After Rory McIlroy’s comments this week, one was reminded of
the ridiculous amount of sports now included in the Olympic Games. This year’s
games will have 308 events across 28 different sports, an Olympic record. To
put this in context, there were only 43 events at the first modern Olympiad.
McIlroy is right – what place does golf have in the
Olympics? It is not considered the pinnacle of the sport and only clogs an
already busy schedule. Nor is it alone. In the same category are sports like football,
tennis, boxing, and the rugby sevens – none of which see the Olympics as the
pinnacle of their respective sports (if we count sevens as union, and boxing as
professional).
When I watch the Olympics, I want to watch the best athletes
competing at the highest level. I want to see the emotion of four years of hard
work come to the fore. I want to see champions cry as they sing their national
anthem on the podium. These scenes are what the Olympics are all about, and I
for one am worried about the current climate of the games.
It is supposed to be a privilege to go and compete at the
Olympics. Athletes work their ass off to get there, and work even harder to
win. It’s for this reason that I find the inclusion of some of these events a
joke. The fact that Sonny Bill Williams and Jarryd Hayne (although unsuccessful)
basically wrote their names on the sign-up sheet to go and grab an easy Olympic
medal speaks volumes about the legitimacy of the sport in the games.
As I mentioned earlier, I want to watch the best athletes
compete at the highest level. This does not mean I want to watch a team full of
Brazilian teenagers (and Neymar, for some reason) play some street football for
a laugh. Nor do I want to watch some obscure boxer from Kazakhstan triumph over
another from Malawi (I thought we had moved on from the amateur era, but
apparently not).
Hard work is what defines the Olympics in my eyes. The
athletes train for years and battle through injury and pain because they know
this is their moment on the world stage. It’s for this reason that I don’t want
to see Raphael Nadal pull out in order to “save himself” for future
tournaments. If it really mattered, he would be there no matter what.
The crazy state of Rio has distracted us from the
ridiculousness of the Olympics and the sports that have been thrown in to
simply bulk up the schedule. In future I hope some of these issues are
addressed, even if it does mean less medals for New Zealand. As Rory said, I’ll
be watching the sports “that matter.”
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