(no subject)

[primroseburrows]

Hi, my name is Primrose, and I don't care about the bloody Olympics, or how hot Michael Phelps is. I'm not even sure WHO he is, and, well, see above.

I work the night shift (well, mostly), and so have been able to see a piece of the Olympics live; namely, the womens' gymnastics competition, which consists of teams of identical-looking 12-year-old girls young women in glitter eye makeup doing handstands and backflips and flipping around on parallel bars, even and uneven.

Oh, they're incredibly good, all of them...you can see that the training and coaching and myriads of workouts they've been through since age, oh, three or so have really paid off. You can also see the lost childhoods, the utter pressure on them to be just Perfect, their tearful shame and the humiliation that's heaped on them if they *gasp* don't do something right, thereby eliminating their Team from getting a gold medal. And the cameras...the cameras focus on the poor crying girl who missed a step and got a 9.464 instead of the 9.823, thereby preventing her whole bloody country from Revelling in Glory.

Of course, there are the ones who get it all right, flawless, perfect, and go on to win gold after gold and do commercials for large sportswear corporations...until they're Over The Hill at twenty-two or so, and then it's adios, Kansas.

I just don't see the draw. Of course, I do like the Winter Olympics, to a point (love that Jamaican Bobsled Team!), and I suppose that the pressure is just as bad on them. I mean, geez, people like Tonya Harding are made, not born.

I know, I'm just being cynical, and I'm sure there are a lot of positive things about being in the Olympics. I do like the team sports, because it's not about individual pressure. When they suffer, they all suffer together, and they triumph as a team. I don't understand why basketball is considered a summer sport, though. I'm sure they could find a sport that's actually played in summer *coughbaseballcough* to be their big draw. And for Zeus' sake, stop letting professionals play on Olympic teams. Isn't the whole point of the Olympics to allow amateurs to show their colours? Plus, I hate pro basketball. It represents everything that's wrong with sports, namely, EgoEgoEgo. Mneh.

I'd rather watch the Red Sox, where there's absolutely no pressure. Yep, yep. No Pressure at All. Er.

Comments

[erebor.livejournal.com]

I haven't watched the Olympics, really, since oh about the 1970's. No interest anymore. I respect the accomplishment these men and women have achieved but I don't put them on pedestals or make them out to be gods. I don't buy the line that the Olympics are non-political and never without any ulterior motives, that they are about something higher and nobler. I'll agree maybe they should be, but I don't think that's reality.

Nope, no interest. Whatsoever.