I haven't really been watching the Olympics to much this year. For some reason it has been 82 degrees with no humidity in St. Louis so I have been taking advantage of the weather and not sitting inside my air-conditioned cave watching TV. It has been great, don't get me wrong, but my post is about the Olympics. I have caught tidbits from CNN and radio. Last night I did watch one race and I had to turn it off.
Has anyone else noticed that many many records have been broken this year? I have not done the research to find the exact numbers so forgive my lack of journalism, but this just seems obvious. Lay off the drugs people. The race I watched last night was women swimming. My first clue into doping was the no-necked huge animals poised to jump in the water. These were not women. At the end of the race the first, second, and third place swimmers had all broken the record. What? It should not be that easy. There was another swimming race and the person broke the record by over 4 seconds.
In our world of stalking paparazzi with a mission to expose every celebrity's secret, why isn't there a journalist trying to uncover this obvious doping elephant in the room?! Everyone seems to be going along with it too. It is really frustrating me. A journalist will dig and dig to find out secrets about someone's church minister, an affair done with twenty years ago or to uncover someone's sexual orientation, but with the eyes of the world are focus on one place for a brief moment, we allow these people to cheat and take away the true competition and glory of the games. What frustrates me more is that this will become a scandel in the next year. Athletes will be punished and in a very unglorious moment the doped-up athletes will be stripped of their medals and the true athletes will be awarded, but without the honor and ceremony they deserve.
Is there something you use to enjoy as a kid, but as you get older the "man behind the curtain" is revealed and you now feel the event seems a little empty?
p.s. the pic is of some true athletes. This is the first, second, and third place teams in the Race Around the Lou, a scavenger hunt arount St. Louis. Yes, that is me with my sister-in-law Rachel.
4 comments to The Pink Elephant:
Did you break a record with the Race Around the Lou? Did they drug test you?
Tara
I was getting very curious about this myself and the nightly national news last night did cover it. They said there are a couple of things different about the swimming event this year. The first is those body suits you see everyone wearing. They were designed by NASA scientists to reduce drag. At first only a couple countries had them as they are very expensive, then the IOC said they had to be provided to all athletes as they do give an advantage. Also, the Chinese built their swimming pool 3 feet deeper than a standard pool, which prevents resistance in the water. Also those lane dividers are also wave preventing buoys, which help give each swimmer a smoother path of water.
So, some technology has made the athletes faster. I hope that's all that has made them faster.
Thank you Sarah. I knew if I had watched more I wouldn't be so negative. Some of this makes sense (well for a rocket scientist). I had heard about the NASA suit. I did not know about the deeper pool, that's bizarre. I thought everyone would be going slower this year because of all the pollution in China.
Tara, they did not drug test us, so just wait for next year. I am starting my regime now. It will have lots of Omega-3's so I can burp fish sticks.
I have to agree with Sarah...today, compared with 4 years ago, there are so many more advantages that the athletes have- the technology, the advanced and "faster" pool and the fact that these athletes are taking so much more of their training outside of the pool. Dara Torres has about 5 people outside of swimming to help her- a nutritionist, muscle stretcher, weight trainer...etc. I think it's hard to say it's drugs until we see the NEXT olympics...those athletes will be much better I'm sure than the current ones after having an additional 4 years to utilize even more advances.
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