One of the greatest spectacles in sports starts tonight with the opening ceremonies in Rio of the 2016 Olympics. The games started Wednesday when soccer began it's competition. I remember back in 1987 when Raleigh hosted the Sports Festival. July 17 1987 the opening ceremonies were held and Carter Finley Stadium was over flowing with people who came to watch. The festival was a national process when athletes were able to show their skills before the 1988 Olympics.
It is just something about the pageantry of the opening ceremony that attracts people to watch. Hosting such a thing as the festival or Olympics is enormous. The festival is dead and gone from the burden of footing the bill.
Today where the prospects of terror the security to keep the Olympics safe will cost more than the last four Olympics combined and that is just the security. All cities who win the bid to host the Olympics find themselves spending money to improve their subways, streets and general condition of their city to make it shine for about three weeks while the worlds visits them. I suspect that there will be a time when the cost to host the Olympics will be too much for any city to want to host it.
Despite the cost the Olympics bring the world together in peace at least the duration of the Olympics. It is however no longer games played by amateurs just with a desire to compete. We now live in a world that winning at all cost is better that letting some country who cheated with drug enhancement beat us with our amateurs. So we bring our highest paid professionals to win for us.
We will watch tonight and every night as swimming will headline the first few days. Track and Field will be the second week's main event. We will watch because there is something within all of us that we all want to win. When we hear the stories who had to overcome to be in Rio we will pull for them as they will have become our new heroes. Most of all we will admire those who have the ability to run fast, swim,vault, jump, and throw. We will be thrilled when someone from the USA wins an event and they stand the highest on the podium and they play the National Anthem and we all swell with pride as if that person who won was kin to us. They really are as we are all Americans. Let the games begin.
Friday, August 5, 2016
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