Obviously, the Olympics as it currently exists has a lot of problems - building stadiums over poor neighbourhoods, using slave labor (or close to it), promoting nationalism, etc.
But do you think the concept of “People from different countries (or regions or whatever once borders are removed) around the world compete to see who can run the fastest, throw things the furthest, jump the highest, and so on, and win some kind of prize based on their performance” is a fundamentally good one or not?
And if it is good, how do you think it would be different to the regular Olympics?
Take away the national representation aspect and make it about celebrating human achievement. Everyone gets a chance to participate in athletic programs, the best athletes feed into the Olympic system, the games are about finding the best people and teams instead of the best national programs. Might still be a dumb waste of time, but I feel like the kernel of value in the Olympics is about showcasing what people can achieve with time, resources, and motivation to excel. I don’t think that’s against the spirit of a socialist/communist society.
I mean yeah, the trappings and context of the Olympics as-is would need to go. You could also make it a hell of a lot more efficient by not changing the venue literally every time.
It’s the concept of having a global athletic competition that might have some redeeming value, but not for the (ostensible) reasons that it was created in the first place.
The idea is that the new host undergoes a series of huge architectural projects in preparation for the games, and these building stay around as new fancy buildings for the locals to use. Of course it doesn’t really work out that way because capitalism, but I see no reason why we couldn’t continue that but have it actually do what it says on the box.
years ago, when streaming was in its infancy, I was watching China’s sports channel CCTV5 on sopcast. A very interesting event was taking place, it was like the opening of the Olympics, in which athletes would walk out led by a person holding up various flags. These flags were obviously not Nation flags, so I translated the title of the event and it was something like The National Proletarian Games. It turns out that State Factories would compete against each other in different sporting events. Probably a holdout form the Maoist period, wondering if they still take place? I think the USSR held a similar event?
This used to be more common than you think. At least in Europe. Soccer teams have started as company teams until the leagues became so big that it’s now about making money. PSV, Wolfsburg and Bayer Leverkusen were all teams formed by workers. Then you got teams like Crystal Palace, Real Madrid and all clubs from Belgium have monarchist beginnings. Which is why I hate these clubs.
Spartakiad
still classicism but the good kind
