Vancouver

Like most sports fans I shudder to think how many hours I have spent glued to the television or sitting in the outer and screaming my lungs out at the spectacle of the hour.

It would easily average at least four hours a week, which is a pretty normal level of consumption. It’s also pretty normal that these viewings have often taken place in an emotionally-charged environment, as if to illustrate the old maxim (attributed to Liverpool manager Bill Shankly regarding soccer) that sport isn’t matter of life or death, it’s much more important than that.

But the Winter Olympics has given us a pretty bleak reminder that in the overall scheme of things, sport doesn’t really matter that much at all. And with the Olympic Movement framed as it is around the principles of excellence – faster, higher, stronger – it seems ghoulishly appropriate that the Vancouver Games have set a new mark for tastelessness.

Continue reading "Going downhill fast: sport abandons taste and sense" »

Dale Begg-Smith has just won his second straight medal for Australia at a Winter Olympics, then snubbed the media like he did at Torino.

Immediately after the moguls final on Cypress Mountain, the three medallists were presented to the public. The winner and bronze medallist were beaming. Silver medallist Begg-Smith had more or less the same expression as a brick wall, and utterly spoiled the scene.

Moments later, Channel Nine’s Tim Gilbert snared an interview with Canada’s Alexandre Bilodeau, who had just won his nation’s first gold medal at a home Olympics. The French Canadian dedicated the medal to his disabled brother.

Continue reading "Is Dale Begg-Smith entitled to be a sourpuss?" »

Australia has already had two wins at the Vancouver Winter Olympics and the main events have not yet started.

Firstly the International Olympic Committee has agreed that the very large Boxing Kangaroo flag can be hung from a balcony at the Olympic village.

Ian Chesterman the chef de mission with the Australian team is delighted and said it is something that has become synonymous with Australians competing around the world.

Continue reading "Postcard from Vancouver" »