Is it time to say goodbye to the Olympics?

[RANT]

• NBC Olympic ratings are down. “NBC on Track for Lowest-Rated Winter Olympics in American Television History”
• Television reporters have been harassed. “Dutch Reporter Speaks Out After Chinese Security Guard Yanks Him From Olympic Live Shot”
• The IOC banned Russia because of egregious doping violation but allowed the Russian Olympic Committee and now they are being accused of a doping violation. “Olympic figure skaters' medals are in limbo over a (new) Russian doping scandal”
• The IOC now allows professional athletes to compete. “Why did the Olympics ditch their amateur-athlete requirement?”
• The IOC picked a totalitarian government for the Olympics that controls the everyday life of its citizens and is practicing genocide. “My people, the Uyghurs, suffer genocide while the world plays games at the Winter Olympics”

These are just some of the reasons why I feel that the Olympics are passé their time has passed. It has become politicized and too expensive for most countries to host. Remember the Sun Valley or Lake Placid Olympic Village? I have driven by Lake Placid a number of times, my cousin lives in the town, it is a quaint town in the Adirondacks but now look at the “Olympic Villages” they cost billions of dollars to create.

Many cities cannot afford to host the Olympics anymore.

What I feel is that they either have to do away with the Olympics or find a permeate home for them in some neutral countries so Olympic officials can’t be bribed to hold them in certain counties.

[/RANT] 

bike tracks

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Update Feb. 14 @ 9 AM

The IOC just ruled on the Russian doping of the figure skater.

IOC has effectively cleared the way for Russia to cheat forever

Yahoo Sports

By Dan Wetzel

Kamila Valieva is a 15-year-old who lives and trains within the controlled cocoon of the Figure Skating Federation of Russia. As such, most agree, she probably did not independently obtain a drug for angina patients that just happens to improve endurance (and is thus banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency).

So when that substance, trimetazidine, was found in Valieva’s system, it's assumed that some coach, doctor or whomever in Russia is responsible for the skating sensation being hopped up on heart pills.

This is the same Russia, of course, that ran a sophisticated, state-sponsored, performance enhancing drug operation at the 2014 Olympics, causing the IOC to ban it from three subsequent Games, including the current one in Beijing.

Russia cheated. Russia cheats.

Russia runs a system where someone is doping kids.

Yet no one seems to care. Certainly no one is going to stop them from abusing children, let alone the system.

Despite the positive test, Valieva will compete in the women’s individual competition Tuesday. She is so much better than everyone else, she'll be the considerable favorite. Likewise, her performance in last week’s team event, where she led Russia to gold, will stand.

Just another example of how the Olympics has become politicized.