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Comment by ericls | Hacker News Reader

Yep, I don't watch it anymore because it's not a game between human beings anymore.

I think players should be not allowed to disclose their nationalities in the Olympics

We already have these kinds of competitions. Eg the 'FIFA Club World Cup' is open to teams and their players (almost) regardless of nationality.

By and large, people still prefer watching the FIFA World Cup which is organised along national lines.

Similar for many other sports. Eg many major tennis events are typically not run along national lines; but viewers still care about nationality of the participants.

I think the point is that it might be unhealthy to promote the idea of nations and inter-national competition as a virtue, even if viewers prefer it because it stokes their tribal sentiments. Local sports is more harmless because local identity isn't often a part of tribal conflict in the modern day.

>Local sports is more harmless because local identity isn't often a part of tribal conflict in the modern day.

How do you justify this statement, or the premise? In the modern day, homicide kills many times more people than conflict between nations. In the USA at least, local identity is the primary driver of gang violence.

Homicide isn't a catastrophic tail risk. War between great powers is. The type of war that comes from revanchism and nationalism and so on. It hasn't happened in the modern era yet because of nukes, but the risk is there, and we had numerous close calls with the Soviet Union.

That's a fallacy, similar to claiming driving in a car is safer than flying in a plane because you're more likely to survive a car crash than a plane crash.

It seems you're attempting to suggest that local sports are less harmless than the Olympics, by somehow equating the latter to an increased risk of apocalyptic nuclear war?

Please provide evidence if you're going to make such an outlandish claim. One could just as easily claim (similarly without evidence) that the Olympics actually reduces the tension between nations and reduces the risk of apocalyptic tail events compared to local sports which provide no such relief of international tensions.

We're straying too far from the point I was trying to make. National identity is plausibly a dangerous thing to hold up as a virtue, irrespective of the comparison to local identity. Russia's invasion of Ukraine, China's designs over Taiwan, WW1, WW2, trade protectionism, closed borders, and so on. These things are not all about national identity, but national identity does play a non-trivial role.

> local identity isn't often a part of tribal conflict in the modern day

Tell me you've never been to a Rangers game without telling me you've never been to a Rangers game!

>I think players should be not allowed to disclose their nationalities in the Olympics

Perhaps you should discuss this idea with some former/aspiring/current olympians. Overwhelmingly they consider it a great honor and one of the most memorable, rewarding events of their life to represent their country. Shockingly, even in countries which aren't like China where the athletes are essentially forced to say these things.

I don't watch it anymore after it became paywalled. It used to be shown on public service in the country I live, but the TV rights became too expensive, so commercial television could outbid it. I have nothing against commercial television, but I think a part of the original charm disappaered when an event originally for amateur athletes eventually narrowed their audience by going for the highest bidder. Also, the IOC is not an organization I especially like to support. It is not the same to me any more. I think they will see a decrease in interest as it becomes less available, and it will hurt the games in the long run.

I started not watching because of, I think, some IOC related scandal. Eventually I forgot why I was boycotting it or whatever and just realized I wasn't interested anymore.

I don't think most athletes participating could afford it or the training then... Then again going fully back to amateur might be improvement. Ban any sponsors from participants from previous and following 4 years or cycle.

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