Unpopular Opinion

I would have no problem with a few internationally funded standardized Olympic facilities with rotating hosts that offer their nations cuisine and hospitality to the games.

Sort of a reverse tourism thing.

The sports and competition are not. Will my kids ever be Olympic athletes? Probably not. But there's been a hell of a lot of pretending going on at my house the past month, and I like that.

Is moving the Olympics ever 4 years and building bigger, more elaborate facilities purely as a dick measuring contest a waste of time and effort? Absolutely, 100%.

They should just pick a location and stick to it. Same with the World Cup.

You could say the same to your favourite sporting events like MMA, Superbowl, Euro Finals, Copa America, and even e-sports, etc.

I can see where you're coming from but the Olympics is a healthy way for countries to compete with each other, instead of going on battlefields. Like the other poster mentioned, the Olympics promote international cooperation. For example, even though China is getting a bad rap in international politics, their athletes have notably been professional and wholesome which boost their country's image.

I also think that the high prestigious image of the Olympics will inspire more people to pursue sports; regardless of whether or not they will want to compete in the event. It's still good to be healthy!

Basically all professional sports.

I believe sports should be done for fun and exercise. Not as a professional career.

Almost nothing good comes from professionally played sports. It only brings the worst of human beings.

While I certainly believe many sports events are really just a waste of money, Olympics is probably not.

Not only does it serve as a way to promote sports worldwide, boosting public health and inspiring people, it also is a remarkable feat of international cooperation, contributing to the relative peace and harmony.

Now, all those football leagues and stuff should really vanish. They cost way more than their benefit could ever be.

I love the idea of the Olympics and would like to see a version that wasn't an environmental, economic, and humanitarian trash fire.

Globally your position is extremely popular.

My similar opinion is that Americans could have Universal healthcare for a decade if they gave up the money they spend on football for just one year. NFL. College ball, etc.

For the athletes, it's a not a waste of time and effort.

For the hosting countries/cities?

They cost a TON of time and money, and it's a dubious proposition that the host cities ever recover that investment. Olympic villages are also rarely the best possible use of prime land, and often involve buying up and gentrifying entire neighborhoods for the purpose of building the facilities, and for the duration of the event, and the planning leading up to it, your city basically gives up autonomy to an organization that spends your resources as if they were their own in order to create a platform to sell advertising rights in the guise of sportsmanship. For the Olympics to be more sustainable and less corrupted by commercial interests, they should focus less on spectacle and expenditure and rely more on existing infrastructure.

Furthermore, while sport is an important and noble endeavor, it is by no means any more important than any other human endeavor, and every four years we have to be exposed to the intersection of sports and politics in discussions about nations that, for example, allow medalists to avoid conscription or escape poverty in various countries in exchange for bringing national prestige, and rarely do we take the opportunity to discuss what this says about our priorities, simply accepting the elevated prestige we place on this particular sporting event without question.

In short, I don't agree their cancellation would cause NOTHING of value to be lost, but the Olympics as an event in its current incarnation has PLENTY worth reevaluating, and we could all benefit greatly from reexamining its scale and role.

Definitely unpopular.

However, I mostly agree with you.

I still like the idea of the Olympics in the way it's marketed to be, a time of peaceful athletic competition and communication between nations and peoples.

And, I can't lie, it is one of the few times that individual sports that I'm more into watching ever get air time at all. Like, you don't see judo, or archery, or shooting, or even wrestling on regular tv often at all, even back when I still had cable. Team sports, you can see all damn day, all times of the year, but individual sports don't usually have the same kind of industry built around them.

Which, that's part of the problem, the way some sports turn into a money making machine rather than a genuine competition for sport's sake.

But, yeah, I get tired of the masturbatory commentary, the circle jerk nature of opening ceremonies, the back room bullshit of how it's all arranged and located. It's a shit ton of resources better allocated to actually making things better instead of entertaining the masses.

Lemmy hates sports

Sex trafficers would lose major revenue source!

Honestly, not to be mean or anything, BUT, this sorta reeks of "I don't like it so nobody else should."

This is a type of mentality that I believe to be highly negative and frankly kinda toxic. Your welcome to your opinion, but I really don't think the many many hours, days, weeks, months, and years of effort, training and planning that goes into those who both run and participate in the Olympics is a waste of time and effort.

Also we live in a world that you can just block or ignore anything you don't particularly care for.