The Olympics: Yes or No

[PaulaO]

I'm an Olympics junkie. I will watch any event, winter or summer. I love the winter Olympics the most but am crazy for track and field in the summer games. It seems though the Olympics have changed. It used to be an honor just to BE in the Olympics--now you HAVE to get a gold medal or you are seen as a failure. Like everything else, it is about egos, both personal and countries. I'm having a hard time working up enthusiasm for the Rio games, partly due to Rio--the pollution, the poverty, the lack of clean water. I actually feel sorry for the athletes (particularly the horses) that have to compete there.

How do you feel? Do you really care? Should professional athletes be banned (like basketball)? Do away with the equestrian component?

[WheresMyWhite]

I also used to like the Olympics but feel they've gotten too "bloated" and political. And like both winter and summer games.

Rio, I'll watch some but if I was an athlete, I would not want to attend. IMO, dangerous with the crime, pollution, health concerns, etc. I'd also feel that way if I was considering Rio as a vacation destination... nope, wouldn't go.

Maybe in some countries competing isn't a choice for the athletes but I gotta believe (please don't tell me I'm wrong) that there would be no negative repercussions if an athlete chooses not to go...

[Sue B]

I still like the horse stuff and some of the track and field stuff, oh and the scull races! Swimming is pretty fun to watch too. Winter Olympics, all things skating (speed, hockey dance...), skiing is fun and luge/skel/bobsled. Unfortunately, I don't have broadcast tv (just netflix and internet, so I have to go to my mil's house to watch instead of staying at home snuggled on the couch.

[Chisamba]

I still love the Olympics, also love track and field.

It would not hurt my feelings if equestrian was dropped and held separately as work cup events. I think many horse people disagree with me, but it would be way better to do equestrian events at avenues designed for horses, not towns that bid for the games.

I think it's silly to exclude professional athletes, it really should be the best in the world.

[goldhorse]

DD's college crew teammate was on the US rowing team and really really wanted to make one of the boats for the Rio Olympics. If she had, we all would have flown down there to cheer her one. But she didn't make it and secretly I'm relieved that she doesn't have to row in the filth and risk getting sick. I'll probably watch the swimming to see if Michael Phelps can still do it. I also like Natalie Coughlin and Missy Franklin since they both went to Cal. I just wish that the TV coverage wasn't so blatantly USA centric.

[piedmontfields]

I am still in awe of the talent and dedication it takes to compete in the Olympics. To me, being part of it is winning.

However, the economic impact (STRESS) on the host nations is really too much. It used to be argued that Olympics were good economic development for a nation or region, but I think we've learned over the years that this is not really the case. I wish there were 4 major venues around the world that were simply rotated.

[Chancellor]

When Boston was trying to get the Olympics, DH and I were wondering if we were going to have to go somewhere for the few weeks the Olympics were around. I cannot imagine the mess they would make of Boston! NO THANKS! That said, I would love to go and watch the horse sports. Being about to watch WEG a few years ago was fantastic!

[texsuze]

Love the winter Olympics, all of it. Don't know why, since I've never done any sport requiring snow or ice, except building a snowman in Baltimore, or ice skating at the Galleria in Houston. I really liked the winter Olympics in Sochi (sp?) Russia and thought they went off very nicely. And the equestrian events are great to see especially when a lesser-known rider or a team from a country not particularly known for their equine athletes has a great showing.

[Tabby]

I'm an Olympics junkie as well! I watch it all - summer & winter and all of the sports for each. Texsuze I think the appeal of winter Olympics is that many of the sports are new and unfamiliar to us - even us Canadians who do ski and snowboard recreationally. Some of them are just crazy. Love snowboard cross!

As to the politicizing and hullabaloo, I do agree it has gotten out of hand. It shouldn't bankrupt a country to host the Olympics. I think it was a mistake to allow the corporate sponsors in. I heard a suggestion that they build a permanent Olympic site in Athens and hold them there each time. Kind of like a sporting Mecca. I would be supportive of that but I don't know what they would do with winter Olympics. Winter Olympics are probably even more costly to host given all the various specialized structures (ski jumps, mogul courses, hockey arenas, curling rinks, long track speed skating arenas, bob sled courses, and snow making equipment). There are only a handful of countries who can even host winter Olympics yet none are a traditional home for them, either.

[Moutaineer]

Setting aside the politics and graft and getting to the actual games, it was complex, but a lot of fun, when the Winter Olympics were here in Salt Lake/Park City.

As a city, we tend to feel that it did a lot to contribute to the explosive growth we have experienced in the last few years. Whether one thinks that's a good thing or not is a matter of some debate...

It has ended up putting a lot of weird pressure on the local kids, though. None of them do sport for fun any more. As a friend of mine's husband said when he got back from taking his daughter to the ice rink one day "The Olympics are going to be awfully crowded in a few years when every kid whose parents I spoke to is participating." As a kid who was entirely mediocre at sport, this would have been a difficult environment for me to grow up in.

As for horse sports in the Olympics, I can see the "best in the world competing against each other" thing, (except the system in now so incredibly rigged, that isn't what is happening,) but I really do question the wisdom of competing horses in entirely unsuitable environments. I also think the FEI makes the governing body of soccer look like a knitting circle as far as corruption is concerned.

[boots-aregard]

I remember the summer Olympics in LA, and it was nowhere near as bad (traffic, etc.) as the doomsayers were predicting. We went to several events including many we had never watched on TV before.

I really do enjoy them, moreso than other sporting events. The kinds of events where people develop team loyalties are really just as scammy and 'big money machines' and corrupt, if that's the word you want to use, as the Olympics. At least with the Olympics, there are fresh faces.

[PaulaO]

The 1984 Olympics were my first exposure to 3 day eventing. I was having dinner at a friend's, the games were on, and I saw Torrance Watkings zooming by in her canary breeches and my head exploded. The 1988 games got me hooked on show jumping. I was up at 5am to watch Joe Fargis and Conrad Holmfield ride Touch of Class and Abdullah.