Reader comments
Olympics badly need big change

+1. Well said.

Political correctness and the government is in control of everyone's life. Sounds like paradise to a liberal!

Doug, please show the evidences on what you said.

Just because you do not live in a "communist" country, it doesn;t mean you can say whatever you want ithout evidence.

You are SO right!! The question is: How does this idea become reality? One country could host the Winter games and another country host the Summer games in facilities already built for them.
Another suggestion is: eliminate the monopoly of television coverage.

Doug makes many valid points, but he should not forget what history has shown about the Olympics. Doug wrote that "the likes of" Moscow and Beijing and Berlin should never have been awarded the hosting of Olympic Games because the hosts were fascists or communists who staged the games to fool the world about their oppressive rule. However, Berlin held the games in 1936 and less than ten years later Berlin was in ruins and the Nazis were destroyed. Moscow held the 1980 Olympics and a scant 11 year later, Moscow was the capital of only Russia instead of the Soviet Union, as that entity crumbled. Beijing is the capital of a vast communist China today, but what will it be in a scant 10-11 years? Having the world's undivided attention on a country for 2 weeks seems to push the country's populace or government to take action. Sometimes, like in Berlin, that action blossoms into nationalist fervor and world war. SOmetimes, like in Moscow, that action blossoms into a drive for independence and capitalism (even if the Russian capitalism was corrupt from the start). What action will blossom in Beijing post-Olympics?

Sportsmanlike!!
Doug you may well be right in all you say about the Chinese olympics. However you can't get away from the fact that the Chinese have come a long way to where they are today. Perhaps not in the exact mold that you and I would like but let's be "sportsmanlike" and turn down the sour grapes a little. They are doing a good job.

Wow, Doug, that was awesome. Totally agree. Thanks for having the courage to say it.

It's so easy to point the finger at others. I have enjoyed the games and applaud China for their efforts. It has been wonderful to see stories about this "hidden" country.

Most of your complaints are speculation. And I think you are reaching to complain anyway.

It is true about the fireworks. Just do a search for "olympics fake fireworks". Legit news sources have stories about it. I also found a couple stories about the Chinese government filling empty seats at the openning ceremony.

I do have to agree with what Fake or Fiction said about this possibly leading to the downfall of the Chinese government.

Doug, you hit it right on the head. You have the courage to state what so many of us are thinking as we nightly watch the spectacle on TV. I sit in my seat wondering how the Chinese (who previously have never competed in so many of these sports) are racking up the golds. Growing up in the Cold War, I know the answer - the great Communist machine.

I too believe it's all a facade designed to legitimize their way of life - all so that the totalitarian regime may continue to dominate and oppress a wonderful people who have the same inalienable rights we do. I bet you the British won't conduct themselves this way in 2012. You won't see the Brits racing us in the medal count like the Chinese are now. And, I also bet you the Chinese won't have near the medal count next games as they do this one either. It's not a political competition, but an athletic one. I hope we will rediscover the true meaning of the games someday.

I volunteered at the hockey venue at the Salt Lake Games, and was surprised at the number of empty seats, even during the medal rounds. Of course the media section, which took up about 1/4 of the seats, was consistently empty.

Maybe we should have shipped in a few "fake" fans.

The olympics have been wonderful. It is better for China to participate on the world stage. We need them to be connected to the world community despite differing ideologies.

Doug, you are right on with this one. It makes me sick to think of all the wasted money on these games.

I've noticed a common thread that runs through a lot of people who are constantly complaining about these olympics: FEAR. Before these games even started a laundry list was put up of all the terrible things that China does --and will do-- during the games. How awful the air would be, how unsecure the athletes would be, and on and on. Then the games started and the opening ceremony was the most amazing performance ever put on in human history. And the air turned out to be not that huge of a factor. And the athletes were safe.

So reporters anxious to find something wrong started looking anywhere they could, and complained about the lip-syncing girl (even though it's a common occurance every year at our Super Bowl) and the "fake" fireworks (that were all real besides the "footprints", which were pre-recorded because it would have been unsafe an impractical to try to have a helicopter chasing them down above the Beijing skyline).

And on it goes. New complaint after another. And I think it's because of FEAR of who the Chinese are, what they believe, how they live and what they may become. And that's sad.

Ahh, the Olympics. That wonderful time where people of all nationalities, ideologies, societies and religions lay aside their differences and disputes to come together in expensive new venues that we didn�t need to celebrate honest athletic endeavor. Culture is celebrated, relations and ties are forged, understanding is promoted. I know it because they tell me so at every opening ceremony, along with what that feel-good moment cost to put on. Then the competitions officially get underway the next day, and so does the jockeying for advantage, lobbying of officials, finger pointing, accusations of cheating, complaining about judging, filing of protests, and hatching of conspiracy theories. We see greedy hoarding of medals to accumulate personal glory, showboating by athletes who have to not only defeat but also humiliate their opponents, nations paying athletes to win gold, athletes throwing away anything that isn�t, and careful tracking of medal tallies to prove political superiority. It is not enough to compete well, one must also win. First place. Every time. Winning is, after all, our national birthright and ours alone.

And when the carnage has settled, we gather in the closing ceremony and pat ourselves on our collective backs, telling ourselves what a wonderful success this has been. The host nation wears its Olympic debt as proudly and jealously as the gold medals so recently coveted by so many, measuring expenditures against others who have ventured to do the same. We stand together as a world and look forward to the next Olympics while already percolating ideas on how we will show up our rivals and avenge our losses in four years. Pax Olympia, that paragon of ideals that we as a race strive for. No wonder this world is in such a mess.

Half of the money was spent on building enough bathrooms with plumbing for the participants and media...whew, you should be glad they didn't have to do it in an open trench.

As a neutral location I suggest Iceland. Antartica would be fine too.