5 Good Reasons Why The 2016 Summer Olympics Shouldn't Happen

[Norm dePlume]

5 Good Reasons Why The 2016 Summer Olympics Shouldn't Happen

The Summer Olympics are coming! We're less than two months away from the opening ceremonies, so I guess it's time to start getting excited about finally having our every-four-years itch for world-class track and gymnastics scratched. Except it's different this time around. At last count, nearly half of all Americans believe the Olympics should be delayed or cancelled altogether.

You can follow the link to get to the five good reasons, which are all pretty good. And just for good measure, here's a brand new bonus reason:

Rio Drug-Testing Lab Is Suspended by Antidoping Regulator

[Billy Jingo]

Still better than Chicago

[Lady Marva]

Too late.

[Gingersnap]

I'm not sure why the Olympics exist at all. Competitors in many events are not really amateurs in any genuine sense of the word. There's a lot of both legal and illegal use of performance enhancers. There are increasing numbers of events that are not really sports. It all seems pretty far away from the spirit of the thing as it was envisioned earlier.

Beyond that, it's often a loser for the host communities a lot of the time. The supposed benefits in terms of infrastructure or tourism are seldom seen 5 or 10 years down the line. That infrastructure also has to be maintained by the hosts and when that doesn't happen, communities are stuck with useless or even dangerous facilities that have to be torn down at great cost or simply allowed to fall apart.

[phillygirl]

It just doesn't seem that the Olympics should take place there this year. I realize that it's too late for any other country to take it over. But I do think those 5 reasons are pretty valid.

I'm watching the American women's gymnastics tonight. What a difference in the women's bodies since the late 70's or 80's. They are like midget men in terms of their muscles and broad shoulders. Gone are the lithe, nymph like dancer-like young women.

[RobJohnson]

Beyond that, it's often a loser for the host communities a lot of the time. The supposed benefits in terms of infrastructure or tourism are seldom seen 5 or 10 years down the line. That infrastructure also has to be maintained by the hosts and when that doesn't happen, communities are stuck with useless or even dangerous facilities that have to be torn down at great cost or simply allowed to fall apart.

Lake Placid is a good example.


http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/18/sp...fore.html?_r=0

[Adam]

I've said for a while that Olympics + Brazil was a pretty bad idea, mostly for the reasons stated in the article. At this point, there is no hope of moving them unless some other city has a complete venue just ready and waiting (maybe London, but that's doubtful).

I think, though, from a public health/world health standpoint, the Olympics in Brazil is a particularly bad idea now. As I understand Zika, it can be transmitted sexually by carriers who aren't experiencing any symptoms, and indeed can be transmitted for quite some time after the initial exposure (as in a few years). This seems like a recipe for disaster down the road: people from practically every country in the world, particularly young, sexually-active people, at the risk of infection and carrying this virus back home.

[Frostbit]

I just hope the opening ceremony and torch lighting involves a dude in a squirrel suit flying past the Jesus statue and lighting the torch with a flame thrower attached to his foot.

[Gingersnap]

I'm watching the American women's gymnastics tonight. What a difference in the women's bodies since the late 70's or 80's. They are like midget men in terms of their muscles and broad shoulders. Gone are the lithe, nymph like dancer-like young women.

Honestly, I think women's sports are just about circling the drain. The constant drive to become 'more efficient' really means to 'become more masculine' since men are much, much more efficient at almost all sports. This means selecting for more masculine body types in women's sports. As more hormonally manipulated men get into it (as hormonally manipulated boys are now beginning to enter high school girls' track and field events), it will just get more skewed.

Basically, competition-level girls and women with feminine physiques can't compete as well against their narrow-hipped, long torso sisters. The same thing is happening in men's sports where specific body types are completely dominating various sports but those body types are all common masculine body types. No male body types are being displaced by female body types. It's more like boys are being tracked into various sports based on body instead of interest but enough with the body will develop the interest.

Girls are really being sorted for exactly the same traits in their various sports but almost none of the traits are commonly feminine.

[Lady Marva]

. As more hormonally manipulated men get into it (as hormonally manipulated boys are now beginning to enter high school girls' track and field events), it will just get more skewed.

Which is a dang shame. As the boys find it easier to compete with girls, more of them will temporarily find themselves to be a girl. Thus driving out the actual real girls. Might as well just go back to steroiding the athletes.

[phillygirl]

I've said for a while that Olympics + Brazil was a pretty bad idea, mostly for the reasons stated in the article. At this point, there is no hope of moving them unless some other city has a complete venue just ready and waiting (maybe London, but that's doubtful).

I think, though, from a public health/world health standpoint, the Olympics in Brazil is a particularly bad idea now. As I understand Zika, it can be transmitted sexually by carriers who aren't experiencing any symptoms, and indeed can be transmitted for quite some time after the initial exposure (as in a few years). This seems like a recipe for disaster down the road: people from practically every country in the world, particularly young, sexually-active people, at the risk of infection and carrying this virus back home.

My niece and I nixed the Caribbean due to fear of zika and the possibility that it may effect her (far into the future!!) child bearing years. There just isn't enough information known right now to risk it for her.

[Norm dePlume]

And the hits just keep coming.

Mutilated Body Washes up on the Beach at a Rio Olympic Venue

Just over a month out from the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympic Games, Brazil’s already noticable limp towards the starting gate is starting to resemble a crawl. The Rio Games, already beset with infrastructure problems, labor strife, economic decline, and full-fledged political upheaval, could use a win. Instead, Reuters reports, on Wednesday, parts of a human body washed up on shore at Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Copacabana beach, nearby where the beach volleyball competition will be held in a month’s time.