Olympics?

Conrad Black’s recent weekend newspaper column was headlined “Disgraceful Olympics”. He complained about the Last Supper of Jesus Christ being mocked by drag queens at the current Olympics opening ceremonies.
            While he is welcome to his opinion on this it does give me the opportunity to weigh in.
            The cost of the Olympic Games has gone out of control. For instance, the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro ran approximately $23.6 billion. The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics cost $55 billion. But what do these incredible amounts have to do with sports?
            The Opening Ceremonies now cost hundreds of millions (billions?). Nice show, but what has this got to do with sports? Do the organizers not realize that these funds could be donated to countries so poor they can’t even generate a roster of sports talent to attend the Olympics.
            Some people are complaining that the opening ceremony in Paris this year was conspicuous for its mediocracy. Again, I ask: what the hell does this have to do with sports?
            I don’t want to come across as a “wet blanket”. And I count a couple of Olympics  medal winners as friends. But seriously, I began losing interest in the Olympics when the Chinese were found to be painting the grass green (!) in their bid to become host (the grass had turned brown – dead – due to their poor climate conditions.) So, the climate is so poor that the plants die, but let’s not have that get in the way of wanting to host the Olympics, right?
            Then there was Juan Antonio Samaranch, the Spanish guy who served as President of the International Olympic Committee from 1980 to 2001. This clown actually expected people to refer to him as “Your Excellency”. C’mon folks, we’re talking about sports, not royalty!!
            “Nuff said!

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