![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The Olympics are gathering more coverage as the start of both competitions approach. I’m not at all excited about them.
It’s not just that we’re spending money that could be better spent on something more, well, useful, on a jamboree. It’s not just that some evidence suggests that hosting major sporting events doesn’t, in fact, increase participation in sport and may reduce it. It’s not just that I think, if you want to spend billions redeveloping parts of London just do it. You don’t need the smoke screen of a series of international sporting events to get me behind a project that involves building better housing and transport links for poor people.
I’m just not that interested in the sport.
I like sport. As a participant I enjoy sport (although currently too infrequently). I think sport and sports clubs are good for young and old. I enjoy the entertainment of watching sport and I recognise that part of that entertainment value comes from having an emotional connection to some of the participants.
I find cricket, rugby, kabadi, American football, Gaelic football, Aussie Rules, tennis, snooker, crown bowls, golf even soccer entertaining.
I admire the dedication and effort required to be a top sports person in any sport.
I just don’t much care for many of the Olympic sports as entertainment. The hundred metre sprint is my idea of dull. Very impressive dull, but dull. Your mileage may vary but I’ll be finding the whole summer of it dull.
The sport is dull. The excitement about it dull. The inevitable gripes about the cost and the inconvenience are dull (even when I'm being inconvenienced).
So I can’t get too excited about a major patch of televised dullness which will also fail to achieve any of the worthy objectives that have been tagged on to the side of event.
I wish all the participants and spectators a wonderful time. I hope you all win, each and everyone of you. I shall rejoin you in the Autumn of 2012 for some entertainment.
It’s not just that we’re spending money that could be better spent on something more, well, useful, on a jamboree. It’s not just that some evidence suggests that hosting major sporting events doesn’t, in fact, increase participation in sport and may reduce it. It’s not just that I think, if you want to spend billions redeveloping parts of London just do it. You don’t need the smoke screen of a series of international sporting events to get me behind a project that involves building better housing and transport links for poor people.
I’m just not that interested in the sport.
I like sport. As a participant I enjoy sport (although currently too infrequently). I think sport and sports clubs are good for young and old. I enjoy the entertainment of watching sport and I recognise that part of that entertainment value comes from having an emotional connection to some of the participants.
I find cricket, rugby, kabadi, American football, Gaelic football, Aussie Rules, tennis, snooker, crown bowls, golf even soccer entertaining.
I admire the dedication and effort required to be a top sports person in any sport.
I just don’t much care for many of the Olympic sports as entertainment. The hundred metre sprint is my idea of dull. Very impressive dull, but dull. Your mileage may vary but I’ll be finding the whole summer of it dull.
The sport is dull. The excitement about it dull. The inevitable gripes about the cost and the inconvenience are dull (even when I'm being inconvenienced).
So I can’t get too excited about a major patch of televised dullness which will also fail to achieve any of the worthy objectives that have been tagged on to the side of event.
I wish all the participants and spectators a wonderful time. I hope you all win, each and everyone of you. I shall rejoin you in the Autumn of 2012 for some entertainment.
