On Olympic Closing Thoughts

The Olympics are over, and the Closing Ceremonies have been watched. I had some final thoughts about the XXX Summer Games (sounds dirty, doesn't it?) to share with you. The first thing I would like to say is I was quite impressed with the Closing Ceremonies; it was truly an extravaganza. England brought out its supermodels, superstars, and even dusted off the Spice Girls and dragged them out to perform. Besides Posh and her friends, we saw many more musicians -- some of England's greats, as well as some bands and singers I had never heard of (thankfully they had the band names on-screen as they arrived in the stadium). It was the celebration of a nation.

I was a little annoyed at the Opening Ceremonies, which were dubbed as a celebration of all things English but were sadly lacking England's greatest export, Monty Python. The Olympic Committee redeemed themselves when Eric Idle came out and sang Always Look on the Bright Side of Life at the Closing Ceremonies. This number was not 100% faithful to the original, as heard in the movie The Life of Brian, because the part where it switches up and says "Always look on the bright side of death..." was taken out. The producers decided to leave the line "Life's a piece of shit, when you think of it..." in,  but the sensors bleeped out the word shit. I was surprised that they left the line in to begin with. Good for them!

Throughout the evening's performances, the cameras cut to various athletes enjoying the spectacle (most of the athletes the cameras highlighted showed off their medals) and I began to think about the games themselves.

I love the USA. Well, I love living in America, is what I should say. We truly live in a land of plenty. I am by no means a world traveler -- the extent of my traveling abroad was going to see the Montreal Expos play when I was a kid, and taking a few college trips north of the border. I do watch the news on occasion, and when I see some of the conditions people are living in around the world, I thank the lucky stars I was born here.


Our nation is not without its problems: we have an ineffective political system, an ebbing economy and the government's stance on gay and lesbian rights is pathetic. Let's not forget our immigration policy -- maybe if we had tighter borders, Justin Beiber would never have been able to become the success that he has become today.


But overall, if the USA had a Facebook page (Actually, it does, and the page has 1,165,241 Likes. I just looked. See I CAN do some research.) I would be willing to click the Like button. But I wouldn't click the Like button, because although I am willing, I am a stereotypical lazy American. The point I am trying to make is that I am not a frothing at the mouth "America is the greatest country in the world! Wooohooooo!" kind of guy... except when the Olympics roll around.

The Olympics are supposed to be a celebration of the spirit of competition. All the world's nations come together, no matter what the current political situations exist between them and engage in fair, friendly competition. It is a place of brotherly and sisterly athletic love. This may be the way it is with the athletes, but not with most of the fans who are watching.

Most people can hardly even be called fans of these various competitions. Of course there are many people who do follow these sports, but the average Olympics watcher (which I classify myself as) probably had no interest in watching such sports as ping pong or track and field, before the Opening Ceremonies began. If it were several months ago and someone was flipping through the channels and hit the world swimming finals, they probably wouldn't have even paused in their surfing. But when the Olympics are on, we sit there glued to the television. In fact, this year I found myself staying up much later than I normally would to catch a certain event.


As soon as I started watching whatever event was on, I would look for the American athletes. Once I established which lane they were in or what uniforms they were wearing, I waited for the match or race to begin. And once it started, I would begin cheering on team USA. Wooohoooo!


The thing I found most disturbing, was not the spontaneous patriotism, or the sudden interest in sports that I cared nothing about, but that as much as I found myself rooting for the US athletes, I began rooting for the other nations' athletes to fail. I was happy if the non-American athlete fell off the balance beam, or did a belly flop during the diving. I didn't want to see anyone get hurt, but I did want to see some major deductions. I wanted the other country's athletes to lose and the Americans to win. If I actually took a minute to think about it at the time, I would have been appalled at my desire to have these young athletes' dreams crushed, all for some fleeting sense of national pride.

This Olympic mania went even further than this. I found myself checking the medal counts every morning to see where the USA was in the medal standings. As China had taken an early lead, I found myself hoping for the failure of China's athletes. They became the Evil Empire and we were the good guys. It was just like the Soviet Union was back in the days of the Cold War. It was Rocky 4 all over again with a large Chinese guy instead of Dolph Lundgren.

When the Games ended we had taken the lead and finished with the most medals. In fact, we had more of each medal than any other country. Does that mean we won the Olympics? Do we get a Gold Medal for the Olympics? There are events that comprise numerous events like the decathlon; why not one for the Olympics? We should at least get an MVP (or a MVC -- Most Valuable Country). And is there a congeniality award? I wonder who would get this? England perhaps?

My patriotism peaks at Olympics time. Seldom do so many Americans get this excited to be Americans without a major war involved. Not even a presidential election can get people whipped into a frenzy like a good Olympiad. This is the true magic of the Olympics and unfortunately it only occurs for two weeks every two years. Now that this year's Games are over, we can all go back to our general patriotic apathy and the meat and potato sporting events that we normally enjoy. We also get to rub our victory in the noses of the rest of the world and look forward to winning the
Winter Olympics in two years! USA! USA! USA!