5 Reasons I don’t watch the Summer Olympics.

Here are just five reasons I don't like watching the Summer Olympics.

1) The coverage sucks.

Even if I wanted to watch an event, chances are it would be one of the ones that the guys in charge of he Australian coverage would say “nah, no on wants to watch that”.

2) I find sport boring.

Unless my friends are playing, then I can scream random things at them like:

“Noodle Banana! That’s not how you play… this game…”

“Go opposing team!”

“You run like a fish!”

“LAMA!”

“Rubarb rubarb, buffalo, rubarb!”

3) I hate competitive people.

When I come across a competitive person, I want to punch them in their over-enthusiastic face. I was raised by my Mum, who is one of the least competitive people on the planet and I love her for it. Before doing anything I was always told “just do your best” and you know what? I came second at every eisteddfod I ever played in and I was damn happy… actually, I couldn’t have cared less. I went out on stage and performed, I liked that bit.  I didn’t even mind being told I wasn’t as good at playing classical music than the other girl, because even at the age of 9, I was completely aware that classical, romantic and modern were not my forte.

I remember singing at an eisteddfod where our school choir didn’t come first. I was the first time in something like 5 years that the choir hadn’t received first prize. A lot of the kids were angry and upset, I wasn’t. I was eating a biscuit and had way to much hairspray in my hair. I was quite happy to be there, singing Part 2 of Once Upon A December.

I even noticed competitiveness at Uni. I was there in the Orange Room (if you don’t know what I’m talking about visit the SJC at UQ) typing up an assignment. It was a research project about research methods… we had to research which method of research was best. My opinion was that you need both qualitative and quantitative research methods to be able to seethe whole story and I wrote as much. The girl beside me had decided that you only need qualitative. We were talking about this for some time, then she started to argue with me. I remember her telling me “I’ll be surprised if you pass”. She was right and I was wrong and she was going to win.  The week we got our marks back she asked me what I’d gotten, I didn’t know yet because I hadn’t picked it up but she was outraged that she had only gotten a 4. “My GPA is screwed” she said. I couldn’t care less about my GPA. So I went and picked up my assignment I got a high 6, missing out on a 7 by 3%, I was unbelievably happy.  I decided not to tell her, what good would it do to tell her that she had lost at the competition I wasn’t competing in?

4) I hate the media coverage.

The newspapers today have all been covering the Olympics like we should be ashamed of our athletes for not winning enough gold. Now, I don’t know about you, but these people have made it to the biggest event in the world and they should be damn proud of themselves for that. A lot of them have worked incredibly hard to win gold and when they don’t, there is a while before they can accept that they still did amazingly well. The Australian media is not helping them get through that period of disappointment.

What the Australian media are doing is pointing out how crap they did, how they are not good enough to be there, how worthless they are. I’m sure that’s really good for self esteem, both for the athletes and for the Australian public who actually care.

No matter what happens, athletes are always going to be disappointed with themselves for a while. Even when they win, they find things to work on so that next time they can be better. Not winning means that they didn’t achieve their goal, that there are lots of things to fix for next time. They already know that, we already know that and shoving a microphone in their faces just after they have finished, when that disappointment is at its peak means that all the media are going to get are a bunch of quotes hat show that disappointment. Wait a few days and they will have the perspective to see how well they really did.

5) The Winter Olympics are just plain better.

Snow!

Ice!

Figureskating! (mmmm Plushenko)

Ice-Dancing (seriously, who doesn’t love the fact that Ice-Dancing is an Olympic Sport)

Bobsled!

Australia... well, lets face it. We almost never win anything so its less competitive.

The list goes on.