A FIVE-GOLD-RING CIRCUS

This year, the Province of British Columbia will be getting a belated Xmas gift (of questionable value) in the form of an international event that has become part sports contest, part mass-marketing exercise, part five-ring circus: Le Cirque De Monnaie, as I like to call it.

Most people refer to it as The Winter Olympics, but it bears little if any relationship to the original ritual held at Olympia in ancient Greece.

It's ironic that today, some women have to struggle just to be admitted to the competitions, when the first recorded Olympic event was a footrace run by young women for the honour of becoming Priestess of Hera. Only later was a race for males added, and the prize for that was the post of consort to the Priestess.

The prizes awarded at the early games were a lot simpler, too: a crown of laurel branches or, even better, groceries for life.

But the five coloured rings of the modern Olympic logo have all gone golden. And the medals of gold awarded to the champions in each sport are valued as much for the product endorsements they draw as for any prestige they may confer.

The Olympics have become as much a crippling financial burden as a boon to the "lucky" venues selected. (Has Montreal yet paid off its debt from 40 years ago?) 

And even without the back-breaking cost of security and the loss of public freedom involved in staging the Games these days, they've always been an inconvenience to the locals - some of whom get uprooted and dispossessed of their homes to make way for grand facilities and quaint villages for the visiting athletes - and most of whom couldn't afford a ticket, anyway.

But the Chamber Of Commerce types continue to trumpet the benefits of tourism and then ignore the hideous stories of tourist gouging that always go with the Games. 

And if all the hype leading up to the Games at Whistler is making you ill, never fear! There's an "official cold and flu remedy of the 2010 Winter Olympics" - just as there's an official everything for them, so long as some corporation has been willing to pony up for the privilege.

Mind you, I don't approve of the methods used by the protester in Guelph who tacked the Olympic torch-bearer. But I can understand the frustration behind the act.

Just thinking about the hours and hours of television coverage ahead of us is enough to get my teeth a-grinding - especially when you realize that some of the "sports" covered deserve the name about as much as Professional Wrestling. 

The difference is that the clowns of the Professional Wrestling Circus are much more honest. They're perfectly willing to admit the gold they're going for is the gold that's in your pocket.




(Scroll down for the days you've missed. Tomorrow, Day Six: SIX GEESE A-LURKING.)