It's Time To Stop Valuing an Olympic Medal

I've seen numerous articles come out here on Bleacher Report in the last couple days that are trying to lionize Olympic athletes as if they are gods of some sort.

I find it amazing, most recently, that so many people feel that Olympic swimmers are actually more athletic than an NFL or NBA player.  Simply amazing.

I don't mean to be mean or anything, but I just read an article that made me sick to my stomach.  I just threw up in my mouth.  The article was entitled, "It's Time to Stop Devaluing an Olympic Gold Metal." 

There are several—no, every point in this article makes me scratch my head and say, "Is the end of the world coming soon?"

"The Olympics are, without a doubt, the greatest sporting spectacle on earth."  I'm sorry my friend, but that is the Super Bowl.  During the first three days of the Beijing Olympics, the average viewership was 30.4 million people.  For the Super Bowl between the New York Giants and New England Patriots, 97.5 million people watched.

"No one could argue that they represent the pinnacle of human physical ability."  I never knew that the pinnacle of human physical ability was swimming across a pool four times and talking about how great you are.  I thought that physical ability was avoiding being physically harmed by a tackle or a punch.  I thought that physical ability was rising 12 feet in the air and slamming home a dunk over a 7-0, 280 pound monster trying to block you.  I never knew that taking a dunk in the pool for a couple of meters ever qualified.

"So why dilute it with half-hearted performances in tennis and basketball? Or baseball, where all of the best players are competing for a more important prize?"  I couldn't agree with you more, why dilute your precious little Olympics?  NBA players have more important things to think about, like the NBA.  Who cares if they win? 

No one is the correct answer.  Same thing goes for baseball.  The reason that none of these players care is quite frankly, because the Olympics are irrelevant.  You win money and fame in the NBA, NFL, and MLB, but what do you get for winning the Olympics?  A medal? 

Plus, half of these guys are not even from the country they represent.  Winning a medal used to mean something for your country, now it is just a personal accomplishment.  What made me particularily sick was when Phelps was screaming for joy when the United States beat France in the relay.  He wasn't cheering for the Americans, he was cheering that his quest for eight gold metals was still alive and well.

"Likewise, the soccer tournament lacks all but a handful of the household names that millions of people flock to week in and week out. It's time the IOC recognised that for the Olympics to remain the pinnacle of sporting excellence, these events must be removed."  I think it would be a great idea to remove every legitimate sport that the world holds dear to its heart.  Let's remove soccer, baseball, and basketball from the Olympics.  What makes the most money in America?  Oh, baseball, basketball, and football.  What makes the most money in the rest of the world?  Soccer.  If they make the most money, that must mean that the people like them the most.  If we remove every sport that people love, then what's the point of even having the Olympics?

We might as well just see who the best hop-scotch player with one leg in the world is under your idea.  There's a reason the greatest athletes in the world don't participate in the Olympics.  That reason is they don't want to devalue their lives in the presence of such inferior athletes.

"It's an interesting debate regarding what the Olympics really mean and I look forward to hearing what everyone else thinks."  Well, let me tell you what I think.  I think that the Olympics are a place where inferior athletes gather and claim they are the best in the world.  As I've said before and will say many times again, swimmers are simply not athletes.  Don't tell me that if you trained LeBron James from the time he was two years old to be a swimmer he wouldn't be the best in the world right now.

The fact of the matter is that the most athletic kids in high school and college play major sports.  They play baseball and football and basketball.  Not very many of them take up gymnastics and practice on the uneven bars all day. 

It's ridiculous to claim that gymnists and swimmers come out of the same talent pool as basketball, football, and baseball players.  While I admit these Olympians are not completely rid of athletic ability, they still possess one-tenth of the athletic ability of an NFL and NBA player.  It takes skill and willpower to be physical and get injured by a hit, not to go swimming in a nice pool.