The dark side of the Olympic spirit

This absurdity was a measure of how a new agenda had run over the original ideals of connecting countries in friendship by bringing the athletes of the world together in fair competition. (The obsession to win is now moving “sport” from blood doping to genetic doping.)

Young people being used as a means to an end

The objective of staging an Olympic games has little to do with the competitive needs of athletes - as every sport is catered for in much smaller international events. The objective is to put a city, and as a consequence its country and the country’s government, in a positive light on the world stage for a fortnight

When big money is involved, then payola sneaks in somewhere. Who knows what that has amounted to over the past decades? In recent years, the hosts of the winter games at Nagano and Salt Lake City were exposed and evidence probably incriminating summer games host, Atlanta, was destroyed.

The Beijing games are being pushed to showcase the success of the communist government of China. Homes were destroyed to make way for construction, and the inhabitants were bashed if they stood their ground. So much for the Olympic Charter which requires the host city to have respect for human rights.

But, why worry about shams? This is the biggest show on Earth and a lot of non-athletes need the Beijing games - including 21,600 journalists who need them.

For the next games, added to the cost of getting the athletes there (which is paid for at their end), the UK government will spend £9 billion staging the London games.

Is this what will bring it all undone?

The Athens games cost one billion euros just in security measures. So if drugs are not sufficient to bring about an end to the mania, then perhaps the cost of security might, as the rising expenditure of public resources on a gigantic circus will more than likely make the politically oppressed and economically disaffected angrier and potentially more dangerous.

In short, exploitative political and commercial interests and the unscrupulous desire to win by many competitors are making a mockery of the objectives of the 1894 initiative.