I used to love watching the Olympic Games.

I still love the athletic competition, don’t get me wrong.  i think over the last few years, I’ve gotten really frustrated over NBC‘s coverage of the games.  I swear, they don’t show anything unless its an event in which the US is winning a medal.  If that’s not total propaganda, I don’t know what is.  To NBC’s defense, I’ve noticed that they tend to show all the pro-American events on the main network; with their cable and satellite stations airing everything else.  Also their coverage on NBC Olympics.com is pretty kick ass.

Hearing all of the controversy surrounding Russia’s anti-gay laws heading into these games makes me think of  the scandal surrounding the 2002 Salt Lake City games – when Salt Lake City officials basically bribed the IOC into hosting the games. In turn, the Salt Lake scandal reminded me of the 2004 games in Athens which basically took Greece’s economy from the toilet to the sewer.

People talk about whether or not athletes should stage some sort of protest against Russian’s anti-gay policies.  I doubt we’ll see anything so controversial this year.  I was stunned when nobody boycotted the Salt Lake City games in protest of the US occupation of Iraq.

People like to say how the Olympics are not political; but rather they about about international cooperation and athletic competition.  The Olympics are entirely political. If they weren’t, athletes would not enter by country, wear their country’s colors or stand underneath their flag while their national anthem plays on the medal stand.

One more thing before I get off of my soapbox:  I think that any sport in which an Olympic Gold Medal is not the ultimate prize has no place in the Olympics whatsoever:  no baseball, basketball, soccer, hockey, tennis or golf.

I’m glad to see that CBC is showing the Olympics again in Canada.  Maybe I’ll watch some of their coverage again.