TRI In The News

Olympics Could Do Without Distractions

From USA Today

Original article available here

Cal: Like me, Bob, I'm sure you are hoping for the best for the American athletes still competing in the London Olympics, but I worry that the Games have become diminished in light of so many side issues.

Bob: I am, indeed. I was sorry to see American gymnast Jordyn Wieber lose her lifelong goal of competing for a gold medal in the individual all-around. But I was equally happy for swimmer Missy Franklin to see her dreams come true in the 100 meter backstroke.

Cal: What gives me the most pride about the 17-year-old high school student — who, by the way, will probably win multiple gold medals — is that Franklin has rejected all paid endorsements to maintain her amateur status so she can swim in college. In an age where commercializing everything is the rule, not to mention where many Olympians are pros, this is a most refreshing individual.

Bob: I couldn't agree more. But I suppose when you talk about distractions you are referring to Mitt Romney's uncanny ability to enrage countries: first the British about their security for the Olympics and then the Palestinians' lack of economic success.

Cal: Bob, there isn't enough space here to list all of President Obama's cheeky international gaffes. If this were an Olympic race based on the number of verbal flubs, Romney would be waaaaaay behind Obama.

Bob: Fortunately for you, Cal, Romney's ending his trip before he does catch up just in this one trip.

Cal: Of far greater importance than the verbal slips of politicians is the troubling images these Games are projecting to the world — and I don't mean the athletic part. There haven't been this many troops and armed guards on British soil since the Allied forces prepared for D-Day in 1944. I guess in the age of terrorism, those once innocent days when people could focus only on the competition are over.

Bob: You're absolutely right, Cal. Today, the Olympics remain a tempting target. The deaths of 11 Israeli athletes during the Munich Olympics in 1972 were one of the first of many atrocities committed by terrorists.

Cal: I felt that memorializing the murdered Israelis during the opening ceremonies would have been appropriate, especially given the Games' history of anti-Semitism.

Bob: Like Adolf Hitler. The great African-American Jesse Owens stuck it to Hitler's master race bigotry by winning four gold medals as der Fuhrer sulked in his box.

Cal: And most Americans cheered. I still do when I see the films.

Bob: Oh, didn't you cover those Games in person, Cal??!! Today, the Games are more vulnerable than ever because of the growing number and sophistication of terrorists. I wish all the London security wasn't necessary, but unfortunately it is.

Cal: London resembles what a police state will look like if we don't pay attention to our civil liberties. Consider what constitutional attorney John Whitehead writes on his blog: "More than 40,000 civilian police, British military and security personnel, as well as FBI, CIA and TSA agents, and private security contractors" are in London.

Bob: You're beginning to sound like me — a civil libertarian concerned about the right to privacy.

Cal: I am like you in this regard. Whitehead notes this year's Olympic mascot, Wenlock— "a strange, futuristic blob with an all-seeing eye to 'record everything' in the Games — is being sold in Olympic stores dressed in a policeman's uniform." As a metaphor for the London Olympics, "It could hardly be more stark," writesStephen Graham for the Guardian.

Bob: This is London in 2012 and not Olympia in 776 BC. where the first Games were played.

Cal: Right, back then the male-only contestants competed naked. That might help with NBC's ratings!

Bob: Not on a broadcast network. We know that Islamic terrorists in the Osama bin Laden mode look for targets that will provide the greatest exposure possible. Fortunately, both the British and American security forces are experienced in dealing with terrorists. Experience, by the way, that came from tragic events.

Cal: Contrast this with the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics — "in the middle of nowhere," as British Prime Minister David Cameron characterized them. Those Games were held just five months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Those Games cost the U.S. government — in direct and indirect support and security — about $230 million. The debate over the exorbitant costs of the London Games — an estimated $15 billlion — has been another distraction. It makes me wonder if it's worth it, especially when Britain, like America, is in a deep recession.

Bob: America is not in a deep recession. The recovery has been weak, but a recovery nonetheless. Modern Olympics cost billions of dollars. Each country that "wins" the right to host the Games has to build most of the facilities from scratch, which contributes greatly to the cost. I'm for a permanent Olympic venue, possibly in Athens, where many of the earliest Games were played. Given the perilous state of the Greek economy, other countries would have to help with start-up costs, but after that the Games would be relatively cheap.

Cal: That's an idea worth considering, but the strong nationalism of so many countries that want the Olympics for economic, political and social reasons will prevent it from happening.

Bob: You're probably right. But is it really worth the "honor" when so many host countries go so deeply in debt? I read in TheNew York Times that the 1992 Games in Barcelona left Spain $6 billion in debt and, in 2004, Athens cost $14 billion more than expected.

Cal: Another side issue for these Olympics that has annoyed me is that NBC has delayed airing so many events to save them for prime-time TV. Yet, with social media these days, the tweeters tell us who won hours before the event. So much for "spoiler alerts."

Bob: I agree, the network will need to find a new way of covering the next Olympics if it wants to maintain relevancy or at least keep the drama alive for those who don't want to know who won in advance.

Cal: But enough of my complaining, let's talk about some positive change about the Games. As this newspaper noted in an editorial last week, "Of the projected 10,490 athletes expected to participate, slightly more than half will be women. The USA, for the first time, is sending more women than men."

Bob: I especially enjoy watching the women's beach volleyball team!

Cal: What heterosexual male doesn't? Bikinis are now optional. Of course, more important, female athletes are finally being given the recognition and honor they have long deserved for their athletic prowess.

Bob: Title IX, the federal law that put women on equal footing with men in high schools and colleges, had a lot to do with that. Colleges were required to provide equal facilities for men and women and to provide women with athletic scholarships.

Cal: It did, indeed, and the skill of America's female (and male) athletes is something of which all Americans can be proud. I'm especially proud that our women's gymnastic team won their first gold medal since 1996.

Bob: My hope is that the Games come off without any security threats and that in the end Britain gets a "gold medal," which it could use to boost sagging morale in, yes, a difficult economy.

Cal: Hear, hear!