Slashdot Mirror
IOC To Olympic Athletes: Online Diaries Verboten
joshstaiger writes: "An article was posted here on Slashdot a while back about the International Olympic Committee's banning of many forms of Internet broadcast of the upcoming Olympic Games. Now they are going even further, forbidding athletes to keep online journals of their experiences during the games under the reasoning that the athlete would be acting as a journalist (and therefore outside the IOC's nice little ring of corporate sponsors and media giants). Check this article from thestandard.com:
IOC Bans Athletes From Net Storytelling." Also, note that athletes may not wear "branded clothing of unauthorized sponsors when receiving medals." Don'tcha love that true spirit of amateurism and admirable, personal ambition?
I used to be an amateur ski racer; I even know a few kids who made it to the top and are now on the US Ski and Snowboard teams. What's unfortunate is that the IOC has let soft money and greed cause them to ignore the simple fact that without sponsors, some of these athletes wouldn't even have the equipment they need to compete. Runners may not have the money to buy running shoes, and the IOC is now telling them "sure, you can get your shoes for free, but if they're not from [our sponsors] then you better accept your medal barefoot." Most amateur athletes got put through athletic academies on full scholarship and will get the same when/if they go to college, simply because 1) they're too poor to begin with, or 2) if they spent their time working, then they wouldn't be spending it training.
I just hope the IOC doesn't start banning athletes from wearing branded equipment while competing. If a skier couldn't pop his ski off and hold it up for the cameras after his run, I think we'd start seeing lawsuits being filed by ski manufacturers against the IOC.
Intercarve Networks, LLC
The International Olympic Committe is nothing more than a crime syndicate under the guise of a non-profit organization. They take bribes during the city selection process, they have fixed events, they've co-opted the word Olympic and bully anyone who has a legitimate use of that name. They bend over for powerful nations like China when they force the democratic Republic of China, better known as Taiwan, to play as "Chinese Taipei" and under a generic Olympic flag.
The Olympics have very little to do with athletics or international goodwill. That's how it is sold, but of course, it is all about selling things, isn't it? It's about sponsership, marketing, and product placement. It's about political favors, one-upsmanship, and propoganda. Do yourself a favor and have nothing to do with this scam.
The Olympics continue to get worse and worse. There was a time when Olympic athletes had to be amateurs...these days professional athletes are permitted to compete in the games; while one may argue there's nothing wrong with that, it's a reflection of how the Olympic games have changed from being an athletic event where athletes competed to see who was the best...these days the Olympics is all about who can make the most money.
Olympics Suck Website - Learn the Truth!
Are there still people who think that the Olympics have anything to do with amateur competition and brotherly rivalry among fellow humans? Raise your hands? You do? Moron.
Could someone explain to me exactly why the Olympics should only be open to amateurs? This seems totally stupid to me. To me, the olympics are about the best athletes in the world, competing. Period. Why should we not allow the best athletes to compete just because they happen to make money doing what they do?
As an aside, you do know the real reason that the Olympics were originally open only to amateurs, right? It was done to keep the poor riff-raff out of the games, and keep it reserved only for "gentleman". Only someone with enough money to train without needing a job was able to devote the time necessary.
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Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
I'm not surprised they are keeping them offline, I came across this the other day, who knows what else they get up.
SPORTING CHANCE
GUT REACTIONS: Understanding Symptoms of the Digestive Tract by W. G.
Thompson, Plenum Publishing, pp 337, £1725/$2295
Did you know that in preparation for the 1976 Olympics, German swimmers
suffered the indignity of having 18 litres of air pumped into their colons
to improve buoyancy? Thompson says: "It apparently helped crawl and
backstroke specialists, but a breaststroker complained that the gas-filled
gut caused his feet to stick out of the water. Perhaps sports authorities
will need to test athletes for flatus, as well as steroids."
(13 January 1990
This is just a sample of what can found at.
http://www.nsplus.com/weird/bizarre2.html
It's called an elephant's trunk whereas it is in fact, an elephant's nose, a nose by any other name would smell as sweet
Let's face it, no event of this magnitude can be deployed without huge-ass amounts of money. And to get that huge-ass amount, you need the whole marketing and publicity machine. As a matter of fact, the only reason why the whole spirit of competition remains is that it's the main selling point of the marketed product.
Why do you think athletes still make pitful salaries? It's part of the Olympic image that smalltown athletes would make a pitful salary and compete in the Olympics anyway. It's good for the sales.
The athletes and sports organizations don't run the show. Corporate sponsors do, and they're the ringmasters. To think otherwise is crass idealism. So get over it already... It may not be cool, but it's normal.
The networks should get better journalists... ones that know how to find information on the web so their networks can be the first with the information on TV. So what if some obscure website has the piece... the journalist should take that (give credit) and report it if they find it 'newsworthy'. And then people who want more then just what the major TV networks feel is 'newsworthy' can read the websites.