Winter Olympics Should Be Discontinued

Unless you are from a rich Western nation you probably did not notice that a major sports event was held in Vancouver (Canada) last month.  It was called the Winter Olympics and participants from all over the Western world (and a few from other countries) competed in events like Alpine skiing, luge, cross-country skiing, figure skating, bobsledding, ski jumping and ice hockey.

There was very little or no coverage of these events in countries like India and rightly so.  A vast majority of people in the world cannot really relate to winter sports.  Skiing and figure skating and so on for me was something I saw in James Bond movies and not something I personally want to do or see for myself.  Even in countries like United States, France and Germany where winter sports are popular and somewhat affordable it still ranks below other sports like Football, Baseball, Rugby or Soccer in popularity and viewership.

The Olympic creed is “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well”.  The Winter Olympics which was established in 1924 has so far done a very poor job of following the Olympic creed or the motto.

Although these games have been going on for over 85 years only twice were these games held outside of North America and Western Europe (1972 and 1998 in Japan).  These games are called the Winter Olympics but they are never held when it is winter in the southern hemisphere (the real name for these games should be “winter in the northern hemisphere Olympics”).

The problem that I have with the winter Olympics and many events in the summer Olympics is that they are very made up and does not come of as natural things that human beings do in their everyday life.  How can a sportsperson anywhere relate to an ice dancing or figure skating competition?  Any event whose winner is decided by a panel of ten judges should not be considered as a sport.

The winter Olympic events that I would like to see are how fast a person can shovel the driveway after a snowstorm or how well can you text and drive at the same time on a snowy road.  But alas I have to settle for curling or bobsleigh (I actually tried bobsled once at Lake Placid.  I almost lost my conscience because of the “g” forces).

The only thing about these sports I like was the ice hockey.  I think that Indians will like it because it is somewhat similar to field hockey which is India’s national game.  But ice hockey is much more intense and very physical.  United States lost to Canada in the final and the game was watched by almost 30% of Americans which is a very high number for a single event.

Of course most of the Canadian and American players play for the National Hockey League (NHL) which is a professional hockey league played in the United States and Canada (the captain of my favorite hockey team, the Philadelphia Flyers is Mike Richards and he is from Canada).  .

Should these winters Olympic Games continue?  I have no issues with events like this but we should not call them Olympic Games.  Olympic Games should have events that most countries in the world can participate in.  It should be held all over the world and should not be restricted to developed nations or the northern hemisphere.  Maybe instead of calling them the winter Olympics we can call them NATO games?

Related posts:

1. No Uniforms for Indian Olympic Team
2. America Not Ready To Host Olympics for a While
3. World Cup Soccer: Real American Men Watch Football
4. CWG: India Taking Unfair Criticism
5. An Indian Who Loves American Football

Tags: hockey, India, luge, Mike Richards, NATO, NHL, Philadelphia Flyers, skiing, Western, Winter Olympics

Category: Sports & Entertainment