Agonizingly being reminded of the raucous ceremonies and the various games of the current Olympic games In Paris. One may sense that maybe it is about time to revisit and restudy the traditionally noble purposes of the Games. Because even the typically celebratory opening ceremonies have come under heavy fire from many sources.
The Games were supposed to promote inspiration and emulation but may now be instead rearing the ugly heads of division and derision. And sadly this attitude prevails even among the medal winners, and not just among the many losers who are all going home empty-handed.
Now it appears that getting medals other than gold is actually losing, most especially if the competitors are "expected" to grab the highest trophy.
What happened to giving air and venue to man's passionate drives for excellence and the innate nobility of fair competition that formed part of the ethos of the Games? That one's mere membership and participation are honors enough to value throughout one's life, earning the time-honored title of Olympian?
Now, one has to always land at the top of the heap to maintain fame and status. Once you get older and thus made less perfect, out goes all the laurels. And worse, the next phase for the participants leads them to the money trails, for which many are off and running in pursuit. It even starts with the melt value of the medals themselves.
We appear to have lost our collective marbles as a species.
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So instead of the traditional mandate to: "Let the games begin", let us instead utter:
Let us try something else. This is getting boring. And crass.
And on another note. This time the awarding of medals for the winners.
It is customary to witness the gold medal recipient to immediately bite into it, ostensibly to seek affirmation that the medal is indeed made of the precious metal.
No such luck, and but we cannot say that it has been so over all those years. Though we can surmise that the medals are most probably made of the same stuff as they were years ago. Just realized there may be written standards set even on the metal composition and weight of Olympic medals.
Anyway as it stands, this is what we witnessed from the last Olympics, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics medals that were handed out to exultant winners. This data we gathered because the Japanese authorities made particular attention to the creation of their medals.
From some rough estimates made by me here are the lowdowns.
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The three medals, gold, silver, and bronze weigh from 450grams to maybe 556grams, or about half a kilo on average, with gold weighing the most.
The gold medal is essentially made of silver with maybe 6 grams of gold, good enough to be used for plating. The silver medal true to its name is made up of pure silver. And bronze of brass and zinc, so not much intrinsic value. Based on this and the prevailing prices of precious metals, a gold medal might now command a price of a thousand dollars, selling the gold and silver content in it, and silver maybe about a little above 500 dollars. Never mind the bronze medal.
Getting any idea where this is going?
The revered and time-seasoned Olympic Games idolized by the world have always been about excellence in sport and symbolism. Rank the best performers with their shown performances in competition and award them medals for their sterling accomplishments, the ranking and composition of the medals clearly symbolism for us to revere and behold. Nothing denoting the awarding of financial awards to winners.
How things have changed though the Games have steadfastly remained the same. Immediately upon winning financial windfalls are factored in like these too could compete in another contest, this time in value and size.
Winning athletes are expected to start following the money trails, in hot pursuit of their "just rewards". The world would appear disappointed if the winners lose out in this other contest.
And we fear that the world is more concerned and interested in this other contest.
