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JustPlainBill's avatar

I used to think that the Olympics was the one international event where everyone temporarily set aside their squabbles with one another. I thought it was in the ancient Greek tradition to do it that way. But it turns out that various nations have been banned off and on for a long time. In perusing that list, one can't help but notice that the same "winners" that write all the history books are the ones that get to choose who gets banned from the next Olympics. As one wise guy said, "I noticed in my history books that the good guys have ALWAYS won! What are the odds??"

Russia and the BRICS are starting up their own version of the Olympics called (I think) The Friendship Games. Hopefully they have better luck at observing the original tradition of allowing every nation to compete.

It's kind of sad to see the accident of their nation's politics deprive aspiring individual athletes of the rare chance to compete and, if things go their way, achieve a bit of international fame. This is especially true with those plucked from circumstances you know might give them more important things to worry about. But with respect to countries, why should anyone care which one "wins" the most medals?

If anyone deserves true respect, perhaps it is nations like South Sudan, for even managing to put together a team at all. Over half a century ago, I attended an enormous suburban high school (~5000 students) in the Midwest. One big thing every year was the state basketball tournament, where each school, large or small, sent a team. In my senior year, my school won the state championship undefeated, but with so many students to choose from, putting a first-rate team on the court was no challenge. In the semi-finals, we were paired with a small downstate school with a student body of just over 200, and for them it was almost a Cinderella story--they lost to us in double overtime by a single point. I'll bet every one of those 200 students and every one of their family members was in the gym for that game, and you had to take your hat off to them. They may have "lost," but I didn't really feel like we had "won."

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Al DuClur's avatar

There is a lot of truth to that t shirt slogan "society is a puppet show."

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