Death of the Olympic Spirit.

Here I sit ... Friday, 15 September 2000 at 5:19pm CST. In approximately one hour, the Games of the XXVII Olympiad will begin.

Well, if you neglect the fact that they've actually been going on since the 13th of September.

But the Opening Ceremonies, those are traditionally considered the start of the Games anwyay.

Of course, those really went on 14 hours or so ago.

So here I sit, waiting for the prerecorded, edited broadcast of an event the world is ideally supposed to unite together to share in, more than half a day after it has already occured.

I feel the united vibes already.

I have always been a fan of the Olympics. Hate people though I do, there's something inspiring about the Olympians, the dedication they have to their sport, and the lengths they will go to, merely for the honour of participating in the world's greatest sporting event. To be there, to compete, to give your all, win or lose, that is truly what is important. For the love of the game, that is the Olympic Spirit. And that is what I love about them.

Which makes it all the more saddening to realize that the Spirit is failing and may, in fact, be well and truly destroyed forever.

It's difficult to know exactly who is to blame, but I feel it can be attributed to a wide variety of sources. Let us start with Americans.

Americans are, by and large, among the most egotisic and self-centered of all nationalities. They believe themselves the center of the known universe, and predominently only care to hear about themselves. This is made brutally apparently during the televising of the Olympic Games, wherein you'll be lucky if you even get the names of the other competitors or acknowledgement that these world games consist of more than an overly large group of American athletes. In '96, I had high hopes that with the Games being a mere time zone away, I would get the opportunity to learn about many of the athletes, and witness a majority of the events. No such luck. Not even gymnastics, one of the most ridiculously hyped up sports, provided much more than a glimpse of non-Americans.

"Now the Romanians are coming up the the horse, so we'll cut to 10 minutes of commercials and come back when an American is doing something again."

Thank you, NBC.

Speaking of which, let's dwell for a moment on that televisual giant. My best friend Amy, earstwhile Australian and actual singing participant in the Opening Ceremonies, has been filling me in on some of the backstage occurances, and let me tell you, ignorance can truly be bliss. So they could get more hours of daylight footage, NBC convinced the entire country of Australia to go to daylight savings time much earlier than usual (or the Sydney time zone, anyway, which is enough to make me sick). Already, this does not bode well for unbiased coverage. And shall we dwell on the fact that the mightiest nation in the free market will probably be the only one to NOT see the event live? I spent an hour last night at 5am, trying desparetly to find some coverage, some actual live telecast amid my 800 cable channels. Nothing. So much for wanting to actually get to see my blonde singing as she was singing. But then, to be honest, I'm only fractionally expecting NBC to keep the entire Sydney Philharmonia segment. After all, there are no Americans in it.

But the loss of spirit is not entirely due to television, and other countries are as guilty as America for the murder. There has been so much stock put into winning a medal that countries themselves have desecrated why athletes should be competing. Cash rewards, materialistic gifts ... even threatening them if they do not win. I doubt somehow that this was what the ancient Greeks envisioned.

The Greeks. Perhaps our Olympic salvation lies with them. The games belong to them, and perhaps they can restore it to its former glory. But I'm just cynical enough to say that I doubt it. Because people are people, and sadly, even the Olympic Spirit couldn't survive this truth.