Olympics - Ancient tribal rivalries - do we need them?

[Purrybonker]

I'm a US/Canada citizen with heavy family ties to a few European nations.

Lately I've been thinking about why I feel a visceral need to support this group or that group in watching the Olympics.

Why do we do this?

Why do we cheer for our "team"?

How does such behavior possibly advance the human condition?

Seems like there are more downsides possible here than upsides.

Just askin...

[look 171]

I suppose its in our nature to belong or to have ownership?

I always cheer for the underdogs such as gifted athletes from smaller nations that are not normally in metal contention. Of course there's the the ones that I cheer for because I read lots about them or have some ties to them like our woman cyclist Megan Jastrab. Her father grew up with my childhood friend's wife.

[KFC911]

I enjoy watching for the competition, and usually don't even have a favorite to pull for... but usually root for underdawgs .... whether US team sports, Olympics, etc. I have no problem with folks who are tribal... pulling for their team, country, etc.

I don't have a tribe

.....same applies to politicks, and many other aspects of life.

But I am a Pelican

[sc_rufctr]

I love the Olympics and I'm always sad when they end.

- It's a truly world event and it's great for our young people who want to have a go.

[TCracingCA]

I look for Hot looking Olympic women, and root for them!

[ZOO]

I think it would be cool to include a personal best score in the Olympics . . . keep track of how many athletes achieve it at the event. Could be a column in the medal tables.

[Tervuren]

Having seen the results via computer games of what happens when you break up the faction based player vs player to make it all solo que I'm in favor of these "tribal rivalries" in sports.

What country does, it gives you a set of teammates that you have to rise or fall together with.
You can't just run over and find whoever wherever.
It means that to win, you want to improve the land you are from.
Without it, you just take from whichever.
Without it, it is all self centered.

The country based structure provides a social connection that makes it less about self.
Unfortunately, this year, some seem to have gone delusional and have gone full on self-centered.
However, hopefully the relevent societies correct that.

[sc_rufctr]

Originally Posted by ZOO

I think it would be cool to include a personal best score in the Olympics . . . keep track of how many athletes achieve it at the event. Could be a column in the medal tables.

Excellent idea.

[ficke]

Originally Posted by Purrybonker

I'm a US/Canada citizen with heavy family ties to a few European nations.

Lately I've been thinking about why I feel a visceral need to support this group or that group in watching the Olympics.

Why do we do this?

Why do we cheer for our "team"?

How does such behavior possibly advance the human condition?

Seems like there are more downsides possible here than upsides.

Just askin...

Why you ask these questions and why no one had the answers just shows how far we are from the point of the 'Olympics' and why what we have now is not even close to the concept of the Olympics that it should be called some thing else.

The Olympic competitions were to help discourage war, to personalize your enemy on a battle field where you can show your military prowess with out killing each other and then have a beer after wards and laugh, talk discuss the days events with the enemy, as equals and maybe friends.
All modern Olympic sports originally were military skills that could be measured, no judges and skills that were used in battle. Shooting, fencing, running, wrestling, spear chucking, etc.
Now we have synchronized swimming, Diving, skate board dancing and bicycle dancing (not a measured race, but judged on style like dancing and unlikely used by soldiers on a battle field) beach volley ball, where the women have to were bikini bottoms or they get fined https://www.npr.org/2021/07/21/1018768633/a-womens-beach-handball-team-is-fined-for-not-wanting-to-wear-bikini-bottoms because it is more of a sex show than a competition.
Calling what we have now the 'Olympics' is a bad joke and so far removed from the original concept that it makes me not want to support it or want to watch it or participate in it in any way.

[LEAKYSEALS951]

Olympics help the BIKINI thread. So there.

[GH85Carrera]

Almost everyone pulls for the local team. It goes for Jr. High school games to the pros. Most of the fans for a team, live close by. It gives fans a sense of sharing in the glory of a win.

The Olympics has become almost a cartoon version of the first modern Olympics. Some of the events are downright laughable. Track and field and the speed swimming are some of the few remaining real sports. We all pick on synchronized swimming as a silly one, yet it takes a lot of hard work to get to that level.

Personally any of the events that have a judge to tell us who is the best and the winner, is just a popularity contest. If it can't be measured with a stop watch it is just another fancy way to dance.

[mattdavis11]

Well said., ficke. I lost interest after the 1984 Olympics when they began allowing professionals to compete. It would be much more entertaining if the atheletes had to compete to make a mark on the world level, rather than get paid for an all expense included vacation for nothing because they got the "twisties".

[Tervuren]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

Almost everyone pulls for the local team.

Third in line, one of the reasons I stopped watching the NFL.
Realizing just how shallow the location based names of these teams are.

[Evans, Marv]

Originally Posted by TCracingCA

I look for Hot looking Olympic women, and root for them!

This. I also think it's great when competitors from small countries win. I don't feel anything one way or another which country wins.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by Evans, Marv

This. I also think it's great when competitors from small countries win. I don't feel anything one way or another which country wins.

It is nice to see any of the athletes wrap themselves in the flag of their country and feel proud of themselves and their country. If they kneel or protest, pack them up, and send em home, and eliminate them from any future Olympics. No matter what country the come from.

[Deschodt]

I'm normally rooting for home. But the coverage (in the USA this year) is so sappy and overtly nationalistic these days that I sometimes find myself gagging and rooting for the other guys. Especially "losers" from a small nation, some poor dude that clearly has less means and trained in a shoebox eating crackers. Weird, huh ?

The pre-event personal pieces are constant "Joe Schmoe is an American hero, as a child he was walking home in the snow uphill both ways to the projects and his apartment has no roof, he is deaf from having contracted raging syphillis when he was raped by his uncle, etc..." - a bit much - or the blatant commentator dissing the other country team when they are clearly better, plain and simple, or the way we count total medals now (because china has more gold)... Meh, I enjoy watching us (the US) get slapped in the face *occasionally* (esp when the puff piece was particularly bad) and the walking back of leigh diffey, it's good for the soul. Kinda bummed the women got bronze in soccer, I was rooting for them to lose..

Also, 13y olds olympian skateboarding ? WTF, is it Xgames now ? I should enter in bocci ball or something, I want a medal too ;-)

[jcommin]

Originally Posted by Purrybonker

I'm a US/Canada citizen with heavy family ties to a few European nations.

Lately I've been thinking about why I feel a visceral need to support this group or that group in watching the Olympics.

Why do we do this?

Why do we cheer for our "team"?

How does such behavior possibly advance the human condition?

Seems like there are more downsides possible here than upsides.

Just askin...

I had the fortune of being in Germany, France and England during the World Cup in 2006. What an amazing experience. It was a national event. I have never experienced a event where the an entire country celebrates and cheers their national team. I was in France when the French team was playing in the tournament. That night, the streets, restaurants and shops were empty because everyone was home watching the game.

I traveled to the UK later that week and there were many national flags hanging from homes. I was staying at a hotel on a Saturday night the same time the English team was playing. There was a wedding going on in their banquet room. Men from the wedding came to the bar to watch the game. I chuckled to a colleague " do you think we could get away with that at home if there was a football game on, probably not". Soon after, woman and children from the wedding came to the bar to watch the game. I have never seen such national pride.

So as the Olympics are played, I understand the nationalism. Putting it closer to home, I'm old enough to remember the national pride to beat the Russians to the moon and the campaign to do just that. BTW, we did.

[drcoastline]

I like cheering for the underdog as well, unless they are competing against a America then I cheer for America, unless of course the American athlete/team is anti American, then I cheer the other team massacre's them.

[Tobra]

Originally Posted by ficke

Why you ask these questions and why no one had the answers just shows how far we are from the point of the 'Olympics' and why what we have now is not even close to the concept of the Olympics that it should be called some thing else.

The Olympic competitions were to help discourage war, to personalize your enemy on a battle field where you can show your military prowess with out killing each other and then have a beer after wards and laugh, talk discuss the days events with the enemy, as equals and maybe friends.
All modern Olympic sports originally were military skills that could be measured, no judges and skills that were used in battle. Shooting, fencing, running, wrestling, spear chucking, etc.
Now we have synchronized swimming, Diving, skate board dancing and bicycle dancing (not a measured race, but judged on style like dancing and unlikely used by soldiers on a battle field) beach volley ball, where the women have to were bikini bottoms or they get fined https://www.npr.org/2021/07/21/1018768633/a-womens-beach-handball-team-is-fined-for-not-wanting-to-wear-bikini-bottoms because it is more of a sex show than a competition.
Calling what we have now the 'Olympics' is a bad joke and so far removed from the original concept that it makes me not want to support it or want to watch it or participate in it in any way.

Came here to say this

[id10t]

Originally Posted by mattdavis11

Well said., ficke. I lost interest after the 1984 Olympics when they began allowing professionals to compete. It would be much more entertaining if the atheletes had to compete to make a mark on the world level, rather than get paid for an all expense included vacation for nothing because they got the "twisties".

My grandmother was the secretary to the GM for the '32 games and helped coordinate the volunteer effort for the '84 games. She thought that allowing pros was OK but only for demonstration games, actual competition should remain firmly with the amateurs, or at least non-paid folk.


If anyone in the LA area needs a free generator, you could probably find grandma's grave and hook one up and get a few hundred kilowatts of energy from her rotations every 4 years....