Do we really need the Olympics?

Anyone who knows me also knows I am no sports fan. The closest I come to being interested is a faint (almost invisible) interest in cricket. Cricket interests me more because of the psychology involved than the game itself. I do not know anything about the finer points of the game. Yes, I have achieved one thing in the field of sport which would leave many cricketers envious and disbelieving. I assure you however that it was not intended. It was a fluke, a lucky accident. (Nevertheless I have dined at High Table at an ancient university on the strength of that incident.)

But sport apart from that does not interest me. I could not care less how fast, how high, how long or how anything someone can perform on the field or in the pool or on the water. If people are foolish enough to spend years of their lives training for such events then it is up to them but do not expect me to admire them for it. I would prefer they dug gardens and walked dogs and created more permanent things, beautiful and useful things. 

Sport is expensive. It is very likely that some of our "best athletes" will never see the Olympics, never compete in them. They are hidden away there in the background. They run and jump and swim for the fun of it. That's fine with me. It may well be that they are actually much happier than those on whom there is an enormous pressure to succeed. We apparently have a fourteen year old competing in "skateboarding" of all things. To me that is simply wrong. She should be in school and skateboarding should be something which is simply "fun". 

I see sport as a form of war. The pressure to "win" is too high. It is why drugs are used and why people go to great lengths to try and hide this. Like it or not there is a limit to the breaking of records. Without the assistance of drugs we would have ceased to break records long ago.

So news media please don't fling the "how marvellous all this is" in my face. It is not in the least bit wonderful. I have better things to do with my time than watch people "perform". There are books to be read. I am going to escape!