the london olympics 2012

The closing ceremony for the London Olympics will shortly be in full swing. Despite the beyond total commercialization of the games, there has been no shortage of absurd and asinine write-ups about the "spirit of the games" (whisky manufacturers that sponsor the games?), the alleged spirit of "global cooperation and friendliness"(in evidence in Syria?), and of course the mandatory hand-wringing over the use of performance enhancement drugs - particularly by athletes whose drug masking techniques have not been unmasked as yet. As drug detecting techniques improve, many athletes have had to return their medals a few years after winning them. And of course one can expect the expression of insincere disappointment over the "commercialization of sport", particularly by those agencies and individuals who were unable to latch on to lucrative contracts. And after the billions spent on the Olympics and trillions on armaments and wars, politicians will no doubt express their inability to fund  schools, medicare, community centres, libraries etc. due to, of course, "lack of funds".

The commercialization or the neo-liberalization, as well as many other shenanigans associated with the Olympics are not confined to the contractors and advertisers. The organizational structure itself has been under scrutiny many times. According to the Los Angeles Times, during the Utah Winter Olympics,:

"...the revelations that International Olympic Committee members or their relatives had been given more than $1 million in cash, gifts and other inducements before Salt Lake City's bid had been approved.

Stung by the late 1998 revelations, the IOC cleaned house in 1999. Ten IOC members resigned or were expelled, and the IOC enacted a 50-point reform plan that included a ban on visits by members to cities bidding for the Games. Even if the case had gone to the jury, however, the prosecution might have been in trouble. At least eight jurors polled informally after the ruling expressed doubts about the government's case."

LA TImes Utah Olympics

There have been many other allegations as well. Indeed, in 2004 the BBC produced an entire documentary titled Buying the Games 

BBC documentary "Buying the Games"

Olympic Votes for Sale

At least the American Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney provided bizarre comic relief from all the delusional hype. During his visit to London he undiplomatically expressed his apprehensions about the quality of preparations for the games. As a politician he was obviously trying to probably trying to sell his skills at managing the Utah Winter Olympics that he had managed. However in the rush to draw attention to himself, he forgot that he was in London primarily to shake off his image as someone who lacked diplomatic skills in foreign affairs.

On another but not unrelated note, once again, India stands out as the second most populous in the world with medals in inverse proportion to its huge population base. India at least manages to get some medals now as compared to the team going home totally empty-handed year after year.