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The Forum > Article Comments > Could the Olympic Games become fair sport? > Comments

Could the Olympic Games become fair sport? : Comments

By Valerie Yule, published 27/8/2008

Is there a way to ensure that all Olympic athletes have a more level playing field in the amount of support they are given?

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Valerie Yule,

Some taxpayers do indeed begrudge the enormous amounts of public money wasted on this Olympic nonsense and don't care whether Australians win a medal or not. Let those who support this exercise in chauvinism pay for it.
Posted by mac, Wednesday, 27 August 2008 8:43:34 AM
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The author quotes Parknson's Law of Triviality which limits understanding of numbers to 999. I disagree. I think people can comprehend numbers up to the number of people they have seen on one occasion. For many this is a sporting event - live or on television - where the viewer knew how many people were there. So I'd go up to 100,000. We understand numbers under this by saying to ourselves "that's one for each person at that footy final." If we have a bigger number, we can't relate it to our actual memory, and therefore there is less, if any, real meaning.
This rule does not apply as strictly if the number is read - because big numbers usually have more digits than smaller ones. If they look longer they might be bigger. (This overlooks decimal points, and the use of style such as "3 mill".)
Posted by analyst, Wednesday, 27 August 2008 10:04:56 AM
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It would a poor world indeed if we didn't have large-scale events like the Olympic Games. I am unconcerned about the money spent on athletes as it is difficult to measure the return the value of enjoyment people get when they watch the spectacle. It's like complaining about a movie star's paycheck when they make a film that gives enjoyment and pleasure to millions of people.

To bring the equation down to money is to take away those intangible benefits that public events, be they sporting, artistic, or celebratory, bring into everybody's lives.

To those miserly people whose world is all about 'the money', I say that you are probably a little out of touch with the wider benefits of events like the Olympic Games and you should the role such events play.
Posted by Phil Matimein, Wednesday, 27 August 2008 10:53:46 AM
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Thanks for that analyst that was a big help!

So Phil how much of these unlimited funds that Gov should spend on our entertainment, should go to reality TV, after all they bring enjoyment to many Aussies?
Posted by Kenny, Wednesday, 27 August 2008 2:13:05 PM
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Phil and analyst. One way to help the public with numbers is to indicate what goods and services that could be purchased with the $200million+ spent on this super circus and its useless athletes. Like all subsidised entertainments the Olympics leave nothing but fleeced taxpayers, fans of this ludicrous spectacle should pay for it themselves. What "intangible benefits".."into everbody's lives", not my life and many others, I refer tangible benefits anytime. All the Olympic medals ever won are less use then a pile of compost.
Posted by mac, Wednesday, 27 August 2008 3:54:40 PM
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"Is there a way to ensure that all Olympic athletes have a more level playing field in the amount of support they are given?"

Short answer: no. When I went to Rome in 1960, as a schoolboy funded entirely by my newspaper delivery earnings, the Games were still for athletes and sportslovers, for a modest price I saw two great days of athletics finals. But those days are long gone, sport is only one element in a massive politco-economic-commercial enterprise with its own momentum, and much of the emphasis is on attracting lovers of spectacle rather than sport.
Posted by Faustino, Wednesday, 27 August 2008 7:24:50 PM
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This article was leading up to the question of more relevant Olympic sports. The Finns are already entering into the spirit of really modern Olympics. A report today (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26407599/) tells of wacky sports originating in Finnish rural villages now becoming so popular that other nations are having contests to select competitors for world championships in Finland. More interesting sports include wife-carrying, mosquito-killing, swamp soccer, finger-wrestling, throwing boots and ice-golf. Come on Australia, where is your gum-leaf whistling and, going better even than cycling,re-cycling?
Posted by ozideas, Wednesday, 27 August 2008 9:21:54 PM
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