THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 4, 1996 TAG: 9608040313
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BOB MOLINARO
LENGTH: 55 lines
Here is an item guaranteed to warm the heart of every Olympic fan:
Michael Johnson, who astounded the track universe with a record time of 19.32 in the 200 meters, donated his gold running shoes to the Planet Hollywood in downtown Atlanta.
Isn't this a little like Hank Aaron hitting home run No. 715, and allowing his bat to be put on display at Shoney's?
In 393 A.D., Roman Emperor Theodosius I grew so disgusted with the athletes' public complaints over their olive wreath prizes that he suspended the Games for 1,502 years.
Wonder what Theodosius would make of Kerri Strug hiring super-agent Leigh Steinberg.
As for the ancient Greeks, they would have no trouble recognizing the spirit of Atlanta's Games.
The inflatable Gumbys looming over the city might confuse them (they wouldn't be alone), but the Greeks would understand what Carl Lewis' pursuit of gold medals is all about.
It is about cashing in on the Olympics. The Greeks knew all about cashing in. They knew about cheating, too.
The Greeks would shrug their shoulders at the boxing controversies in Atlanta. The first recorded incidence of monkey business at the Games involved Eupolus of Thessaly, who bribed three boxers to take a dive in 388 B.C.
The Olympic Games have never been as noble as wished. Nero once finished first in the individual chariot because he got to use 12 horses to everyone else's four. And the ancient Greek athletes, beyond the reach of steroids or human growth hormones, doped themselves with hallucinogenic mushrooms.
The Olympics are not an ideal. The Games finishing up here are a television show. They are a photo op with Demi Moore. They are a place where patriotism is put on sale.
The commercialism in Atlanta has been suffocating. But interest in these Games boomed. Spectators bought 8.6 million tickets, more than L.A. and Barcelona put together.
Count on Sydney, Australia to put on a less commercial Olympics, if only because it is impossible to be more crass than Atlanta.
Wherever the Olympic tent is erected, though, the same problems will appear. The Games are too big. There are too many dumb sports. And too much blaring nationalism. The competition is held under a cloud of ambiguity, created by the realities of anabolic steroids.
``But some unpleasant and hard things happen in life,'' wrote the first century stoic Epictetus. ``And do they not happen at Olympia? Do you not swelter? Are you not cramped and crowded? Do you not bathe badly? Are you not drenched whenever it rains? Do you not have your fill of tumult and shouting and other annoyances? But I fancy that you bear and endure it all by balancing it off against the memorable character of the spectacle.''
Where would we find Epictetus had he reappeared at these Olympics? Probably inside Planet Hollywood, gawking at a pair of gold spikes.
KEYWORDS: OLYMPIC GAMES 1996 ATLANTA by CNB