The XXI Olympic Winter Games

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Postby Dante » Mon Feb 22, 2010 1:13 pm

Sure the Olympic games are cool, the athletes who display their skills there are truly amazing, but I've always felt it a sham that nations declare the victories their own - such as the US declaring "It" "earned" XYZ gold medals. If each nation had the same random population samples to draw from and each supported the same number of athletes, maybe... but when I look at the sports parade from any other country and then compare it to the US, it's as though we put up our own private army to compete. On top of it all, we have a large pseudo-wealthy population that allows us to be far more picky then any other country. So in the end, it's not really fair. If any nation beats the United States they almost have to beat the odds to do it! That's just not in the spirit of true competition.

So overall, I think the flags of each nation should be forfeit and the Olympics should only be about athletes and not nations. Enough sillyness about the US winning (unless we want to have each nation select their athletes from a random sample of 500 people :P and cap the max number of entrants- in which case we'd be lucky if people from the US didn't fall over from one too many big macs X_x).

At least that's my personal opinion.
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Postby Nate » Mon Feb 22, 2010 3:08 pm

Pascal wrote:Sure the Olympic games are cool, the athletes who display their skills there are truly amazing, but I've always felt it a sham that nations declare the victories their own - such as the US declaring "It" "earned" XYZ gold medals.

Because...wait. So by your logic no one should be able to root for their home team in sports games. In fact, that makes even LESS sense because at least the USA athletes are actually FROM the USA for the most part, whereas in other sports, the people on the team could be from any other city or state, they're just playing for that team. Meaning that cheering for the Baltimore Ravens isn't even cheering for the "good ol' boys" because most of them probably never even lived in Maryland.

Hmm. I wonder if people kind of like to have pride in where they live? That would just be a silly assumption to make, though!
If each nation had the same random population samples to draw from and each supported the same number of athletes, maybe... but when I look at the sports parade from any other country and then compare it to the US, it's as though we put up our own private army to compete. On top of it all, we have a large pseudo-wealthy population that allows us to be far more picky then any other country. So in the end, it's not really fair.

Oh my God! You mean...life...isn't fair? BUT LIFE IS ALWAYS FAIR! NOBODY HAS EVER LIVED AN UNFAIR LIFE BEFORE!

Oh yeah I fail to see how your statements account for the fact that Kenya dominates all running events. And Kenya doesn't really have a pseudo-wealthy population! WHOOPS! I guess your theory is unsound!
So overall, I think the flags of each nation should be forfeit and the Olympics should only be about athletes and not nations.

And you know what would happen? The people living in the US would say, "HEY LOOK THE ATHLETES THAT ARE WINNING ARE MOSTLY FROM THE USA HA HA WHY AREN'T THE ITALIANS WINNING AS MANY MEDALS AS OUR ATHLETES?" so absolutely nothing would change! It would be entirely pointless.

Oh yeah, and as far as countries being represented instead of individual athletes? That's how the ancient Greeks did it too. In fact, the Greeks placed EVEN MORE importance on the city-states the athletes came from than the current Olympics do regarding countries. This is mostly because the ancient Olympics were a whole lot more than just an athletic competition, but that doesn't change the fact this is how it has always been.
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Postby blkmage » Sun Feb 28, 2010 2:57 pm

WHAT'S THAT I HEAR?

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[SIZE="7"][color="Yellow"]GOOOOOOOLD[/color][/SIZE]

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[SIZE="7"][color="Red"]CANADA[/color] CANADA [color="red"]CANADA[/color]
[color="Red"]CANADA[/color] CANADA [color="Red"]CANADA[/color]
[color="Red"]CANADA[/color] CANADA [color="red"]CANADA[/color]
[/SIZE]
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Postby goldenspines » Sun Feb 28, 2010 5:03 pm

Despite the fact our team (USA) got silver, I feel content that Canada won. Otherwise, if they had lost, they would have fall into a deep dark depression (because one, hockey is big in Canada, so I hear, and two, they're are playing on their home turf) and because of that we may have lost all the cool Canadian VAs (and blkmage). D:

So, yay Canada and yay USA. Game well fought.
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Postby Nate » Sun Feb 28, 2010 6:18 pm

Good Canada, you look kind of cool!

http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/olympic_athletes_hoping_to

EDIT: After re-reading, I'm going to put a language warning on this link. Just so nobody gets upset. Sorry for not remembering!
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Postby Whitefang » Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:29 pm

I like the Pringle(R) chip design... ;)
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