Rethinking the Olympics

The every-four-years frenzy is underway as you hold this paper or scroll this screen. Since you’re taking the time to read, let’s take a moment to examine what that frenzy is all about. What, exactly, is the point of the Olympics?

One of the most frequent answers is that seeing amazing feats of athleticism promotes fitness and activity, especially among young people. It’s remarkable how enduring this idea is, despite the lack of supporting evidence. Do you know a lot of people who took up a life-changing habit of cross-country skiing or swimming after watching the Olympics? (Never mind bobsleigh or hammer throw.)

Are the Olympics, as it’s often said, important for national pride? Well, has an athlete who slides down a hill or skates around a track three seconds faster than someone else done anything of long-lasting significance? Is one who receives a .65 lower mark than another in a judged competition worthy of scorn? If we own the podium, is our country a better place in any meaningful way?

Okay, then — if nothing actually changes in Canada as a result of how an athlete or team briefly performs on ice or snow, then what exactly do the Olympics provide? In a word: entertainment.

That makes perfect sense. After all, we spend billions of dollars on all kinds of other entertainment, from video games to streaming services to theatre, concerts and movies. And it’s definitely entertaining when our hockey teams or curlers beat the Americans.

So then, why not treat the Olympics as what they really are: high-priced entertainment provided by tremendously fit and motivated young people? That might give us the proper sense of perspective about the resources we should be devoting to them.

We could put the Olympics on par with the support we provide for aspiring playwrights, musicians and filmmakers. We expect artists to get good and pay their way largely on their own, so why cloak the funding of amateur athletes in the Canadian flag?

Culture actually does provide meaningful, long-lasting benefits to our country. At its best, it helps us understand ourselves better, provides beauty and makes us think.

False dichotomy, you say? Fine. Let’s stick to promoting fitness and a love of physical activity, given their alarming decline among young people. If we truly cared about promoting healthy lifelong habits among young people, we’d direct the millions spent on elite amateur sport to the millions of Canadian kids who will never compete at that level.

We’d make recreation programs free and available in every community in the country. We’d get them outdoors running around in nature instead of indoors watching other people compete on their behalf.