"Real World": Beijing

These Olympics are a joke.
I know that’s harsh, but take away the flag and here’s what you are left with. In some sports you have amateur competition. In others you have individual corporations disguised as a “team” (men’s basketball comes to mind).
Athletes that have no blood connection to a nation but have obtained a visa from that country are allowed to represent them in the Olympics. In America, we have people waiting 25 years for a green card who have lived here most of their lives, but if you can run the 1,500 meters really fast, we’ll process that paperwork and you’re one of us, baby!
Maybe I’ve lost my Olympics spirit. Apparently, I’m not the only one.
Baseball is an Olympic sport but is on its way out. Why? Because Major League Baseball will not do what the NHL does and shut down its season for three weeks every four years to allow the best players to compete. When did a pro league’s cooperation determine what the Olympics did? Aren’t the Olympics separate from pro sports? Didn’t they used to be for amateurs?
After these Games, softball is out of the Olympics. Why? Because the Americans win every time. Well, until this year I guess. Since we have no real competition it’s no longer viewed as a “world” sport. Beach volleyball stays, but softball has to go.
I’m curious, if Jennie Finch pitched while wearing the same outfit as the beach volleyball players, would it then be a “world” sport? Absolutely, because young men and women around the “world” can recognize that Finch is attractive and the “Olympic Movement,” as defined by NBC, (in cooperation with the IOC), is all about trying to reach the coveted 18-34 demographic. Why do you think the X Games have been added to the Winter Olympics?
These two weeks are exciting, heart-warming, heart-breaking and extremely entertaining.
Can we just call this for what it has become? A reality TV show every other year that airs either right before or right after football season.
The show is spectacular! In future years watch for Simon, Paula, Randy and fan voting to be added.
It just used to be more than that.
It used to be the Olympics.