The last time I actually watched much of an Olympics was when they were in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. I am not a much of sports fan, and the news reports appear to be more about who is kneeling and who is testing positive to COVID, which has totally turned off any remaining interest for me.
For many of the events, the primary competition seems to be between biochemists and drug detection systems to see who can get the most performance-enhancing steroids into the athletes without getting caught.
The whole basis of the Olympic competition is based on segregation based on gender and teams based on national origin. Is it totally outmoded?
Sure there is. For one thing a whole bunch of kids train really hard for a shot to be in the games. And they relish the opportunity to travel and compete and meet other athletes from other countries. If done properly it can make the host country and city some major bucks and employee a lot of folks. And even if the viewership is down, networks from all over the world make some serious money. And for me, being a sports lover, I get to see a lot of sports that are not regularly shown. And the competition level is always really good which makes it entertaining to watch.
It was interesting that both Great Britain and Australia initially were two strong voices to join the U.S. in protesting the games. And yet both countries did send athletes to Moscow.