The International Olympic Committee did not allow the Ukrainian team to wear black armbands to commemorate the people who died yesterday in their country on both sides of the civil unrest. While Ukraine is descending into a civil war and Kiev is burning, the athletes are supposed to pretend they are happy, cheery and chirpy because anything other than that would detract from the commercial value of the Olympics.
People keep asking me why I don’t watch the Olympics. The answer is that this is probably the most fake international event of all. Everything in it is fake from start to finish. The fake fire, the fake amateur athletes, the fake truce, the fake lack of politicization, the fake achievements. The whole thing is just dead and plastic.
Earlier, the Norwegian team was not allowed to wear mourning arm-bands to honor a bereaved team member.
Plastic faces with fake plastic smiles plastered onto them. This is all that the Olympics are about.
Clarissa's Blog 
I agree – the Olympics are pretty neutered compared to what they “claim” to be about. The only thing that I like is that it means I can watch some of my favorite sports as played by really skilled athletes that never show on American TV (although I frequently have to stream them over the net even for the Olympics).
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It is absolutely disgusting to have these games going on while the Ukranian president shoots protesters and is apparently still fully supported by Putin. And just last week I read how Putin was greeted in the Olympic village like a superstar.
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// It is absolutely disgusting to have these games going on while the Ukranian president shoots protesters
The games would have gone on, had it been Russian president shooting protesters. At least, it’s not that.
And why single out Ukraine? What about Syria, for instance? Or about “U.N. Panel Finds Crimes Against Humanity in North Korea”? Had there been no games in times of war, the games simply would never have been.
Think the same would happen with any politics near the Olympics, even if it would’ve begun as bipartisan. Regarding Israel:
“The International Olympic Committee has rejected proposals from the Israeli government and two United States representatives to hold a moment of silence at this summer’s London Games in memory of the 11 Israeli athletes and coaches who were killed by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Olympics in Munich.”
I understand the Committee’s decision. First, we remember our athletes. Then, somebody wants to remember the civilians in Gaza killed by IDF, as always happens during war. And all this thing quickly descends into insanity, for lack of a better word. Imo, or remember every innocent victim in the world w/o going into details whom one means by “innocent,” or nobody as is the matter now.
– el
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If you want to forbid athletes to bring any personal feeling or a hint of politics into the Olympics, perhaps one should also forbid politicians to use the games for internal or external propaganda, as it seems to me that Putin is doing. I don’t remember any Olympic games ever having been so strongly associated with one person as they seem to be associated with Putin now. And then I find it really disturbing to read about Putin’s role in Ukraine’s problems. But anyway, I would be in favour of having the Olympic games at the same spot on some preferentially uninhabited island every year, so that one does not have to build the massive and ugly infrastructure again all 4 years. One could then forbid all politicians from entering the island and have games truly away from the world’s troubles.
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“And then I find it really disturbing to read about Putin’s role in Ukraine’s problems.”
– The fear now is that he will do what he did in Georgia and send in the troops. 😦
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