Readers Forum,
The Daily Yomiuri,
6-17-1 Ginza,
Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-8243
The tentative decision by the IOC to delete wrestling from the Olympic program is a refreshingly rare and boldly appropriate step in the right direction. Now it only needs for the IOC to cancel every other sport in its program and then politely retire itself so we don’t have to hear any more about it. Contrary to the manufactured hype that surrounds the Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee, and the Olympic movement, I think these are all too disgusting for words to do justice. Hosting the Games does not bring honor and repute to a nation so much as money, so it is a monster of mammon and pretence that fills my imagination whenever I think of the Olympics. Politicians and national Olympic committees that try to sell their cities as potential future hosts diminish rather than augment my regard for them. Money is certainly useful, but it is only a tool, and the reality of it contradicts the propaganda the Olympic movement feeds us.
The rebuttal that the cancellation of wrestling from the Games spoils young athletes dreams is somewhat off topic because it is the world championships of each sport, not the Olympic Games where we see the highest athletic performances and achievements. So athletes ought to be aiming for and investing their dreams in the world championships of their respective sports and not in the Olympic freak show.
But I could be wrong.