Sunday, August 24, 2008
Beijing Olympics 2008
It's been an amazing 2 weeks of competition in Beijing, and though I'm disappointed that I wasn't in Beijing to experience all the triumphs and the tribulations, it was just as amazing watching it on television and reading the press coverage online. I was listening to BBC news late last evening and they did a short montage on ground breaking moments for smaller nations who came to the Olympics to win a medal, and some did for the first time in Olympic history, Togo won a bronze medal in Kayaking, Afghanistan won a bronze medal in Tae Kwon Do, and Sudan won their first silver medal in the 800 meter race. My country of birth, India, also won it's first ever gold medal in men's 10m rifle. But I think most people will probably remember the history making event of Michael Phelps, wining 8 gold medals in World Record time, besting the previous record of Mark Spitz's 7 gold's, as well as being the first Olympian to ever win 8 medals in a single Olympic. But outside of sports competition, I think it was monumental for the games to be held in Beijing, China, which was in the news quite a bit leading up to the games due to the political veil that surrounded the Chinese govt. And I'm actually surprised that there was barely a single news story outside of the 1 or 2 minor protests throughout the entire 2 weeks of competition. What I am glad about is the people in China, who may not have known much outside of their nation, for a few weeks had the opportunity to watch and learn about athletic ambassadors from around the world which I hope will bring about a change in the host nation regarding many of their policies. I'm also hoping the next summer Olympic games in London will have just as stunning of an opening ceremonies as the ones in Beijing, though I don't know if the 2008 opening ceremonies will be topped by many nations in the future, but atleast for a few weeks all nations will be in friendly non-violent competition, where the results are mere medals and tears, rather then human suffering and destruction.
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Based on early reports, on monitory scale, I do not think London Olympics is going to be anywhere near 2008 Olympics($40B). Infact some people in UK do not even want to have one.
Even in China, there were lawyers and organizations protesting against Olympics but they were sent out of the Biejing. Infact, I expected lot more NOs from Chinese because the gap between rich and poor in countries like India and China is more than what it is in UK or US. See Olympics is beastly event, needs hell a lot of money, so many people would not support it, inspite of the pride which comes in return. Personally, if India or US were to bid for Olympics, my vote is going to no.
Based on BBC reports I also thought that Chinese Govt. by transporting the disgruntled mass out of Biejing, chose who should be spectator.
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