One essay on them vs (ironically following at the same site by a different author) another. What do you think about all the hype? Are you looking forward to watching the Olympics, or are you so outraged at the Chinese government's treatment of various minority and dissenting groups you think them an obscene dressing for tyranny? Is it a mockery of environmental awareness to host them in a smog-filled metropolis, or a hopeful sign that the ChiComs are willing to do so much to improve conditions there, albeit for a short time?

I wouldn't want to be an Olympic athlete these days. I can't say I was "close," although I did go to Nationals while in high school and play at the varsity level at a Big Sports College. So at least I can relate to what athletes must do to and with their bodies to compete at the top levels. I'm also glad: I think I was part of the very last generation of top athletes who could compete safe in the knowledge that my competitors weren't regularly doping left and right. I've actually defended doping in the past, mainly because once it gets accepted by the athletes themselves, it's impossible to stop. Back in my day it was 'risky' and exciting to speak of vitamins and supplements; "hard" drugs were Right Out and there was a pretty solid culture of 'body as a pure temple' among us. I still recall the shock I felt learning one male friend had taken to using 'roids once he got to college; it was 'suggested' to him by an assistant coach to help him bulk up for the 'big time.' Now, my understanding is that even the high school kids are trading and using 'roids and much more, and this practice is, if not accepted, all too easy to find in the young.

I'm in the middle of a volume about ancient Greece and I was thinking about how athletics have been used for political purposes probably since forever, but still. Let's just all make up our minds, shall we? Pay athletes a fair share of what they earn for the governments and corporations who make billions off their performance, and let them do whatever they want to their own bodies to perform. Or, get serious about keeping sports "pure." We seem to be in a self-denying half and half point right now, and it's taken all the fun out of competition.