirit. only a few people have lost it. this, of course, would start with Bode Miller. i hate how this guy is so cocky and just constantly makes excuses for how he isnt winning when he should be. he doesnt even seem like he WANTS to win..

one thing i found out was that regularly scheduled TV shows are actually beating the ratings for the olympics. this includes Grey's Anatomy and American Idol. those are great shows, but its just surprising. on Pardon The Interruption, it said that this hasnt happened since 1988 or something like that.

this could partly be because of the fact that Michelle Kwan and Bode Miller were big stars for America in the olympics. but seeing as how Michelle Kwan is injured and Bode Miller doesnt seem to care, the olympics are kinda in a slump this year

Hmph I havent watched much of the olyimpics but I do find that what I did wach (figure skating) the athleats were getting basehd by every little thing that they didn't do or screwd up and well I don't think a single one of those judges could do any better...what ever happend to the good ol days were there were no olyimpics?...Oh and also commercialism and rabid competition in ANY sport event is unaviodable I mean just look at the super-bowl heck the only real reason I watch the super-bowl is because of the awesome commercials but any ways back to my point, most people are greedy and like to make money anyway they can so commercialisim is just a thing that happens with every thing...also let me just say (again uoh! :O) that everything starts out great and end up rotten and spoild(just look at the televsion or the telephone..). I'd like to add AMERICAN IDOL sucks...

Are we avoiding the fact that figure skating has always been corrupt? If not only because it's a judged game, that it is just corrupt?

Also, the game themselves have competitive people... um... competing. This is most likely a given as they were competitive enough to want to become good enough to go for the gold. As such, it is just like any other sport. You have some people who like their dignity, and others who like their fame. I think it hs always been the same, with some people cheating, and others really wanting to prove how good they are. Fairly.

I just love how medal winning runs in the luge or skeleton are cut off so we can see the warm-ups for the figure skating competition.

I'm sorry. Figure skating is boring. I'd argue that, while it is a competition, it is not a sport. The skaters go out and do their thing and judges give them their score. It's uninteresting to me because judging is completely subjective and prone to corruption. If you have no objective way to compare one athlete to another, than I feel it is a waste of time to watch.

Think about if the NFL had this judge system. At the end of regulation, the score is tied 7 to 7, but some judge gives the win to the home team because they had better "technical merit" and "presentation."

It's a joke, and the fact that 1/2 of the Olympic coverage is devoted to it makes me not want to watch.

Hey man. I was watching Bode Miller self-aggrandize on 60 Minutes while reading a Sports Illustrated story about the entirely-professional all-star US Hockey team that had never played together before while eating a Big Mac endorsed by Apolo Anton Ohno and was hearing about how Michelle Kwan got to bypass the tryouts because of political wrangling, and I thought about that for a second.

But then I realized that...um...YOO-ESS-EY! YOO-ESS-EY! YOO-ESS-EY!

Wait...was I talking about something? Did we win a medal or something?

I just think that NBC is filtering too much of the stuff we WANT to watch with stuff we DONT want to watch. Like Ski jumping or Hockey. I havent seen a single one of those yet. What they SHOULD do, is not show all the events where the americans are favorites in winning, but some of the events when we're you know...not the favorite.

i refer you to an interesting opinion piece in usa today: http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion...olympics_x.htm

i agree with much of what was written. amateurism is long gone from these olympics, as it was from the summer games a long time ago. the athletes are superb but, considering the training and subsidies most get to be olympians, that really isn't surprising. the fun still shows in the snowboarding, where the big money hasn't taken over -- yet. and athletes like eddie "the eagle" edwards and the jamaican bobsled team would no longer be permitted to compete in the games.

but then, this is truely in line with the olympic tradition. the ancient games were often just as rigged, just as purchased as the modern games. human nature, after all, hasn't changed much in 2500 years.

The general opinion seems to be 'too much figure skating', I agree wholeheartedly. And I also wish that we could see some sports that we are not good in. There are tons of really cool winter sports I would love to see, and some that I could actually imagine participating in, which is one of the things I like about winter sports.
And there hasn't been amateurism in the olympics for a long time, I find this very unfortunate as well.
I also agree that the summer Olympics have been that way for awhile, it is just unfortunate that the Winter Olympics could become(or have already become) that way.

The reason why I think the Olympics have also lost a little bit of it's value in the last couple of years, well( personnaly) I think that there is just a lost of interrest from the viewers...I admit that I am am one of those people. I usually just watch the opening ceremonie, a few of the sports and then just get tired of it and go do something else instead...let's say that I'm a quitter:D

Now, I don't know if you should consider Figure skating a sport, but more like an artistic...thing...who is judged...meh.
And I prefer curling over it.:D