Olympics - the dark side

When the Olympics are over, it's kind of this sad denouement. I guess it's inevitable with an event that comes every four years. Kind of like when the Christmas tree comes down. Or the sobering day of Star Trek TNG marathons on January 2. The excitement and merriment of previous days over and now we're back to our regularly scheduled programming.

During the final days, I also had time to reflect on the dark sides of these Olympic games. Not just the controversy whether some of the female Chinese gymnasts met the minimum age of 16, despite previous editions of local Chinese papers listing one at age 14. Not just the Swedish wrestler who threw down his bronze medal in disgust after losing a chance at wrestling for gold after a bad judging call and...it turns out he was right. Chinese gold medalists reap huge monetary rewards, possibly up to $300,000 (equal to about 100 years wages of a Chinese working in the city or 300 years working in the rural areas) and more with endorsements, but at what cost? Seeing your parents once a year, not seeing your toddler in a year, extreme dieting to maintain 66 pounds to enter the water like a razor when diving? Cheng Fei, the revered Chinese gymnast, had wanted to quit but her mother asked her to hold on "because we had invested so much and lived so bitterly” and she got to sleep in the house her gymnastics paid for the first time, when she participated in the torch relay in her province.

No, perhaps the nastiest moment in these 2008 Olympics was New York magazine's revelation on what Olympic event Sean "Diddy" Comb felt he could get the gold medal in:

"Who could have s*x the longest," he tells New York magazine. "I think that's an event I can do well in. And probably who could stay up the longest." He adds, "Just so you know, that's supposed to be funny. Even though I am serious."

Aaah-hahahahaha, way to wave the flag Diddy! Hahahaha...oh wait he's serious. Ick.

And the countdown begins to 2012.