The Olympic Games have barely begun and already there is cause for celebration.
The U.S. women’s soccer team has managed to come out of the gate with a lopsided loss to Sweden, which will prevent at least temporarily certain flamboyant team members from making more political statements and cashing in on additional ad endorsements as the flavor of the year.
My Olympics gameplan is to attempt to make it through the entire deluge of broadcasts without watching a single second. I will keep tabs on the progress via the internet, if only to recognize and celebrate such butt-kickings as our soccer women suffered and any similar setbacks to our social justice warriors cum athletes. (Please note, cum is Latin usage, not sexual slang).
The Games have begun amidst general controversy over whether they even should be staged considering the COVID Delta variation hysteria.
Polls have shown a large percentage of residents in host Japan, and beyond question the wisdom of initiating this burst of worldwide travel in the interest of athletic competition.
On a side note, gripes have been heard from athletes about the cardboard beds in their sleeping quarters, which some have suggested are there in order to cut down on their notoriously randy behavior. But one Olympian put to rest such speculation that the beds could not hold up to pairs horizontal exercise by jumping up and down (alone) on his bed and posting the video on social media for our consumption.
The U.S. Women’s soccer team still could rally to win this affair, and provide its opportunist members a chance once again to mount the metaphorical soapbox to lament the nation’s and world’s ills as viewed through their biased and parochial prism.
Oh, for the days when the Olympics were athletic competition first and last.
While attending a car cruise the past Sunday, one of the vehicles had a decal that read “I miss the America I grew up in.”
Along that line, I miss the Olympics that I remember from my youth, when individual politics were to be checked at the door and we were able to celebrate without reservation the successes of the athletes. We enjoyed the high-level competition and felt good when one of ours brought home the gold, silver or bronze medals.
Many Olympic athletes remain true to that non-political ideal. Too many do not. And, due to the leftist leanings of lamestream media, the malcontents will get wide play, while the athletes concentrating on the competition and keeping their political and social opinions to themselves, will get short shrift.
Even before the Games began, many athletes came out — excuse the expression — to note that should they win (or in some cases, even make the U.S. team) they would seize quickly the chance to state their personal political and social views.
To all these, I offer the inverse of the mantra of the late owner of the Oakland/Los Angeles/Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders, Al Davis: Just lose, baby!
Sam Ross Jr's site 