It's That Time of the Quadrayear

I'm not sure if "quadrayear" is the right word for something that comes by every 4 years, but close enough. Of course I refer to the magical Olympic Games. (And by that I mean the Summer Olympics, not that other frolic through the snow invented by Europeans to jealously hog all the medals for themselves.)

Yep, time to stand tall, with hand on heart, and get all warm and fuzzy while the TV plays the latest cocked-up rendition of "We are One" (or whatever your nation's unofficial sporting anthem happens to be), until you are ready to stab chopsticks in your ears.

Here in Australia, as elsewhere I'm sure, this special time affords one the opportunity for refection on the Olympics and sport in general. And I shall begin with a subject closest to my heart -- the amount of my taxpaying money spent on it.

In recent years, the skill and guile of our Aussie athletes has done us proud. By the close of each Olympics we have found ourselves at the dizzying heights near the top medal rankings. Our best effort was 4th overall in 2000 ("the year the PC monster ate the Olympics"), as might have been expected, and in 2004 also. We have beaten out powerhouses like Germany, Japan, Cuba, and the old East-bloc, and made no bones about it. Gone are the dark days of the 70's and 80's, when cowering in shame we got topped even by New Zealand.

These days we perform way beyond what would be expected of a "small" nation, and I admit I get as mooshy as the next guy when one of ours' crosses the lines first. Of course the Olympics will always be a 3-man race between USA, Russia and China, damn their elitist hides, and I shall bitch about that in another post. But for our part we do bloody well.

Indeed many Aussies will decry, "We might not come top-three in the medal tally, but given our small population (21m), we win more medals per capita than any nation on Earth!"

Very true. However, we also spend more taxpayers' money per capita on Olympic sports than any nation on Earth. Millions and millions of dollars poured into teams, athletes, sports scholarships, training, the AIS... and when it comes down to it, it is so a lucky few can spend fifteen minutes basking in Glory's warm spotlight. I won't go into how if we put the same amount of taxpayers' money into developing a cure for cancer as we did into developing a new swimming bodysuit, we might actually save a few lives. Not to mention winning some prestige for this so-called first-world country, at the same time contributing something of actual use to humanity.

Look I don't begrudge any sportsman for pursuing what they love, and making some gain for their hard work. We've produced some remarkable athletes over the years. And everyone loves a hero (although bandied terms like "brave sporting hero" stretches my credulity a tad), especially in this country, where some bold little man sticking it to the upper-crust is a national creed.

But fair's fair.

Firstly, a majority of money goes only to the popular handful of sports -- swimming of course, and track plus a couple of others. However many of our Olympic victories come from unexpected and surprising quarters such as Equestrian; and yet they get bugger-all from the government, having to finance themselves for the most part. So even with no tax handouts they still do us proud.

Secondly, an oft-bleated argument is that dumping money into popular, big-ticket sports encourages everyone to get off their backsides, thereby getting the nation healthier and happier and whatnot. Sorry, this just in: Australia is now the world's fattest country. That's right, we win gold in the obesity category. We even unseated the Yanks at their own game.

So despite all the money going to these sports, it buys nothing but glory for a lucky few followed by lucrative advertising contracts. Meanwhile we climb to the top of the ladder as the unhealthiest nation on Earth.

Boggles the mind doesn't it.... maybe it's a case of it is easier to sit, flabby-arsed and artery-clogged, cheering on our elite athletes trained and payed for by our taxpaying money, rather than getting off the couch ourselves. It's being active by proxy -- watching some buff guy or flexible chick winning a race, hoping a bit will rub off.

Or it could have something to do with the fact that hardly any of this taxpayers' money finds its way down to grass-roots level. At schools, at junior leagues, and other community efforts, they have to beg borrow & steal just to acquire basic sporting equipment. We see ads on TV about stores and supermarkets that raised x-amount for schools to purchase balls or lane ropes, so we feel good about shopping at those places. But why should a privileged few get all the best facilities, the best training, the best everything, while schools are forced to turn to a private entities just so they can have lane ropes? It's ridiculous.

There is a double standard at work here; unless you're some elitist sporting organisation, or you show huge promise individually as medal-winning material, the government basically tells you to get stuffed.

The last serious drive by the government to get people active, was the "Life Be In It" campaign. Remember Norm? Most kids today have never heard of Norm. You would think with the national obesity epidemic the bureaucrats would be falling over themselves implementing national health schemes and TV drives, if for no other reason than as an excuse to form committees.

Nope. It's clear the government, and by extension the wallowing populace, is more interested in a moment of shared national glory than in actual, personal, decent quality of life, being-able-to-get-up-out-of-the-lounge-chair-without-a-lifter health.

And we wonder why we are raising a nation of little fat sugar-crazed piggies.