France's Best Olympic Moment
Former French tennis player Arnaud Di Pasquale reacts as he carries the extinguished Beijing Olympics torch in Paris on his way to place it in a bus for safety amid pro-Tibet protests.
Patrick Kovarik/AFP/Getty Images
I don't really have anything against the French except that, as an American, I've been bred to despise them with the same zeal as soccer and Renny Harlin films. But I've got to hand it to the French for having the guts to do what should have been done long ago: extinguish the Olympic torch.
During Monday's Olympic torch relay through the streets of Paris, angry Parisians (as opposed to the other kind) protesting human rights violations in Tibet forced Olympic officials to douse the torch and eventually load it on a bus for the reminder of the route.
Good job, France.
Though, note for future protests: pelting the wheelchair-bound torchbearer with bottles and fruits kinda runs counter to the whole "human rights" thing.
But beyond that, I say along with the torch, it's time for the Olympic concept to go on a permanent vacation. If the Olympic Games ever served a true altruistic purpose, they have long since outlived it. Yeah, the pursuit of athletic excellence, sportsmanship and international goodwill is plenty noble. But the modern Olympics are at best a vehicle for agitprop; at worst, a scandal magnet. It's the exception, not the rule, that individual competitors or whole nations don't use the games for political purposes. Sometimes it's for good — Tommie Smith and John Carlos' raised fists at the 1968 Mexico City games; protesting South Africa at the height of apartheid at the '76 Montreal games. Sometimes for absolute evil — Berlin.
The boycotts led by the USA and the USSR at Moscow and Los Angeles, respectively, fall somewhere in between.
There was Munich, and the Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta.
There have been scandals both high and low. The 2002 Winter Olympics bid scandal. Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan. Which is high, which is low are dealer's choice.
Worst of all, for all their pageantry and flag-waving, the Olympics have become nothing more than a big, fat corporate cow that's carved up among official sponsors and supporting partners before being trotted ad nauseam across the NBC multiverse of television outlets (GE as a corporation, which owns NBC Universal, is looking to rake in at least $600 million in Olympics-related deals).
Enough.
Enough with the boycotts and protests and pro athletes moonlighting as amateurs. Enough with the official airline and automobile and (fill in the blank) of the U.S. team. Enough with the Ben Johnsons and the Marion Joneses and dual gold medals for pairs figure skating.
For once, let's follow the lead of the good, rude people of France and douse the light that failed forever.
4:39 PM ET | 04- 8-2008 | permalink
