Crash-a-lympics [ by Michael T] [News You Can Abuse]
February 18, 2010The next time the IOC has a choice among Winter Olympic venues, we sure hope they choose a place that actually has a winter. The current Olympics has been completely bungled and weather only tells part of the story.
We in the continental U.S. are about fed up with winter yet the location of the Winter Olympics is already experiencing spring - if the cherry blossoms are to be believed. Vancouver itself is a wonderful city but it is completely ill suited to hosting a winter games. The average temp in February is 44 degrees and rainfall is around 4.55 inches. That should have worried the IOC, or maybe not. Granted, many of the events are in the mountains far from the city, but the result has been a messy, dangerous Olympics. Today alone, several top women wiped out on an icy downhill course. That’s just not acceptable.
Of course, just days ago, the games opened on a real down note - the luge course killed an athlete from the country of Georgia. As a result, the course was shortened and no one else died. Thank god. But since then there have been technical glitches on the speed skating course, biathletes were sent early in two races on Tuesday and the opening ceremony - a snooze if there was ever one - featured a tier of the torch that did not rise. Add in the fact that the outdoor torch has been inaccessible behind tall chainlink fences and you have a bungled games. After all, are the Canadians afraid someone will blow up the torch? Why else would it be placed behind a fence?
We hope these games get their shit together and soon. The competition is often fierce and the sports more demanding all the time. The athletes deserve more than a poorly conceived, sometimes dangerous series of courses. And the IOC, a corrupt, illegitimate bearer of the Olympic legacy, should learn from these games that the safety of athletes should come first. They could start by actually choosing a winter venue for the Olympics.
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