http://www.bosxe.com/olympic-games-volleyball/
TITLE: The Olympic Games Are Coming To London In 2012, But Will They Totally Live Up To Their Promise Or Will The Dark Side Of Sport Spoil The Party
I’ve been a sports fan since childhood, having been introduced to football by my buddy when I was around eight years old. John was able to get a ticket for the F.A. Cup Final one time, and I, with childish optimism, made a point of following the match on TV wondering if I would be able to see him in the stands. Needless to say, I didn’t spot him, but I had got drawn in by the spectacle of the big match. Once in my teens I became a dedicated football fan, with the results round-up at five o’clock|5pm|tea-time on a Saturday afternoon impacting on my mood for the remainder of the weekend. Fortunately for my parents, I followed a club who won more regularly than they lost!
In the years since, I set out to watch many other sports on television. Test cricket was soon a firm favourite at a time when a bout of glandular fever left me holed up indoors during a series in the West Indies, snooker had been coaxed from the pubs and clubs of Britain and turned into primetime viewing thanks to some creative branding and the realisation that this was a game that was reasonably cheap and straightforward to show on television. And then there was the Olympic Games, a stunning sporting spectacle which happened every four years and in which every country in the world competed on level terms. Or so we were told.
Since my earliest recall of anything to do with the Olympics was the dreadful events which occured in Munich in 1972, it’s possibly strange that I loved the whole concept of the event so much. But the same games also produced Mark Spitz’s incredible collection of seven gold medals in the swimming pool – an achievement only bettered in 2008 by Michael Phelps. Days and days of seeing Communist regime athletes effortlessly beating allcomers aided by performance enhancing drugs which were not tested for didn’t dent my enthusiasm either, and I have avidly watched as much footage as I could over the years – until now. (Is it surprising that I now have to wear glasses to see properly and am considering having Laser eye surgery? Too many years spent watching sport on the small screen!)
It doesn’t matter how much I try, I’m finding it difficult to get any enthusiasm for the London Games. Even friends who generally don’t have any interest in sport are saying that that they’d probably like to go and see a couple of events, as it could be the only opportunity that they have in their lifetime, yet I, who claim to be such a keen sports fan, and can get to the main Olympic site in less than an hour from home, have no interest at all in trying to buy tickets.
I think that there are a few reasons for this. Firstly, I am bored of the number of scandals and unpleasant events that seem to discredit many sports – pub fight footballers, bribed cricketers, drug taking athletes, jockeys throwing races for backhanders, and behind all of them, the dubious characters who instigate most of the damage and who encourage such havoc simply for personal financial advantage.
Secondly, big business has muscled in on on so many events now. Everything has corporate branding, events are planned to suit television executives wishes rather than the fans, sportsmen and women are told what clothes they may wear and what products they must endorse, including diet supplements and Laser eye treatments – aren’t these effectively ‘legal’ cheating? But the outcome for the real fans is paying crazy prices to watch an event in order to top up the corporate pockets of the businessmen who are running everything, and without in reality being convinced if teams or competitors are genuinely participating against each other on equal terms. The golfer who sings the praises of Laser eye surgery – doesn’t the operation give him an unfair advantage? The football team whose owners have taken on some obscure type of therapist – is everything he asks the team to do totally above board?
Finally, I don’t see the wealth of personalities in sport any longer. There are a few characters who might be referred to as entertaining, but because of the money now involved, many sportspeople don’t think that they can let loose once in a while because anything they do or say might have an effect on their contract. I find myself hoping for another Linford Christie, James Hunt, Malcolm MacDonald, Henry Cooper or John McEnroe (though I can believe that he’d probably be promoting Laser eye treatment if he was still playing at his best now – although for the tennis officials rather than himself!)
Volleyball Brazil – Fivb Technical Videos – Olympic Games 2008 Men
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