Zach Baker's love for the Olympiad has eroded considerably. In fact, he would rather keep following baseball than lend his attention to a meaningless international competition clouded in drugs and bad memories.
By Zack Baker
210 west Writer [send email]
The Olympics are here.
I don't care.
It doesn't matter to me anymore, and sometimes I wonder if it ever mattered to me. That's not to say that they haven't mattered or that they don't matter to a lot of people, but to me, well, they don't.
In fact, as we approach the Athens games, I am more concerned about
terrorism than who's going to win the most medals. Athens has been
behind in its preparation, and has already sustained two blackouts leading up to the games. I'm still not even sure that the pool has a roof yet. Are we sure we even want to risk this?
For those of us born in the "post-miracle" years, the point of the
Olympics can at times appear lost. Is it to promote world unity? Maybe that's the idea of it, but so are the United Nations.
Is it to showcase the world's greatest athletes? If so, then why are
Pedro Martinez, Manny Ramirez, Ichiro Suzuki and Barry Bonds not competing in baseball for their respective countries?
Maybe the Olympics meant something in the Cold War era, in fact I'm
Sure they did. But looking at it now, it seems like no more than a chance for certain world advertisers to (try to) make money. Not to mention the cities that host these things, who spend God knows how much, with the hope of gaining even more.
In 2000 and 2002, I may have watched five minutes of the Olympics combined, because I just don't care.
My memories of the Olympics are for the most part, bad ones: Ben
Johnson in 1988, the bomb in Atlanta in 1996, and the numerous money scandals that followed. When working in an editing position last Spring, I must have placed more stories about scandals in the Olympics than sports. Add to that all the BALCO and the drug questions surrounding Marion Jones and other US athletes, and the whole thing is just frustrating.
Maybe a story will emerge, like Michael Phelps, Mary Lou Retton or (forgive me for even mentioning) Kerri Strug. But until then I will be content to surf the channels and follow the same sports I have been for the last three months, and pray it all turns out fine in Greece.