Do we care about the olympics Call-in August 16, 2016

We asked the very simple question, do we care about the Olympics this year?

The Podcast Link




Here are some of the notes we used for the conversation.

The olympics is it even registering on your radar?

Has the Olympics lost its luster?

Do you follow what is going on or is it happening and you couldn’t be bothered?

http://sport360.com/category/olympics

http://www.foxsports.com/olympics/gallery/olympics-olympic-medal-count-summer-rio-united-states-china-brazil-russia-081516

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/sports/summerolympics.html

Do we focus too much on the celebrity athelites?

What about the pros like Andy Murray and rafeal Nadal?

http://www.news.com.au/sport/olympics/what-you-didnt-know-about-the-worlds-fastest-man/news-story/da87025a2d189c5002975eac6ec5d50e

Problems at the olympics

http://www.ibtimes.com/rio-olympics-problems-14-things-have-gone-wrong-2016-summer-games-2398944

http://www.latimes.com/sports/olympics/la-sp-oly-rio-2016-ryan-lochte-issues-statement-about-1471217325-htmlstory.html

http://www.wsj.com/articles/brazil-earns-mixed-scores-for-rio-games-1470934919

Pro athelites

http://sports.stackexchange.com/questions/14378/why-are-professional-athletes-allowed-to-compete-in-the-olympic-games

An olympic moment

The Norton Family joins me on the phone from Vancouver Canada and the Winter Olympics.

April 13---The olympics!

Has the Olympics lost the plot? Well has the IOC lost the plot?

Has the Olympics become a huge political/commercial bun fight?

Maybe it is time to reboot the whole movement?

The torch relay is just the start of the end!

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/sports/080408/s04089A.html

IOC president Jacques Rogge under
pressure as protests hit torch relay

Published: Tuesday, April 8, 2008 | 1:26 AM ET

Canadian Press: Stephen Wade, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIJING - Under pressure to speak out on human rights and
concerned about a threatened Olympic boycott, athletes want IOC
president Jacques Rogge to provide stronger guidelines on how
they should conduct themselves.
As Rogge began the first of five days of meetings Monday, the last
run of the Paris torch relay was cancelled following protests. The
disruption came less than a day after demonstrators scuffled with
London police. More problems are expected Wednesday during
the route through San Francisco, the only stop in North America.
Rogge was asked by the president of the European Olympic
Committees to spell out "what athletes can and cannot do" to
express political views during the Beijing Olympics.
Patrick Hickey, head of the 49-member group, met Sunday with
Rogge. The meeting came with the Summer Games four months
away and against a backdrop of last month's riots in Tibet, China's
ties with Sudan and criticism about the government's human rights
record.
"We just want him (Rogge) to tell us straight out where athletes
cannot give their opinion or make demonstrations," Hickey said.
"There will be absolutely no gagging whatsoever of our athletes.
We just want to be absolutely clear, and the only one to hear it
from is the IOC president."
Hickey said Rogge promised to lay out ground rules Thursday
when the IOC executive board meets with ANOC's membership. In
general, athletes are prohibited under the Olympic Charter from
expressing political views while at Olympic venues or from
wearing clothing or other symbols that carry a political message.
"Our athletes are coming under pressure from the media," Hickey
said. "We want to get them out of that pressure by telling them
IOC president Jacques Rogge under pressure as protests hit torch relay
exactly what they can and cannot do. Then they can return to
concentrate on training."
Hickey, an IOC member from Ireland, said there was no talk of a
boycott within the ANOC, which represents 205 national Olympic
committees.
"We are all 100 per cent supporting going to the games," he said.
"There's nobody talking about boycotts, not the slightest. No
boycott of any description."
On Monday, Rogge brought up the issue of boycotts and protests
along the torch relay, but he gave his brief speech after most
Chinese officials had left the dais following opening speeches to
the ANOC general assembly.
"I'm very concerned with the international situation and what's
happening in Tibet," Rogge said. "The torch relay has been
targeted. The International Olympic Committee has expressed its
serious concerns and calls for a rapid, peaceful resolution in
Tibet."
Rogge also tried to quell talk of any kind of boycott.
"Some politicians have played with the idea of boycotts," Rogge
said. "As I speak today, however, there is no momentum for a
generalized boycott."
Mario Vazquez Rana, president of the ANOC, said his group wants
China "to find through dialogue and understanding a fair and
reasonable solution to the internal conflict that affects the Tibet
region."
IOC co-ordination commission member Alex Gilady said he
expected the pressure to ease after the Paris and San Francisco
relay legs.
"The important message is to tell our athletes that some people are
trying to use them and to ride on their backs for solutions that the
world has to find in other places like the United Nations," said
Gilady, also a senior vice president at NBC Sports, which holds the
IOC president Jacques Rogge under pressure as protests hit torch relay
rights to broadcast the Olympics in the U.S.
"I don't think the international torch relay is a good thing because
it's not needed," Gilady added. "But now it's water under the
bridge."
Beijing organizers have been angered and embarrassed by the rude
reception greeting the torch. Though the torch was extinguished in
Paris, this does not mean the Olympic flame was extinguished. The
flame is actually carried in a separate lanternlike device along the
route.
"The general public is very angry at this sabotage by a few
separatists, said Wang Hui, a spokeswoman for the organizing
committee. "We can see that such disruption by a few separatists is
not supported by the people."
© The Canadian Press, 2008

Feb---18 the politics of the olympics

OK so Speilberg has pulled out of the Olymics as an artistic adviser.

Is the Olympics about politics or sports?



www.dreamfordarfur.org

Not a Boycott

Olympic Dream for Darfur is not a boycott campaign, nor does it support a boycott of the Olympics.

Our goal is to leverage the Olympics to urge China to use its influence with the Sudanese regime to allow a robust civilian protection force into Darfur. China is in a unique position to do so: as Sudan's strongest political and economic partner, as well as the host of the Olympics.

Our campaign supports the Olympics and believes in the ideal of the Olympic Games as a symbol of peace and international cooperation. Our campaign believes that the sports arena is the best forum for countries to "do battle" and we do not advocate withdrawal by any nation from this essential and important forum.

An Olympic boycott, or the threat of boycott, can only create serious divisions within the ranks of countries and constituencies that, like our campaign, care about Darfur and the ideals of peace represented by the Olympics. A boycott also punishes athletes, their families, and spectators around the world.

Bring the Olympic Dream to Darfur

Our campaign has one central ask: "China Please: Bring the Olympic Dream to Darfur." We are appealing to China, in its role as host of the Games and close partner of Sudan, to use its considerable influence with Khartoum to protect civilians.

Olympic Dream for Darfur applauds that China won the bid to host the Olympics. We commend China’s willingness to work within the international community, and praise the energy and care China has devoted to hosting a celebratory Olympics.

We do believe, however, that with the privilege of hosting the Olympics come responsibilities, including the obligation to live up to the spirit of the Olympics, which means acting as a global leader for peace.

Or We Will Bring Darfur to the Olympics

If China does not take decisive and genuine action well before the Games begin, we will use the period before the Games – and the Games themselves – as a platform to advocate peace in Darfur. If we cannot "Bring the Olympic Dream to Darfur," we will "Bring Darfur to the Olympic Dream," making the horrific crisis in Darfur a significant and unavoidable presence at the Games themselves.

The United Nations has called what is happening in Darfur the "greatest humanitarian catastrophe" in the world today. There would be no greater example of the Olympic spirit at work than to alleviate the endless suffering in western Sudan.

Countdown to the Beijing Games

There are seven months until the Olympics -- precious little time to use the leverage of the 2008 Beijing Games to press China to bring security to Darfur.

Will there be a "Genocide Olympics?"

China holds unrivaled influence with the genocidal regime in Sudan. China must immediately use that influence to persuade the Sudanese government to allow a full and robust civilian protection force into Darfur. (Read about China's influence with Sudan, and what China must do.)

If China does not act, in its role as Olympic host and world leader, Beijing will go down in history as the host of the "Genocide Olympics": China will be sponsoring the Olympic Games at home and the genocide in Darfur -- in which it is complicit -- abroad.

What we must do to bring security to Darfur:

1. Stage three major demonstrations during the Games:
   • Mia from Darfur: Live from the Camps, a broadcast starting August 6, 2008. It will feature Mia Farrow live from a refuee camp;
   • Actions in Beijing (most cannot be divulged at this time because of the risk to participants); and,
   • Turn Off for Darfur, a mass action for consumers to turn off sponsors' TV ads during the Games.
     
2. Pressure China with demonstrations between now and August.
   
   
3. Urge Olympic Corporate Sponsors to use their influence with China.

Our Mission Demonstrations During the Games Pressuring China Targeting Olympic Sponsors Not a Boycott China Responds About Us