The Olympic Saga
The Olympics ……. the only event in the world which holds four billion people to their television screens to see which human beings can leap farthest into a sandpit or make their legs go faster or who can hurl improbable objects over vast, undetermined distances. That every four years, four-fifths of the planet's inhabitants are willing to become fixated to such pursuits is very clearly at the bounds of plausibility. Yet it happens over and over again, with an unfaltering regularity (except when people are trying to blow each other to smithereens). Maybe this is what they call "The Olympic Spirit".
Call me a schmuck, but I still cannot understand the aspirations behind devoting years of concentrated effort to perfect the ability to fling oneself into the air with the aid of a pole or doing backflips on a narrow beam (all this while risking severe testicular trauma!!!). Over the years, the Olympics have become a show of professionalism, where every action is near perfect and quite frankly, it's taking the charm out of the scheme of things. Well, it is a matter of national pride. But what about followers of sport (like me) who can't even dream of attaining such levels of competence? ……. It is at times like these that one thinks of the humble beginnings of the Olympics. Let me state a couple of instances.
The 1904 St.Louis Games had an unique event called the plunge for distance. It required competitors to dive into a pool from a standing position and, while maintaining a posture of perfect rigidity, to float as far as they could, for as long as they could without drawing breath. Quite obviously, the sport was deemed too ridiculous to be sustainable and was discontinued at the next Games. Also failing to last long in the Olympic competitions were club swinging, croquet, live pigeon shooting, rope climbing, tug-of-war, motorboat racing and finally, the two-handed javelin throw. Now, these events would have been fun to watch!
In those days, Olympics were small-scale affairs (Athens 1896 had barely 200 competitors compared to the 10,000 of Sydney 2000) and so easygoing that even spectators could take part. For instance, the entrants in the 1904 marathon included two Zulu dancers, who happened to be in St.Louis for a culture exchange program and entered on a whim. Also, supervision was lax. The 1904 marathon (again!!) was won by the enterprising American Fred Lorz, who ended the race looking uncannily fresh. Well, it turned out that he had accepted a lift from a passing motorist, who had dropped him just outside the stadium after conveying him 11 miles! Imagine that happening in Beijing 2008!
Well, the Atlanta Games (1996) showed some promise of reviving those carefree days. It was an opulent show ridden with blunders. First, there were the celebrated problems with the computers, which led to a number of interesting deviations from reality, as when a boxer from Uganda was listed as being more than 19 feet tall and when a German swimmer found himself as a reserve in the Ghanian boxing squad. Then there were the security lapses, of which perhaps the most memorable was the fellow who was noticed sitting in the stands at the opening ceremony with a gun in his lap, patiently awaiting the arrival of President Clinton and several other heads of state (Ah! Those pre 9/11 days!!!!!). He and his trusty firearm had somehow managed to pass undetected through two metal detectors, a body search and a bag check.
My favourite (actually, my Uncle's favourite! He happened to live in Atlanta at that point of time.), however, was the occasion at the men's basketball match when the stadium (The Georgia Dome) was plunged into darkness for a good 12 minutes after a technician pulled a wrong switch. Now, I know nothing about complex electrical systems, but I am certain that if I pulled a switch and a basketball arena was instantly plunged into darkness, it would not take 12 minutes before I wondered what would happen if I pushed the switch back again. Well, the Americans sure have a way with gaffes.
Now, these are the things I miss about the Olympics. There isn't a sense of realism anymore. The competitors just keep getting better (to make me and the hordes of athletically challenged people, all over the world, look like losers). The basic spirit of the Games is being defeated. Hopefully, the Chinese would take note of this for Beijing 2008 and probably have a zebra race or something! I am game. Are you?
Sriram M
XII A
(With statistical support from Bill Bryson's "In a sunburned country")
0 comments:
Post a Comment