"Compelling and beautiful, [the BBC's Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett-produced trailer is] everything the Olympics is not. It seems logical now for the Olympics itself to be animated. Given that the Olympian ideal of a drug-free tournament of plucky amateurs is total fantasy anyway it would merely be two fictions competing against each other with the animated version being infinitely more entertaining."To be fair, I understand and agree with some of the arguments. The opening ceremony and the expense of running the Games, force one to consider some pretty tough questions about how best to use that much money. Arguments that sport shouldn't be used as a platform for politics, in relation to protest over China hosting the Games, are clearly overly simplistic. The well documented corruption and cronyism of Jacques Rogge's International Olympic Committee, are a disgrace from an organisation theoretically dedicated to promoting fair sportsmanship. And perhaps most of all, the inequitability of a self-funded amateur athlete competing on an apparently level playing field with a sportswoman with the backing of the full state machinery of a country like China, or the sheer financial might of a USA athlete, are galling.
Yet, that last reason, more than anything else is the reason why I, and so many others, still find the Olympics probably the most moving and inspirational of events. No matter who you are, funded superstar athlete or homegrown hopeful, the Olympics are still as important, as terrifying, and as much the pinnacle of your career. The Olympics represent stress, sacrifice, hard work and dreams for each athlete, and I find it both compelling and beautiful.
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