Sunday 17 August 2008
Olympic ideals
Is it heresy to admit I couldn't care less about the Olympics? Here in Japan it's on the telly all the time, the front and back pages of the papers and no doubt all over the internet too. Watching the Olympics here means watching a lot of judo and women's volleyball (it's what the Japanese are good at) rather than rowing and running, which the Brits tend to be good at. I'm with comedian Billy Connelly who can't be fussed with it all either. He does a great routine taking the mick out of the opening parade, pretending to march with a flag saying in a childish voice "We can jump higher than you can!" The uncharitable might say I don't like the Games because Great Britain has no chance of topping the medals table, and that leaves picking from the Chinese, Americans or Russians. Hmmm. I've never understood the excuse for international sports that it allegedly brings the world closer together. Nonsense, it has us baying for blood for the nation's honour. Or, as George Orwell put it: "Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words, it is war minus the shooting." But I like the World Cup...
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3 comments:
I couldn't agree more Pat! Although that said, a friend of mine said that the UK could be 3rd in the table of results, so we are doing better than expected apparently. Not that I would know!
I suppose the Olympics gives us something to talk about in the pub other than work, the recession and house prices. At least the conclusion of races and such isn't always foregone, so there is room for genuine excitement, but it seems so manipulated for national benefit, much like Hitler's 1936 Olympics, that it is hard to see many positives.
Anyway, on a sporting note, I went for a 40-minute easy run today and because it was amazingly cool (the temperature, not my running), I thought I'd keep going - I made it half way round the lake which means half of the half-marathon course ie I ran 10km or so, in 1 hour 15 min. Slow, but it's the first time I have run that kind of distance for a year or so. Bit tired now though.
Excellent running Pat! Putting me to shame...I've got some catching up to do if I'm going to make it round in 9 weeks!
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