Munich '72 helped me become a man (and it's still in my Netflix queue).
That tragedy taught a little boy so much about attitudes, values and beliefs that whenever I hear about a terrorist act today there's at least a nanosecond where my brain is clearly back in 1972, reclined on the floor with my next door neighbors watching this Event unfold. Because not only could a 7 year old understand the idea that kidnapped was a jacked up thing to be, it was also connecting a nation of TV viewers together for one last gasp at unity, BC (Before Cable).
Subsequently, '76 in Montreal was like a collective intake of breath, like that roller coaster thing, before shit just snapped and all bets became futile.
1980 - USA boycotts Moscow. 1984 -Soviets boycotts Los Angeles. 1988- Benny and the Roids in Seoul.
1992 featured the Dream Team (because the USA had lost - TO THE SOVIET UNION- in Seoul) and you'd have to be either an idiot or an ass to mob an Olympics with a team that changed the history of Sport itself.
It's funny how uptight people are regarding China's human rights abuses when America sweeps the Gold in 'People in Jail Throwing Contest.' When it comes to execution of incarceration, USA is kicking more ass than the Dream Team ever did.
Next, the Games were back on our soil in 1996, but we couldn't stop a good 'ol boy from getting loose with a little bang bang, Eric Rudolph going stupid to protest whatever his grievance was (he says it was abortion according to Wiki). So it's funny when we get all sancty about some other backward country because the last time we had a chance, we got 2 folks killed and 111 injured.
Until the world catches up with the universe and allows its lifeforms to excel at the highest level (steroids) I think Sydney will be known as Sindney Olympics. 2000 is turning out to be an Olympics only Timothy Leary could love. These Olympics made Woodstock wanna get some Winter Games. Marion Jones, Michael Johnson giving his 4x400 gold medal back because of Antonio Pettigrew's drug use; who the hell wins a gold medal and then goes to jail? Or better, who says a person shouldn't be free to perform at the highest possible level.
My point is that the Boogie Jing isn't the first place to make the Olympic Idea be less than ideal. By the time Athens rolled around in 2004 they questioned whether the city would even be ready in time. There were talks of moving the games to Los Angeles or some other ready made spot. But now the host city is simply out for a money grab. Oh for the love of Jim Thorpe!
So while you have to take Beijing to task for obliterating the spirit of humanity in its pursuit of global domination, it's hard to do anything other than hope America kicks ass.
Follow the money?
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