Olympic sport?

Most of us have played sports at some level at one time or another, and all of us, I think, can appreciate those athletes in any sport that are able to do things that most others cannot. For me, I think that somewhere in the process of doing what the sport requires - catching a perfect spiral in full flight, bending the ball inside the post, passing the puck to the open man - there is an intrinsic beauty, and some people tap into it better than others. Perhaps when something in sport is beautiful it is because it is simple and uncomplicated, stream-lined and efficient, infinitely variable, and above all, spontaneous. Yes, sport is best when the intrinsic beauty arises spontaneously in a completely uncontrived and unpredictable way; it seems to come out of nowhere, catches us off guard, and takes our breath away.

However, it seems that in many 'sports', beauty has become the objective. In Canada, the two main Olympic events people watch most are hockey and figure skating. At some time many years ago, it could be that a hockey player did a 'spin-o-rama' to score a goal, and although the move was entirely expedient, its beauty was obvious to everyone. Someone then decided that one could capture that beauty, put it in a box, call it a 'triple salchow', and then sanction a panel to judge its relative merits. People then practiced it ten thousand times to get it right. Throughout this process, the original beauty of the hockey move was sucked out of it. To me there is something crude in treating sport's beauty in this way: perhaps it is like the caged Bengal Tiger required to perform tricks for food, or the zoo's polar bear pacing between fake cave and fake pool.

I maintain that those performers who are judged for points are engaged in 'theatre' and not participating in 'sport'. These sorts of pastimes belong on the A&E channel, and not on Sports Centre. Perhaps we might encourage those people who support such things that require judges to form their own break-away world spectacle, and perhaps include professional wrestling among their number. The performers might call themselves 'artists' and not 'athletes', and those of us who prefer sports can watch the Olympics.