I am an absolute fan of the olympic games and worship the general individual achievements of those athletes who with few resources, powered by mere passion, each with their own story often characterised by the natural comparitive advantages their countries may have, be it snowy mountains, flat long distances, water and wind, whatever would have driven a young national to commence practising in her/his backyard to one day seek the stage amongst the world's best as the only reward.
It is exciting to observe the opening cerimonies over time, the long rows of soviet participants in the past or the one or two participants of some newly founded or liberated state, all coming together under a common banner, while honouring their own.
Prometheus and Heracles would be proud of each and every one of them.
A beautiful tradition that over time has managed to remain reasonably immune to modern political turmoil, in similar vein as the ancient olympiades sought temporary truces to allow athletes to participate.
I was once a proud owner of an authentic and offical "Athens 1996" t-shirt, free from any safeguard of the then still candidate status for the summer olympics.
At the time it would have appeared that only a formality stood in between the nomination of Athens as the obvious host city of the modern Olympic Games at their 100th anniversary.
Eventually it was Atlanta that was elected, and the 1996 Olympics would become the most private sponsered games ever to that date. Critics would quickly convert the games into the CNN and Coca Cola games and that was not because Coca Cola Corporation was founded there also about 100 years ago.
For the London 2012 games this has turned out quit different as private capital has come to abandon the race and funding needed to come, once again, from the city, country, in other words the general population.
A gold medal for democracy at its finest.
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