[Closed] Brazil Olympics why no boycott? rant

I have boycotted it and will not allow my name to be put forward for selection. The middle-aged mincing MTB race will just have to do without me. Hope that makes you happy!

Apart from the zika virus didn't everyone with an iQ above 7 know everything you've listed would happen , its about greed for a few as always .

Because sport is a bit of a sideline to the Olympics now. It's one enormous political football and the amount of cash swimming around it in terms of broadcasting rights, future funding grants based on performance, sponsorship/marketing/branding, industry (especially construction & tourism) is staggering. It makes F1 and football look like pocket money in comparison.

Basically, no-one can afford to boycott it.

But as always with that amount of money comes corruption, greed and dubious morals & ethics.

Are we sending a team to the political football event this time? I hear IDS has freed up some time.

Yep all this was obvious from the day they got it.

Tennis
Football
Cycling
Horse racing
Olympics
Rugby
F1

All riddled with corruption, drug taking, and/or run by betting cartels to some extent or another

Ultimately making a shitload of money trumps any moral concerns

There are Athletes out there who've been working hard for years, to get selected to go to the Olympics. This may be there one and only chance, would you boycott if it were you?

That said the pollution in the sailing venue is terrible (there was even a human arm found floating a few weeks back). Sailors have been getting sick and infections at qualifying and practice events there. Rio have completely failed to deliver on any of the clean up measures they promised in their Olympic bid

Yes but Our Jess is lovely.

Professional sportspeople need sponsorship to survive - who'd tell their sponsors that they weren't going to the biggest event in the World? The system's corrupt from the top down, but there seems to be no political will to fix it.

The problem with boycotting the event (as tourists at least) is that in the end the local economy which is baking on a big book in the summer will suffer so they've forked their taxes out to the tune of billions and end up with nothing to show for it.

Better checks really need to be in place at the outset of the bidding process and viable alternative venues should be secured so any breach of agreement or wrongdoing results in the games being pulled at an earlier stage before all the money is wasted.

As for zika, I thought it didn't spread through humans so it's really of no concern unless you are going out there as a high risk individual?

Zika - don't read what media reporting. Zika has been around for years and is already widely distributed around the globe but it's just that nobody ever saw the association with microcephalic babies. The latest Lancet article this week (1:100 chance of pregnancy having a microcephalic baby in a outbreak) was from a major outbreak in French Polynesia about 8yrs ago. They saw a rise in microcephaly when they reanalysed the birth records of this outbreak.

As for the rest of the stuff about Brazil. They are great people who are just as concerned about pollution, corruption (seen the protests this week - without violence too) as anyone else and their murder rate. Boycotting the Olympics would be a blow for the ordinary Brazilian who is proud of the event. I've been there quite a few times recently and seen this firsthand.

Were you equally vociferous about Sochi?

If we limited the Olympics to countries with a good record on human rights, corruption and social order it would make selecting a host much simpler.

As for zika, I thought it didn't spread through humans so it's really of no concern unless you are going out there as a high risk individual?

There seems to be some evidence that it can be sexually transmitted too. I suppose athletes from areas with the Aedes mosquito could introduce it into the mosquito population when they return.

thecaptain - Member
Yes but Our Jess is lovely.

So is Tom, tiny pants and all. 🙂

Letting Russian athletes compete might force a few 'clean' athletes to question whether they should participate or not.

Letting Russian athletes compete might force [s]a[/s] the few 'clean' [s]athletes[/s] runners-up to question whether they should participate or not.

Surely [b]not[/b] boycotting a sporting event makes a greater statement?

Jesse Owens, Tommie Smith, John Carlos, Peter O'Connor, Vera Caslavska, Seb Coe, Daley Thomson

If you restricted it to countries that don't have any of those problems you're basically left with Western Europe, North America, Australia, Japan and South Korea. And even then you still have the 'white elephant' problem, just look at how much we are spending converting our Olympic stadium into a football ground, in return for a tiny rent that is unlikely to ever cover the cost.

They've already spent the money anyway, boycotting at this point just means that they don't get any of the money back, and that's as likely to hurt the people as it is the administration, which does seem to be on the verge of collapsing anyway.

I think there's definitely an argument for reform of the IOC and Olympics though, to make it a much more flexible event, able to adapt to individual host cities rather than requiring such massive redevelopment and construction for a month long event.

Because; money and power. See also; most other human rights injustices throughout history. Those with it don't very often give much of a shit for those without it...

wukfit ninfan CaptainFlashheart

Said the same thing about Sochi. Killing people for a sports event is abohrent. Atheltes taking part are a dismal show of what humanitie will do for trinkets and money.

I bet Not one single athelete that will take part will sat that the games in Brazil is wrong, say that people getting killed, made homeless is disgusting.

Seb is a utter muffin maker

ninfan - Member
Surely not boycotting a sporting event makes a greater statement?
Jesse Owens... Seb Coe
POSTED 1 HOUR AGO # REPORT-POST