The Cold War, Nationalism, Professional Athletes & Rio
 

Do the Olympics really matter to you any more?

A professional golf tournament, a professional tennis tournament, a sub World Cup soccer tournament, swimming and gymnastics that have annual world championships every year (and call it the Oympics every fourth year), throw in a few oddball sports, the Zika virus and green water in the diving pool.

Back in my day beating the Russkis in medal count seemed preferable to a thermonuclear device and it mattered to more people. And our athletes were amateurs who sacrificed to represent us, rather than state sponsored 24/7 amateurs elsewhere or the professional athletes that have supplanted them in many of the sports.

If I had a choice between Rio and Wrigley, you would find me on the corner of Clark and Addison 30 minutes before game time. How about you?

I would be in Chicago watching a ballgame with a very old retired MD.:)

I attended a few events in Lake Placid in 1980, and it was a great experience!

I have no desire to do so today.

I still find the Olympics captivating. I don't watch the world championships in swimming, gymnastics, track and field, etc., and I don't know anyone who does. Some of the surprise golds that have been won have been far more interesting, in my opinion, than Cubs game 113. And I love baseball.

Yeah, game 113 wasn't a keeper and I did attend a couple of Olympic events in 1984, the soccer finals where I remember the first "wave" in the Rose Bowl and the woman's marathon in which a bedraggled, dehydrated runner, stumbled and fell several times in the last lap. I think she was the poster girl for "The Agony of Defeat (or da feet)" on ABCs Wide World of Sports for the next decade.

That said, I just can't get fired up about this one. Does anything in Rio come close to reminding you of the "Miracle on Ice" in Lake Placid? I have run out of fingers and toes to count Phelps' medals. Ho hum......

To be fair, I was fairly young when the Miracle on Ice happened, but nothing in sports has given me chills like Al Michaels' call in the last few seconds.

Does anything come close to the Miracle on Ice? You won't find it at Wrigley unless it is in November. A 9th inning comeback in game 7.

How can you not get excited about Lily King beating a Russian swimmer who was caught doping? Simone Manuel upsetting the Ausie sisters to become the first African American gold medal winner in swimming? Or Anthony Ervin coming back after 16 years to become the oldest swimming gold medalist? Those are just the top 3 American highlights so far. The Olympics is full of great moments, you just have to watch.

I am curious about this. Did you not know the USA had won before the telecast began? I see this mentioned all the time. I remember listening to the game live on the radio. The telecast was anticlimactic. I prefer the live coverage today vs. everything being taped delayed back then.

+1...although seeing yankee prospects homer back to back yesterday was pretty damn special!!!!

See back in the day when there was no such thing as the "internet" it was very easy to honestly not know the result of something broadcast on a delay. As evidence I submit the fact that I didn't even know it wasn't a live broadcast 36 years later!

Signed,

Old Fogey

Absolutely!! It made me break my jones about synchronized swimming!

There are too many professionals competing in the Olympics today. However, as someone who doesn't care for MLB today, I would say it is a tie for me. :)

Trust me, with Olympic broadcasts from Shanghai, Sapporo, Sochi and even Rio, much of what you see is not live. Prime time rules for the advertisers. As in golf broadcasts as well, many shots (events) are taking place on different holes (venues) simultaneously and all are shown at some point. Some of the delays may be in minutes, but I would venture a guess that a very low percentage of what the viewer sees is actually "live".

I agree that watching a CD of the 2008 World Series from start to finish gets strong competition from watching paint dry or grass grow.

At least being there at Wrigley guarantees that you will be seeing a "live" event.
Admittedly the same is true of Rio, if that's what turns you on.

Id rather watch women's beach volleyball than any modern baseball event. Modern baseball interest me very little and the boring factor couldn't get higher..
I'll take the Olympics although I agree it doesn't have the intrigue it did in the 70s when I was glued to the tv

Too many events!!
 

I lost a lot of interest when they put in ball bouncing, hula hooping and ribbon twirling (rhythmic gymnastics.) Sam Majors

I was 2 when it was broadcast, so I really didn't know they won until 1984 or so. :D

Too many professionals and very loose interpretations of what being "from" a country entails.

I've never been to an Olympic event versus probaly 300 some games at Wrigley, so I'd probaly pick Olympics but I'd much prefer the winter games. The winter events are way cooler, the games tend to be more intiment and the venues probably better and safer, & tourist friendly. Yet, I must add, despite so many games attended at Wrigley, the place still touches me, it's place in baseball history, the players that played their and the memories I have...I went to yesterday's game and I'll be at Thursday's :)

Well yeah. Some of those camera angles. I mean....yeah.

Tom C

When they tried chick volley ball on the frozen tundra at Lambeau, appropriate attire was required. It didn't catch on. It's a very fine line between sport and voyeurism when no one is watching the ball.:D

I haven't yet watched any of the Rio Olympics coverage, which is not my norm, based on the past. I just don't feel any urge to watch this year. I'd much rather be at Nationals Park! I've never been to Wrigley, but I'm hoping to go next year, in conjunction with attending the National.
Val

I of course would join you in Chicago for the hot dog and a beer and my beloved Cubs

I have many fond memories of growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, rooting for the Cubs and White Sox. Even got to go to a few games at Wrigley and Comiskey.

Be that as it may, as much as I loved those experiences, they are nothing compared to the times I watched the Olympic Games on television. I watched, glued to the television screen, the fabulous, constant edge of your seat contest between Team USA and Russia that came to be known as "The Miracle on Ice". I had absolutely no idea who would win beforehand. I sure would not have wanted to know. I don't get into spoilers.

No thanks, bask in the game at Wrigley, eat half a dozen hot dogs and enjoy four Cokes, and have some great memories. But I'm going to continue to love watching the Olympic Games, and try my best not to get sucked into the silly controversies that so many want to incite. These wretched rabble rousers make incidents over this, that, and the other. Such is our crummy sick society of today.

One thing's for sure. I'm continuing to bask in the glow of the great one----Usain Bolt. The media aptly describe him as a cornball; I love that cornball. There's a lot of charisma in that gentleman. "TO DI WORLD!!!!!" The greatest sprinter ever, taking nothing away from Mr. Owens.

Then again, it's not like things have never gotten out of hand before---we just got the Internet and Social Media madness today.

I well remember American Dave Wottle winning one of, if not the greatest ever, 800 meters track race at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. He was hopelessly behind at the 400, and then proceeded to slowly pick it up and pick off the entire field. He wore a painter's cap during the race. On the medals podium, he continued to wear that cap, to the horror and outrage of a million self-righteous American TV viewers.

Why Dave? Oh how could you?

Answer, in such words, he simply forgot to take it off in the excitement of the moment, and being whupped from whupping the field in the race! Hey, at least his hand was over his heart.

The Olympics---Billy Mills, Bob Schul, Jim Ryun, , Kip Keino, Olga Korbut, Lasse Viren, Steve Prefontaine, Frank Shorter, Nadia, Rick Wholhuter (mis-spelled, no doubt), Eric Heiden, Mark Spitz, Zola Budd (you should have won, honey; you were great, you rock, and it wasn't your fault!!!)---and from long, long ago, Eric Liddell (Chariots of Fire). I saw each of them on TV and was thrilled right down to my bones, save for Mr. Liddell.

As I love to read certain history books, I was inspired by, and devoured, THE LONELY BREED, by Ron Clarke and Malcolm Harris. I was inspired by the beautifully-written chapters on Vladimir Kuts, Paavo Nurmi, Herb Elliott, Murray Halberg, and Emil "The Terrible" Zatopek. Heroes in my mind that stand so much taller than just about any baseball player. I come by these feelings honestly; you see, I was a long-distance runner in high school and college.

Oh, later last evening, I remembered several others that stirred my spirit--Wrestlers Dan Gable and Chris Taylor, and that powerful Norwegian in the 1992 Winters games, Vegard Ulvang.

Thanks, my fellow old fogey, for a wonderful trip down memory lane! Yeah, I still rise and put my hand over my heart, and BELT OUT "THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ---Brian Powell

Half the fun of watching is the scanty suits the ladies wear. :)

Have enjoyed the Olympics immensely this year. My 6 and 10 year olds have really enjoyed the gymnastics and the swimming. I would not be watching any other gymnastics nor swimming meets otherwise but have enjoyed these events at the Olympics like I do every four years. I'm not nearly as interested in the Winter Olympics as the Summer as well. Just my opinion............

I think the Olympics are awesome. I especially enjoy the "minor" sports that I don't get to see very often.

There's a ball?

Wow, this comment jogged a long forgotten memory of being a nine year old and watching the '72 Munich Olympics with my family. I remember Dave Wottle with the hat but I remember him more for being part of a trilogy of athlete names that, as a nine year old, I found incredibly funny.

The '72 Olympics were dominated by Mark Spitz and I remember hearing about an athlete from a country that is now long forgotten with a last name of Pooh, or Pough or some variation. It didn't matter to be because Jim McKay pronounced the athlete's last name as Poo.....yes...that poo and that was what I was going with. So naturally as a nine year old I was fascinated by the Wottle-Spitz-Poo combination and undoubtedly talked about it for years afterwards.

And for this childhood and honestly childish memory that still gives me a chuckle, thank YOU Brian1961 for my trip down memory lane.

I guess I am a bit older but Bob Hayes in 1964, Bob Beamon and Dick Fosbury in 1968!

Being a lifelong lover of the game and a poor practitioner of it, I watched with interest the reintroduction of golf as an Olympic sport after a 100 year absence. Then I was baffled when 3 of the world's best, all from different countries, withdrew for vague reasons. Anyhow, to yesterday's final round from Rio where Justin "Rosy" Rose From Britain outlasted Henrik "Ironman" Stenson of Sweden to win the gold medal in as thrilling an Olympic duel as I have ever watched. The emotions were electric not the least of which was our own Matt Kucher's who came out of nowhere to shoot a 63 and grab the bronze. The look on his face on the medal stand said, to me, that this was the proudest moment of his life. I hope Jordon Spieth was watching.

I have great memories of being an 11 year old boy watching the summer Olympics in Palo Alto. Outside of that, never have gotten that much into it. Give me a day at Wrigley or Busch any day of the week.