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Comment by DanWaterworth | Hacker News Reader

The way the Olympics is being organized is making me ashamed of my country.

It's not just the UK. The Olympics has their heads buried so far up corporate backsides, they're operating with a 20th century mentality.

Time to shut the whole thing down and come up with something relevant.

I think you mean 12th Century.

Elected leaders of major democratic nations bending over to do what the divinely appointed leaders of a bunch of steroid cases say

Agreed. I love the idea of the Olympics, but the majority of these athletes seem to have to rely on sponsorships to make a living despite their rigorous, continued training. Sometimes sponsorships by companies whose products are more harmful than healthy. Sometimes this only amounts to a few thousand a year.

After banning employees from promoting the event through status updates, Instagram posts and effectively killing all other advertising with the "it's again the TOS to link to us unless you're spinning us in a positive light" thing they just pulled a few weeks ago, I'm over the entire thing before it even began.

The idea behind the Olympics games is that you wouldn't win huge prizes or gain a lot of money, because you are an amateur who is naturally gifted with skill in your sport. It shouldn't be rigorous, continued training, it shouldn't be for the glory of the nation, it shouldn't define an athlete.

The Olympic games is no different from Christmas: there were good intentions when it was started, but it has devolved into commercialism and a bastardization of what the original spirit was.

The original spirit was a few Greek men running around naked to show that they were racially superior to all other peoples.

The rest of the Olympic 'traditions' were invented at the 1936 games for not-dissimilar reasons.

Crass commercialisation is probably the "nice side" of the olympics.

Ideally, yes. I'm not saying that we should award physical capability with hoards of cash as an incentive (although in sports entertainment we do), but to have a shot at being on the podium at these levels, competing against people that are doping, you need multiple coaches, nutritionists and physicians to ensure your health and safety and that doesn't come cheap on top of general living and travel expenses.

That's the argument I'm getting at. If it takes money to get into the Olympics, the Games have already been lost.

> the majority of these athletes seem to have to rely on sponsorships to make a living despite their rigorous, continued training.

The way I see it, an overwhelming majority of sports showcased at the Olympics are not watched or cared about at all outside of the Olympics. Who's going to be following the hurdles in three weeks time? Not enough people for a hurdler to make a living I suspect.

Most athletes have day jobs outside of the Olympics training season. For most Olympic athletes, especially those outside of marquee sports like swimming or gymnastics, the only sponsorhip money they will ever see if the money they get during the 3-4 months of Olympic hysteria. These sponsorships are not usually in the six figures.

They take on sponsorships while training so that they can afford to take breaks from their normal jobs to train (though a few employers, such as the HomeDepot, actively recruit Olympians and provide generous training allowances).

Is it your country or the Internatinal Olympic Committee (or whatever their official name is)? When they came to my town, I was very disappointed at the commerciality of it all, but all insisted upon by the Official International Olympic Organization.

It doesn't matter who is master-minding it, the fact people who are there ostensibly to represent the population are going along with it is the problem.

The IOC can insist, but it is the UK that is caving in to all the demands, so it is legitimate to put the blame on the UK.

Why? Please elaborate.

Start with laws rewriting copyright to make it a CRIMINAL offence to use: the name of the country's capital city together with either the numeric value of this year, or the name of the season between spring and autumn.

Spending $Bn of taxpayers money on 'infrastructure' that is going to be used for 2weeks and then given away for next to nothing to friends/supporters afterwards. And at the same time cutting funding to schools and community sports.

Using the army as cheap labour when the company given the contract for security decided it was going to be profitable enough and walked away

All this so a bizarrely coiffured lunatic and his oily friends in Westminster can appear on global TV

You missed the truly abysmal logos and mascots.

If children wish to draw "one-eyed trouser snakes" or Lisa Simpson performing an intimate act, on their school books that's fine.

I just don't think that consenting adults should be exposed to this sort of thing - especially not splashed over every wall

I've never heard the one-eyed trouser snake one before - I nearly spat my (non-Olympic-overlord approved) water in my ThinkPad :-)

They are by far the worst mascots ever.

Which are worse even than they look on first glance. Colourize them right and they look like Simpsons characters. http://media.nowpublic.net/images//00/f/00f893c2ac7430de95e1...

I'll give you some ideas why it's an absolute fucking disgrace:

* Rapier missile launchers installed on residential flats.

* Dispersal Zone around Olympics which has kerfew, 42,000 strong mostly private police force and all legal rights suspended for residents and visitors.

* Armed drones patrolling the air around the site.

* Armed troops on site and the surrounding area.

* They built on Leyton Marshes which is common land.

* Warships have been stationed on the Thames.

* Transport disruption due to Olympic traffic lanes added and service alterations over the entire transport network (resulting in a 3 mile walk to take my disabled daughter to her physiotherapist - fun eh?)

* The fact that we have bankrupt hospital trusts which could have been bailed out several times over for that amount of money.

* The fact that NHS maternity and surgical services are turning people away and warning of serious disruption during the event.

* The fact that the Olympic village was promised for social housing. Out of 11,000 residences, 675 are going to it.

* There are branding police and official products which must be purchsed on site. You can't even take a flask of water with you incase they can't make money out of you.

* The fact that the political elite asked for the event despite polls taken at the time suggesting that the general opinion is that we didn't want it.

* The fact that "we're going to benefit from it", but there are no tangible benefits which are provable and every Olympic city has gone down the pan after the Olympics.

Ultimately, everything we expect and pay huge amounts for in tax is suspended for our political and corporate overlords. It's a militarisation exercise.

Pretty picture: http://www.terratag.com/Files/52189/Img/06/APOCOLYMPICS_DETA...

(product link for it: http://www.terratag.com/PBSCProduct.asp?ItmID=8759948)

My favourite is the promise that people in the surrounding areas will benefit from all of the funding, new developments, etc. BS. The "area" will benefit (gentrification leading to more expensive rent/housing), effectively pricing out the existing residents.

As the parent commenter and a previous resident (of Leyton), you've nailed it there. Our landlord upped our rent from 1000GBP a month to 1400GPB a month the moment it was announced.

CISCO got the contract for most of the network infrastructure based on the kit being donated to education afterwards.

Apparently it will be donated to $$$$ CISCO certification courses run at CISCO training centers. And of course training == education

So they get paid £££ to install the kit, then they get a tax right-off to donate it to themselves and then they get to charge people £££ to use it to become CISCO certified engineers!

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