As far as I'm concerned the Olympic games lost their spirit around the time when the ancient greeks stopped running around half naked in a plowed field, surrounded by olive trees competing against each other in friendship around 1500 years ago.
The olympic games, like the soccer world cup are nothing more but a pathetic excuse for a whole bunch of very old, greedy, arrogant and filthy rich people in fancy suits from the IOC and FIFA to make even more money while traveling from one country to the next like locusts and exploiting the countries resources and tax payers money for even bigger, more pompous stadiums which never get used properly again.
The old greeks would be throwing up in their graves if they knew what became of their games (anti air missiles stationed on skyscrapers! and more British troops in London keeping the peace than are currently stationed in Afghanistan)....which were a festival amongst friends, to compete in friendship that used to be about fun....not about 1/1000 fractions of a second and bullshit political wanking and one nation ONE Upping over another. Anyone been to Beijing recently and seen what happened to the olympic village ? Or to Munich in Germany where they have stadiums big enough to seat the population of a small country, that are now empty and unused and cost fortunes just to be maintained ?
Wanna do something good for the spirit of mankind and international friendship ? Build libraries and offer free, quality education and healthcare to everyone, scrape the games and spend the 14 BILLION $ which the 2012 games will cost on humanitarian things....this could be public health care for a lot of people in the US....cancer research....aids medicine for a lot of people in africa.....A palestinian and an israeli kid able to play together in peace would do more for international friendship than a bunch of highly trained professionals who dont talk to each other and just stick to their own kind in the olympic villages comparing dick sizes in the field.
What a farce......even if its broadcast in Ultra HD.



..im not sure it was any better in Greek times actually..