(07-20-2021 08:51 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(07-15-2021 08:06 AM)AssyrianDuke Wrote:  The Olympics have always been awful and overrated; what started out as a way for rich people to compete amongst themselves and exclude the lower class rabble has somehow gotten worse. Shameless money grabs (well, except for the host country, who is left with the bill and a higher rate of VD), sports no one really cares about, and Bob Costas forcing you to be sad for any competitor that ever knew someone that died? SIGN ME THE EFF UP!

That said, JMU has three alumni in the Games this year: https://jmusports.com/news/2021/7/14/wom...mpics.aspx

To each his own. I love the Olympics. Ultimately, I love watching people compete at the highest level with the highest stakes. Now, I get that the IOC is a terrible organization and their bidding process has perfected Chicago-style political corruption (which ironically was used to choose Rio over Chicago for the 2016 Olympics), but the Games themselves are truly great.

I haven't seen a full Illini Olympian list anywhere yet, but I know that there's at least one track athlete, two gymnasts and two golfers heading to Tokyo.

Me too. I'm a huge fan of the Olympics, winter but especially summer. But with no fans in the stands, I wonder if I will enjoy this Olympics as I have all the others.

Frankly, the biggest downer is the opposition from the Japanese. The most recent poll I saw says 78% of Japanese think the Olympics should not go forward because of the virus.

IMO, that is incredible. The virus has killed a total of 15,000 people in a country of 126 million, and right now, the seven-day moving average for deaths is .... 15 per day.

To me, the Japanese people have lost their minds over the virus (in that, they are by no means alone, btw). Fine, that's their prerogative. But it has cast a huge negative cloud over these games to me.