I hear there’s a sports festival happening…
Ah, the Beijing Olympics are finally upon us. And considering my attitude to the Games (glorified sports day for weirdo sports) I’m taken back by how interested I am in the damn things this year… I think it’s the political side of things, the fact that China is considerably more interesting/contentious than Athens, Sydney or Atlanta could ever be. I am just dying to know how it will go and whether China will emerge from the end of Olympic juggernaut with the kudos it so desperately longs for.
What has really struck me so far is the complete lack of buzz in the UK about the core element of the Olympics – sport. There is little mention of sport, the hype is all around pollution and politics.
This is best exemplified by the fact that major news outlets (BBC news, Newsnight, Channel 4 news etc.) have had teams of reporters in Beijing all week updating us on protests, human rights, Tibet, censorship, pollution etc. but there is only minimal sports coverage planned for prime time. We get one hour of highlights each evening at 7pm on BBC1. They aren’t even showing a complete replay of the opening ceremony, the most expensive and most fretted about opening ceremony of all time.
In Australia, the Games would be clogging up the airwaves all night, every night across two channels. There would be no escape from relentless analysis about the swimming team’s swimsuits and the weightlifting team’s weight. But here, no one seems to particularly care.
God, I love this country.*
* Except when its airwaves are clogged with up European football tournaments that England and Scotland haven’t even qualified for.
August 8th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
I got into an argument with some of my office colleagues in Melbourne once, who had decided that nobody in Britain watched the Olympics because “The British aren’t any good at it”. They decided this because they enjoyed watching Beach Volleyball contests because “we always win at those”, and they thought that was the basis for being interested in any sport.
Even when we do get a gold medal at the Olympics, nobody cares much. I get to hear all about it because my sister is massively into the Olympics, but she’s very much the exception to the general rule. Nobody at work will bring it up.
Of course, I approve of this attitude completely.
August 8th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Will be interested to see how it looks on the TV, what with all the smog and that…
August 8th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
23Daves, Yes, one of Australia’s most tiresome characteristics is its/our (!) obsession with our apparent sporting brilliance. If only the same competitiveness was applied to more useful things… This is my third ‘non-Australian’ Olympics and once again I’m just going to sit back and revel in the fact that most people I know find the plight of Walthamstow Dogs a more interesting sporting event to talk about.
Ill Man, that’s alleged smog. My mate who lives over there swears its not as bad as everyone makes out; it’s just negative Western reporting. I assume anyway that you’ll be spending the next few weeks glued to the TV watching the synchronised swimming?
August 8th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Until they introduce bicycle speedway to the games, I’m not interested.
August 10th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
I think the time difference won’t help, watching everything recorded always takes the edge off things.
August 11th, 2008 at 9:26 am
BLTP, that’s because the UK is a bunch of lightweights ;) In Australia, the time difference doesn’t mean anything. It’s still sport!