They should’ve just postponed the summer olympics 4 years

hanselthecaretaker

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We all thought by now the worst of our COVID routine was behind us, but the 2020 Summer Olympics is a football field sized Post-it Note to the world that we ain’t done yet.


The opening ceremonies were a joke, volleyball canceled because one person on the team got COVID, no spectators, state of emergency declared just to have them, etc. It’s not even the same year anymore as what they’re calling them. Who cares if they already have the next x number of locations planned, as they’d get extra time too. Shame on them if they’re relying on those olympics monies sooner.

This will likely end up costing Japan more in both the immediate and long run anyways.
 

McElroy

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Would've been more expensive to cancel them. ASTRONOMICALLY MORE to "postpone" them. Maybe it should've been canceled in Spring 2020, but that's hindsight talking.
 

Agema

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We all thought by now the worst of our COVID routine was behind us, but the 2020 Summer Olympics is a football field sized Post-it Note to the world that we ain’t done yet.
1) The IOC wants its payday. The IOC is probably not quite the cesspit of obvious corruption it once was, but we'd be idiots not to think a substantial proportion of its commissioners would be deeply unhappy at the prospect of missing out on a ton of money.

2) Japan wants its payday. Hosting the Olympics is really expensive. Many host cities are strongly believed to have not made their money back, and without the mass of sports tourists that would normally accompany the Games, Japan will very likely be in deficit. It will want to minimise those losses.

Effectively cancelling the games four years is an unsatisfactory answer. They could just kick everyone's hosting back four years and let Japan hold it in 2024, otherwise they'd just need to skip over Japan. However, Japan will have a load of facilities that require maintenance for years (still expensive) in the former case, and in the latter just sucks up a huge loss period. Neither is attractive. They could perhaps have considered a postponement to 2022, of course.
 

hanselthecaretaker

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1) The IOC wants its payday. The IOC is probably not quite the cesspit of obvious corruption it once was, but we'd be idiots not to think a substantial proportion of its commissioners would be deeply unhappy at the prospect of missing out on a ton of money.

2) Japan wants its payday. Hosting the Olympics is really expensive. Many host cities are strongly believed to have not made their money back, and without the mass of sports tourists that would normally accompany the Games, Japan will very likely be in deficit. It will want to minimise those losses.

Effectively cancelling the games four years is an unsatisfactory answer. They could just kick everyone's hosting back four years and let Japan hold it in 2024, otherwise they'd just need to skip over Japan. However, Japan will have a load of facilities that require maintenance for years (still expensive) in the former case, and in the latter just sucks up a huge loss period. Neither is attractive. They could perhaps have considered a postponement to 2022, of course.
That’s what I meant by postponement, but the 2022 idea might’ve worked too, if people in charge didn’t mind both winter and summer ceremonies held the same year.
 

Thaluikhain

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Howabout just write the Olympics off as a terrible idea under the best of times.

Dammit, Brisbane had to get the games in 32 or whatever.
 

happyninja42

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I like the idea of the Olympics as a sporting competition. Most of the rest of it is a disgusting circus.
I used to not care about the Olympics, as it's sports, and I just don't care about sports, but I felt it was a fairly harmless gathering of the various jocks and meatheads of the world, and the people obsessed with cheering for them. But, lately, I personally find ANY even that is centered around nationalism and competition, to be something I find abhorent, and wish it would just die in a fire. Nobody gives a shit about the Olympics in the time between the Olympics, and nobody gives a shit after the Olympics, the public I mean. But when it's going on, it's nothing but "Murica! USA, showing the pride! blah blah blah We're the best, blah blah blah" And I just frankly don't give two fucks about anything like that anymore. Never did, but I find it actively repugnant now.

Every aspect of it is politicized and weaponized for more national BS, and I just see nothing good about that all anymore. The sooner we all stop giving a fuck about who lives on which side of arbitrary lines we drew for ourselves centuries ago, the better. What we DON'T need is to have events every 2 damn years, that continue to reinforce our tribal rivalries, under the false banner of "friendly competition."
 

Agema

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Every aspect of it is politicized and weaponized for more national BS, and I just see nothing good about that all anymore.
One might argue it is at least consistent with the original ancient Olympic Games, where I believe athletes also represented their city state.

But honestly I find the whole nationalism angle something of a load of hogwash too. It underpins things like a load of the doping regimes some countries have run, because they have wanted to show off their national prowess through sporting achievement. (By cheating.) Although given that much of the funding of athletes is at a national level, one can perhaps argue that it really does represent national attitudes to sporting achievement.

I have a lot of disdain for the money angle. Partly just the general reality that it is a spectacle geared almost entirely to grubby money-making, right up to the clear corruption of the IOC and the numerous Games awarded in part through flat out bribery. Given that what the IOC attempts to claim about itself and the spirit of sport, it's just appalling pomposity.

The IOC can at least rest safe for a while knowing that FIFA thoroughly took over as the most comically, glaringly corrupt global sporting organisation. Its chairman from 1998, Sepp Blatter, was dogged by corruption allegations throughout his tenure. It is genuinely hilarious that even as law enforcement agencies finally unravelled a massive web of corruption throughout FIFA during his long tenure, in 2015 Blatter demonstrated just how inconsequential he thought that was, blithely ran for and won re-election. And was then compelled to resign just a few months afterwards. Good riddance.
 

Gordon_4

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Could replace it with this. I mean my favourite events are the archery and the judo (cos I know how to do both of those things) and I don't think we can recreate that with marbles but hey, its fun to watch at least.
 
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BrawlMan

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I actually don't mind the Olympics right now. As long as people are being respectful towards each other, that's all that matters to me. I really don't care who wins what at this point. Besides, there's been some pretty fun and exciting events. I know it sucks, but we have to take what we can.
 

SilentPony

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The Olympics are good in theory, but everyone just pretends like ALL the athletes aren't on performance enhancing drugs. The Russian track team is part of a Government run drugging performance enhancing scheme and use top of the line, sports medicine designed shoes and athletic clothing and they finish .015 seconds ahead of the US team, who are just a bunch of country farm kids who are in no way doping up too.
Michael Phelps is the greatest swimmer ever, of ALL time, and the official medical reasoning behind it is...he's part dolphin. He has big lungs and large feet, and is apparently the only human of that sort to try swimming. No way he's on drugs. Nope. He's just naturally part dolphin.
Every year records are broken. Athletes today are breaking records from 20 years ago, set by people we in hindsight know were on drugs, and we're just expected to believe the modern record holders are clean. Simone Biles is just the best gymnast ever. That's it. No way she blood dopes to increase muscle strength and breathing. No way she takes steroids as part of a post-workout recovery. No way she actually has a legal prescription for anabolic steroids for "lung issues".

I say just drop the act. Have the Olympics, let them compete, but be honest they're all drugged up super-athletes with the financial and medical backing of huge national Governments to further national tourism profits, not amateur kids from high schools competing in friendly games.
 
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Agema

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The Olympics are good in theory, but everyone just pretends like ALL the athletes aren't on performance enhancing drugs.
Everyone accepts it is likely some of them are on performance enhancing drugs.

I also think you undervalue the potential for improved training technology and equipment. One might point out that the first time someone ran 100m in under 10s was 1968, and this is almost certainly before doping became particularly widespread. (East Germany was generally held to be the pioneers of athletic doping, and started in the 60s). This has been improved on by a mere 4% in the last 50 years, which is easily understandable with better running shoes, exercise regimes, etc. One might note the recent thing about Nike "super spikes", which many think is offering clearly superior performance over earlier designs. Maybe, maybe not - athletes probably are reluctant to admit something as simple as a shoe change improved their performance 1%, but potentially it has.

I certainly think there's a somewhat worrying grey area of athletes having medical conditions signed off that permit limited usage of some drugs that would otherwise be considered as "performance enhancing".

I am however against allowing sports with drugs. Some of these drugs can and do wreck the health of those who take them in the long-term. We can take the line that it is the atheletes' choice if they want to do that to themselves, but I have concerns that choice isn't quite as free as we might like to think, especially in some countries.
 

Hades

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All those corporations were never going to miss out on so much add revenue for four years. Missing out on it for just one year already got them into a panic.
 
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Dwarvenhobble

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I'm going to say while I do think it would have been good to delay I'm also not unhappy to see them going ahead as they try desperately to handle the situation the pandemic has caused.

The reason is the athletes themselves getting to compete. This is their careers, their livelihoods and basically their lives. Some of them would have passed their peak and lost that chance given a full 4 year delay. For some this will be their last Olympics or possibly their only one.

Yes they won't get to take part in the usual Olympic village hijinks or at least not to the same degree but them getting their shot is something good. The big issue is going to be round infection and questions of legitimacy in the awards and placings and well honestly while there will be those questions for winner in some of the sports I think most people will have been happy to just have had their shot.
 

SilentPony

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While I agree its probably not as optional for some countries, China coming to mind for their gymnasts being child slaves, I think performance enhancing drugs are not nearly as optional as you make it seem at the Olympic level across all countries.

I would say if an athlete is taking drugs, and they're beating the clean athletes by a fraction of a tenth of a second, the drugs aren't performance enhancing. If you're measuring your victory in a race in millimeters, its not a real edge.
The more likely scenario is that both athletes are on something, and that fraction of second difference is natural skill/sports medicine. But just to get to the starting line you need to have beat dozens if not hundreds of other athletes, who are all on drugs. It reminds me of the Tour De France with Armstrong being disqualified for taking steroids and blood doping, and then it came out that if you gave the medal to the first rider who didn't test positive for those substances it was to the 102nd place rider.

As for athletes who have prescriptions for something like steroids, I wouldn't put it past Olympic teams to screen for candidates like that. Make sure ALL your teammates have a legal prescription for steroids or other performance enhancing drugs, its a nice little legal loophole to get around drug abuse policies, because they're not drugs, they're medication.
 

happyninja42

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While I agree its probably not as optional for some countries, China coming to mind for their gymnasts being child slaves, I think performance enhancing drugs are not nearly as optional as you make it seem at the Olympic level across all countries.

I would say if an athlete is taking drugs, and they're beating the clean athletes by a fraction of a tenth of a second, the drugs aren't performance enhancing. If you're measuring your victory in a race in millimeters, its not a real edge.
Eh, I mean that's assuming the only "edge" you're getting out of the enhancement is a millimeter. The likely outcome, is that person who won by a few millimeters, without the enhancement drugs, might have been meters behind for all we know. No challenge at all, WITHOUT the enhancement. Pure speculation of course, there's no way to time travel and have a baseline race sample of them without years of medical enhancement. But that's kind of the point.

Personally I don't really care, let them all be doped up to the gills and level the playing field for all I give a shit. They're all trying to get away with it anyway, just make it be the Dope Games, acknowledge they're converting these human beings into drugged up physical meat slaves that agreed to do it, and let them all see the real competition, who had the better pharmaceuticals. They could turn the games into a giant commercial for products and nationalistic pride!! .....oh....wait.
 

Gordon_4

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While I agree its probably not as optional for some countries, China coming to mind for their gymnasts being child slaves, I think performance enhancing drugs are not nearly as optional as you make it seem at the Olympic level across all countries.

I would say if an athlete is taking drugs, and they're beating the clean athletes by a fraction of a tenth of a second, the drugs aren't performance enhancing. If you're measuring your victory in a race in millimeters, its not a real edge.
The more likely scenario is that both athletes are on something, and that fraction of second difference is natural skill/sports medicine. But just to get to the starting line you need to have beat dozens if not hundreds of other athletes, who are all on drugs. It reminds me of the Tour De France with Armstrong being disqualified for taking steroids and blood doping, and then it came out that if you gave the medal to the first rider who didn't test positive for those substances it was to the 102nd place rider.

As for athletes who have prescriptions for something like steroids, I wouldn't put it past Olympic teams to screen for candidates like that. Make sure ALL your teammates have a legal prescription for steroids or other performance enhancing drugs, its a nice little legal loophole to get around drug abuse policies, because they're not drugs, they're medication.
All the 'roids in the verse are useless if you can't throw that javelin straight.
 
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Xprimentyl

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As an avid sports spectator, I'll take the less cynical route and say I'm glad they DIDN'T cancel the Olympics for one reason: the athletes.

Many of them train their entire lives, most intensely the four years leading to an Olympic showing; just cancelling would have meant not only 4 years of training wasted, but another 4 before it might have paid off, and in Olympian age, 8 years puts many just outside of their prime. That may sound like not a big deal to some, but I know a lot of people who complained when they were told they weren't allowed to do what they wanted to do just last year...

You don't have to like sports; think what you will about the "meathead" athletes. But what you can't do is dismiss their love of their craft and they fact that most of them are their alone, away from their families who watched them grow up and train for these very few days, and likely wanted nothing more than to be there to see their sons and daughter be great on the world's biggest stage. Yet these athletes still committed; they're still doing their best at what they've trained for, and are doing so with pride.
 
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