I was going to reblog Andrew’s fine commentary on the Olympic Games, but instead see his blog Olympic Spirit here.

I echo his view in in its entirety.

Now I’m not into the Olympics one little bit for the very reasons that Andrew has described. I didn’t even watch the opening ceremony.   If the commentary teams somehow think that certain athletes have been disappointing to their country, or have in some way failed, then maybe they should get their own asses out there and see if they can do better. The spirit of the Olympics Games is not to win the Games. It is to get out there and do your absolute personal best in the company of the best athletes in the world.  If you do get a medal, so much the better, but if you’ve given it your all, then one can ask for nothing else. The “commentariat” (as Andrew puts it) do not speak for me and the words disappointing, failure, poor performance are certainly unacceptable.  On news bulletins, I have seen athletes distraught and in tears after failing to win that “expected” medal after hype from commentary teams.  This cannot be helpful. I wonder if the other nations commentary teams describe ther athletes performance in a similar fashion.

In my opinion, the Olympics has changed, and for the worst, when the IOC removed the pre-requisite of competitors having amateur status.

I will not be watching (Olympic) TV for the next 10 days.