Spirit of the games seems a lost ideal

The Olympic Games started out as an international sports competition. The winners were athletes who performed best in sports of different disciplines and weight classes. There was no “winner” of the entire Games. The winners were the athletes, not the countries. The Cold War, however, changed all that. Now the number of gold medals or total medals, depending on who counts them, decides which country is the “unofficial” Olympic Games winner.
Between the 50s and 80s, propagandists on both sides of the Iron Curtain regarded the competition between Russian and American athletes as a measure of who had better ideological systems. That trend caught on globally. Now the Olympic Games have become an indicator of “my country is greater than yours”, eclipsing the men and women who actually run, jump, throw, swim, lift, wrestle. And since the unofficial medal counts determine how great a country is, it is common for “let the best man cheat”. The spirit of the games is gone. Now it’s all about the number of golds won by countries – and how wacky the host country can manage to light the Olympic flame.
The “gold fever” has spread to the Asian Games and SEA Games and that’s why the host country tries to add as many “home sports” as it can. It won’t be long before we see in the SEA Games, hopscotch, leapfrog, hammer-paper-scissors, musical chairs, hide-and-seek, jump rope, and Simon says.  
Somsak Pola
Samut Prakan