It has finally come to an end. After 3 weeks of nothing but sport ruling the media and conversation, the "greatest show on earth" has ended. The stadiums have been filled (towards the end), the medals have been won and all the sports that are too dull to receive more than quadrennial media attention have been remembered. All that remains is for the Paralympics to step out of the shadow, accept it's mostly hand-me-down venues and have it's games.
As you may have already guessed from my possibly over-critical analysis, I am an Olympo-skeptic, and like the misanthropic sober kid at the party, I have been one throughout the Olympics. The main reason for this is that I don't really enjoy watching sport. I can get wrapped up in the excitement of a good book, drama or Apple Keynote speech easily, yet sport has alluded my enthusiasm. I can muster up a bit of cheer and emotion for occasional, special matches but not every saturday, let alone everyday for three weeks. Just imagining it makes me want to nap.
This sense of detachment has made me realize that despite the hype about the games being inclusive, the very nature of them is exclusive. Think about it; the athletes train for four years before competing in events better than any of us could, while we watch. The Olympics is a spectator event from it's core; the sport. There is only so much inclusivity you can provide by a comprehensive Torch relay and community volunteers. This problem was then compounded by the ticket scandal and empty-seat-gate at the beginning of the games, further frustrating us mere mortals who had to use the official site. Finally, we reach the issue of the Draconian copyright laws set by the IOC and LOCOG which prevent anybody other than the Olympic partners and a few exceptions from using the logo as advertisement. Copyright laws should apply to the Olympics, but to make the Olympics a special case and add further restrictions and sanctions, with heavy enforcement, seems contrary to the spirit of the games.
Then there's also, as always, the money. We could always afford to put on the Olympics because we're an economy with a GDP of 1.6 trillion, of which the Olympic budget of £9 billion is only 0.7%. However, as Liverpool learnt when they bought Andy Carroll, just because you can afford to do something doesn't mean you should. We could have used that money as a financial stimulus or for more permanent and less localised infrastructure upgrades. Unfortunately the country is stuck between a rock and a hard place; the Olympics were bid for when times were good and to go back on our obligation to host the games, now that times are bad, would cause international scandal. Therefore, we have to host the games. In my mind however, there was a silver lining; we were told the Olympics would bring tourists and investors, who would spend money, and therefore help our woeful growth. This hasn't happened. Our economy is going to keep trundling along the path of stagnation for the forseeable future.
However, all that is now over and we can't change the past. The focus now is on "securing the legacy", the only problem being that no-one seems to agree what the legacy is and how we should go about securing it. One of the suggestions at the forefront of the politicians' lips is by learning from the spirit of the games and encouraging competitive sport in schools. What they don't understand is that competition in sports can often put the less able kids off sport rather than enduring until they find one they enjoy. Every child is different and therefore cannot solve the school sport problem with a "one-size-fits-all" solution. Instead, my experience as a teenager tells me we should not aim for gold medals in the future by emphasising competition, but aim for a healthy next-generation who all exercise by emphasising the importance of doing a sport you enjoy. A slight amendment to the old liberal cliche: "It's not the winning that counts, it's the enjoying taking part".
The Olympics wasn't that great for me because I didn't find the games as exciting, cost worthy and spectacular as everyone else. If I'm honest, I found them a bit ghastly. However, on a brighter note, I did like the Opening Ceremony and I am looking forward to watching the Paralympics, which I personally find more inspiring and enjoyable.
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