Questions

Questions arise as to why no one is watching the 2021 (formerly 2020) Olympics. It maybe because people have more important things confronting their lives than watching a sporting event that now has become all about making political statements rather than watching world class athletes who have spent years preparing and training to compete in an event which for some, will be a once in a lifetime occurrence. Going forward from this time many articles will be written about the playing of these games in Tokyo, Japan.

I understand the reason for the continuation because of the worldwide shutdowns of 2020 but sadly, 2021 is currently turning out to be no better. I remember when this all started back last summer when baseball in the US was not played, but if one were to get up early enough in the middle of the night you could watch South Korean baseball on ESPN which South Korea initiated the use of cardboard cutout fans and piped in crowd noise. Regrettably, from what I have seen in Tokyo with my minimal watching restricted only to golf, has been nobody other than the IOC officials, athletes, coaches, and event staffers in attendance. This too I am certain I heard piped in crowd noise.

Many sport writers have been critical of the lackluster viewing by US citizens because of how some of the US athletes, e.g., women’s soccer team and track and field athletes, have decided to use this platform as their staging of a protest for whatever reason they have determined. Sport writers have the right to voice their opinion because they have the forum, but they too must understand that US viewers have the right to voice their displeasure of how some athletes decide to compete and the citizens do so by not watching. This is also their right. It is not about protesting the Olympics it is everything about protesting these particular athletes and regrettably, the entire US team suffers for as far as I can remember though athletes may compete in individual events, they all still represent the team which in this case is Team USA. The team is only as strong as its weakest link and these individuals though strong in their training are weaklings when it comes to the reason as to understanding why they were chosen to be in Tokyo in the first place, to represent the United States of America.

Understanding how lackluster the Olympics have been, I read an article regarding a female Canadian diver, Pamela Ware. She was in deep competition for a medal but instead of competing she decided to perform what I perceive to be the worst dive, if in fact it is a dive. She scored a -0-, when she did what is being called a feet-first dive. I call it, walking to the end of the board and stepping off. Though she may not make a splash, the difficulty in performing such an act must be tremendous. This action by her represents how bad the viewership has been for this Olympics. Per Sportico, the viewership is down 43% to only 17.5 million viewers which when it is compared to the 2016 games of Rio de Janerio, it had 30.7 million viewers. This leads to the age-old question, if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? If no one is watching the Olympics, does anyone really care?

The games are being played hopefully to have people to focus their attentions elsewhere than the difficulties of the day. Unfortunately, this does not happen for if you watch you see the difficulties, for officials in Japan decided weeks prior to the games by not allowing crowds to attend. If the purpose to watch is to take our minds off the problems, then the objective has not been reached for you see no spectators.

We all must ask, when will all of this madness end?