After Rory McIlroy’s comments this week, one was reminded of the ridiculous amount of sports now included in the Olympic Games. This year’s games will have 308 events across 28 different sports, an Olympic record. To put this in context, there were only 43 events at the first modern Olympiad.
McIlroy is right – what place does golf have in the Olympics? It is not considered the pinnacle of the sport and only clogs an already busy schedule. Nor is it alone. In the same category are sports like football, tennis, boxing, and the rugby sevens – none of which see the Olympics as the pinnacle of their respective sports (if we count sevens as union, and boxing as professional).
When I watch the Olympics, I want to watch the best athletes competing at the highest level. I want to see the emotion of four years of hard work come to the fore. I want to see champions cry as they sing their national anthem on the podium. These scenes are what the Olympics are all about, and I for one am worried about the current climate of the games.
It is supposed to be a privilege to go and compete at the Olympics. Athletes work their ass off to get there, and work even harder to win. It’s for this reason that I find the inclusion of some of these events a joke. The fact that Sonny Bill Williams and Jarryd Hayne (although unsuccessful) basically wrote their names on the sign-up sheet to go and grab an easy Olympic medal speaks volumes about the legitimacy of the sport in the games.
When I talk of wanting to watch the best athletes, this does not mean I want to watch a team full of Brazilian teenagers (and Neymar, for some reason) play some street football for a laugh. Nor do I want to watch some obscure boxer from Kazakhstan triumph over another from Malawi (I thought we had moved on from the amateur era, but apparently not).
Hard work is what defines the Olympics in my eyes. The athletes train for years and battle through injury and pain because they know this is their moment on the world stage. It’s for this reason that I don’t want to see Rafael Nadal pull out in order to “save himself” for future tournaments. If it really mattered, he would be there no matter what.
The crazy state of Rio has distracted us from the ridiculousness of the Olympics and the sports that have been thrown in to simply bulk up the schedule. In future I hope some of these issues are addressed, even if it does mean less medals for New Zealand. As Rory said, I’ll be watching the sports “that matter.”