I abhor the Olympics.

[In Search of Username]

Anyway, question time; In any fictional piece of work, why should you care about any of the characters? Sure, we get to see them develop, but all the character development in the world doesn't change one simple fact.

They are not real.

What's the point? Why care about someone that doesn't exist? Why waste your time learning about someone who you can never meet?

I think that's the key thing - you get to see them develop, understand what they represent, and ultimately decide whether you like them as people. People participating in sports will always just be some numbers on a field to me, they don't represent anything, which of them wins has absolutely no meaning. When the good guys win in fiction, it's to be celebrated as a triumph of good over evil - when the one you were supporting wins in a sport, it's nothing, it's a triumph of neutral over neutral. That's the only way I've ever been able to see it anyway. Which is why I can understand participating in sports - you naturally want to win, that's your motivation - but watching professional sports is a completely weird thing to me.

 

[Wolf In A Bear Suit]

If you don't like sports DON'T WATCH THEM. I can however understand your annoyance at the Olympics. It's unavoidable, it's been advertised and hyped to death.

 

[scw55]

I don't really watch sport or the Olympics but I like that the Olympics happen.

You must be a heartless tyrant to not feel emotion when watching all 200+ countries march out of the stadium happy and proud of representing their nation.

 

[Dashiva]

If you don't like sports DON'T WATCH THEM. I can however understand your annoyance at the Olympics. It's unavoidable, it's been advertised and hyped to death.

Isn't everything hyped to death these days?

 

[Nemu]

Resisting the urge to laugh at the nerd who hates sports.

resisting....
resiiiiiiiisting.....

 

[rosac]

Having been to London yesterday for the basketball, let me say this. The atmosphere there is absolutely amazing. There were people from every nation wandering around, watching sports, talking, admiring the Olympic park, all the while being respectful of the other people around them.

Holland won the hockey against Belgium 3-0 yesterday, and all that I heard said between the two countries outside the actual stadium was congratulations and commiserations. No chanting, no trash talking. It made a nice change.

For me, that's what the Olympics is about, unity through sport, within and between countries. It may be more corporate than before, but without corporate backing, it wouldn't be as impressive a spectacle.

Just my own opinion.

 

[anthony87]

You don't like the Olympics? Damn OP! You're so cool and edgy. Clearly you're right and everyone else is wrong etc. etc.

There, did I stroke your ego enough for you?

Seriously though...

This opinion will almost certainly get me struck down. But I'm going to go down knowing I'm the only sane person on this whole goddamn planet.
...
By the way, if you spot an error in this post... do you really think I care?

Get the fuck over yourself.

 

[Brandon Logan]

Anyone else think OP is just posting to get a reaction?

Cause it sure seems that way to me.

 

[Dwarfman]

And specifically rooting for one team against the other - why?

Because it's YOUR TEAM & COLOURS & CITY & STATE. You take pride in it the same way someone takes pride in their uniform or flag or customized gaming computer. That pride turns to passion and single-minded patriotism. It makes the blood boil and endorphins surge through your body. It makes you giddy and exhillerated, angry and lust-filled for more.

You mightn't understand these things because you have only watched these thing on TV and in a small way I was like you once. I never liked or understood football (soccer). To me it was dull and boring and served no purpose. Then I was invited to a game by my Exec. Chef who is Scottish - enough said! I had my doubts and even turned him down at first. But then I went. It was only a small crowd. Maybe a few thousand. But the roars, the cheers, the expectations and let downs and then at long last GOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!

The team we were watching actually lost that night. But no matter I was hooked. Nowadays when ever I get the chance to see a game I'm there with the rest of the orange army to see my TWO TIME! TWO TIME! A-League champions Brisbane Roar in action.

I don't take pride in my uniform or flag or customised gaming computer either, so I guess there's the problem. Anyway what's the explanation for people supporting teams that have nothing to do with them personally then? I know plenty of people who support football teams that aren't from places they have any personal attachment to. It just seems like an arbitrary choice. Oh, and if it's all about the excitement of being there watching the game itself, why do people even follow specific teams closely enough to care who won if they weren't there watching? Pah, none of it makes sense to me.

You don't HAVE to be there to enjoy the game. It just helps you understand where all these fanatic types come from. I've never been at a State of Origin match but my family and I will watch all three games and yell and scream for all we're worth even if it is at a TV. I think what I was trying to put forward to you is that its a purely emotive concept. It's something you can't explain through the wonders of science beyond the usual brain, electrons, endorphins etc. And that really does make things sound boring! No at the end of the day it's an expression of emotion.

As for people supporting other teams from other places. I'll partly agree with you there. As far as I'm concerned if you can't support your own team don't even bother. That being said there are many different leagues from many different sports. Going back to football the English premier league is considered by many to be the best football league in the world. If that's the case and you have an interest in football then why wouldn't you get into it. That being said I'll watch EPL but I'll happily 'oohh' and 'aaahhh' for both teams playing. They aren't my team but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy a good match.

As for pride. I take pride in my chef's uniform as it is a symbol of three and a half years of blood, sweat and burns to get to where I am today. I take pride in the achievements of my family and friends. All of these things listed here and in my previous statement were simple examples of the same emotion. Pride. So what do you have pride in? Your achievements. Your job. Don't tell me nothing cause that would be telling porkys. Everyone has pride in something. Something that ... I dunno helps them get up in the mornings, makes them keep ticking on, makes them themself.

 

[Shirokurou]

To quote Bob Dylan... "Don't criticize what you can't understand"
And go take up a sport.

 

[Odbarc]

You watched the worst, least entertaining form of reality TV in existence.

Right there. People are stupid and will watch anything.

I've never watched any of the Olympic events. None of it is interesting. A lot of it is just REALLY stupid pointless human talents (diving? what?!).
What I really hate is when everything looks so completely identical that judges have to tell me why it was special and different from each other.
At least with sports (which I also do not watch because it is boring) you can at least tell who scored and why they're winning.

 

[AngloDoom]

I see no point in the Olympics, or any sport for that matter, whatsoever. Take hockey, for example. You watch twenty or so burly blokes whack a puck around and MAYBE get it into the net for about an hour. What could you have done in that hour?

Play videogames? No, wait...

I've made this argument a dozen times, and every time I get the same answer: a sense of pride, that someone from YOUR hometown, home state or home country is the best of the best. The lesser scales do make sense to me, but I'm sorry: why should I care about some pumped-up athlete I've never met who probably has nothing in common with me?

I personally like watching a sport to see how well it is played - if someone for my country wins then horray for us, but I'm just in it to see people play a sport well.

Then I realise that the Olympics is just WAY more popular than it should be.

That doesn't make sense, unless it's brainwashing people.

The event itself is many times more popular and loved than any scientist, doctor or non-corrupt politician could ever hope to be.

So is Coke-Cola. Why is this a bad thing?

All that money they spent on sports could have gone somewhere useful. Like the medical industry.
And it saddens me.

So could anything, but as human-beings we need some release from productivity and watching other people exercise is perfect for that.

This opinion will almost certainly get me struck down. But I'm going to go down knowing I'm the only sane person on this whole goddamn planet.
...
By the way, if you spot an error in this post... do you really think I care?

I wouldn't at all of 'struck you down' until you posted how your opinions are, by default, sane and the confrontational attitude you take at the end.

I'm going to have to agree with your mother on this one: take a chill-pill and just learn to accept other people's views. The Olympics wouldn't be so popular if there wasn't some appeal in it but if it's not for you then simply don't watch it and move on.

Now, football- there's something to hate =D

 

[Arakasi]

I am with you OP.
Fro-brothers.

 

[Robert632]

Anyway, question time; In any fictional piece of work, why should you care about any of the characters? Sure, we get to see them develop, but all the character development in the world doesn't change one simple fact.

They are not real.

What's the point? Why care about someone that doesn't exist? Why waste your time learning about someone who you can never meet?

I think that's the key thing - you get to see them develop, understand what they represent, and ultimately decide whether you like them as people. People participating in sports will always just be some numbers on a field to me, they don't represent anything, which of them wins has absolutely no meaning. When the good guys win in fiction, it's to be celebrated as a triumph of good over evil - when the one you were supporting wins in a sport, it's nothing, it's a triumph of neutral over neutral. That's the only way I've ever been able to see it anyway. Which is why I can understand participating in sports - you naturally want to win, that's your motivation - but watching professional sports is a completely weird thing to me.

Most people who watch sports have a team/person they favour because they represent something to them. Be it a team/person that represents their hometown, region, or country or whatever, they mean something to them.

You don't have that pride in seeing the team that means something to you win because you personally have no team that means anything to you. You have no stake, emotionally or physically in sports, much like a person who doesn't like a particular series doesn't have an emotional stake in that series. It doesn't make them wrong, just that they personally don't like it, thus they don't really care about it.

 

[rosac]

I think that's the key thing - you get to see them develop, understand what they represent, and ultimately decide whether you like them as people. People participating in sports will always just be some numbers on a field to me, they don't represent anything, which of them wins has absolutely no meaning. When the good guys win in fiction, it's to be celebrated as a triumph of good over evil - when the one you were supporting wins in a sport, it's nothing, it's a triumph of neutral over neutral. That's the only way I've ever been able to see it anyway. Which is why I can understand participating in sports - you naturally want to win, that's your motivation - but watching professional sports is a completely weird thing to me.

If you look at the road that the athletes have to take to the olympics... that is development of the highest kind in my own opinion. These guys don't just win because they have always been good, they have taken knocks and gotten back up, to try again and again until they are the best they can be.

For example, Usain Bolt had scoliosis, but went on to become the worlds fastest man, despite all the naysayers telling him his attitude and physical attributes mean he shouldn't be a sprinter.

The paralympian Nathan Stephens, the world record holder for the Javelin throw in a paralympic games, was run over by a train aged 9, losing both his legs, and yet he managed to achieve so much. I can't understand how people don't find this and other stories inspirational.

And as for neutral vs. neutral argument, I can see where you are coming from, but seeing evenly matched athletes competing at near superhuman levels in an event they have been preparing for all their lives is something special. Just because it isn't good vs. evil doesn't make it worthless.

 

[dubious_wolf]

You know what else is a waste of time? Writing overly long rants about things you hate, on the internet. Man if we stopped writing useless posts about useless personal opinions we could cure aidscancer.

 

[Gxas]

As for people supporting other teams from other places. I'll partly agree with you there. As far as I'm concerned if you can't support your own team don't even bother. That being said there are many different leagues from many different sports. Going back to football the English premier league is considered by many to be the best football league in the world. If that's the case and you have an interest in football then why wouldn't you get into it. That being said I'll watch EPL but I'll happily 'oohh' and 'aaahhh' for both teams playing. They aren't my team but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy a good match.

I know many people who were born during the few years that Cleveland did not have the Browns, our pro-football (American football) team. In order to thoroughly enjoy the sport, because they did love to watch it, they were forced to find another team to root for. Once the Browns were brought back to Cleveland, they didn't just throw the team they had rooted for before out the window though. That team will always be their first.

My uncle moved from Cleveland to Boston after college. He is still a Cleveland Indians fan at heart, despite living in Boston where the Red Sox are the hometeam for baseball.

I, at age seven, began loving hockey. Ohio did not have a team in the NHL, so I was given free-reign to choose a team to cheer for. I chose the Pittsburgh Penguins. Years later, the Columbus Blue Jackets were born, giving Ohio their very own NHL team. My team is still the Penguins. I hold no love for the BJs because they were not around when I needed them to be.

Just a few examples of why someone might cheer for a team that is "not theirs".

(Also, during the World Cup I cheer for Brazil because I, as a kid, noticed them before anyone else in the tourney. And in the Winter Olympics, you bet your ass that Canada is taking home the gold in hockey over the US.)