Essay, Research Paper: The Olympics : Canadian's Personal View

About the Olympics


Although the Olympics are both patriotic and at an enjoyable level of competition, there is also an unneeded generalization and over commercialized element evident here as well. The competition has moved from personal glorification to biased and sometimes prejudicial feelings towards an athlete towards their country.
As I flip through the channels on my television, I can't help but notice all of the Olympic scores and events. The camera scans through the more then enthusiastic crowd. The people's proud display of their country's flag makes it clearly evident that the people show their patriotism through the Olympic games.
On the negative side of the spectrum, the immense pressure on the athletes it heavily present. They are representatives of their country, and any actions or performances they do are representing the country as well. Saying this, it is clear that anything other then perfect actions made by the athlete are unacceptable. Take for example the Canadian snowboarder and the previous Ben Johnson. Chosen as Canadian representatives, they were a huge disappointment to Canadians when found with drug traces in their system. Regardless of how or why they were found with these drug results, it affects the worlds impression on Canadians. The media eats up on any news, such as this, and as we know, the news t ravels fast, and in no time, an international impression on the Canadians is made. This huge media coverage distracts from the rest of the Olympians fame as well, everyone stops watching the wonderful athletes and points fingers at the news.
Because these people are tremendous athletes, their fame is used as a tool for marketing. Their pictures and commercials with various products flood the marketing industry. We see these commercials before, during, and after the Olympics. Some even display the logos of the companies as they compete to promote the sales of their product. Although I understand that this is a great marketing and sales opportunity, I see the situation as an exploitation and ultimately destroys the feeling of athletic appreciation, degrading them to a sales catch.
The competition is no doubt very important to everyone, because we all want to see our country rise above the others and win the gold medal. Sadly, with the results of the competition, also comes bitter feelings. People blame other countries for the loss of their country. For example the Canadian figure skaters placed fourth, my mother told me about how the French skater's godfather was a judge. They already had their marks before they even competed, she said. Whether these accusations are fact or fiction is beyond me but what is done is done. These actions if true, along with the bitter feelings, certainly dilute my care for the Olympics. In both situations, I believe we need to establish an openness about the competition and recognize when in fact an individual is a deserving athlete, regardless of which country that person comes from, for the sake of good sportsmanship.
We need to move from counting the countries wins and tallying up who's better then whom, or using them as a way to boost sales of products. We need to recognize that these tremendous people who develop their skills to this immense level deserve appreciation, and deserve nothing other then good feelings about their achievements of even attaining this level of accomplishments.