  It's been a long time since I watched the Olympics. The fact that I don't have cable and thus no channels on my TV to choose from not withstanding, I just haven't been interested in it for years. It seems to me that the Olympics is no longer about being higher, faster or stronger, it's all about money. It's no longer about coming together to compete in a spirit of brotherhood, it's about gathering as many sponsorships as possible.
Doping scandals, judging scandals, bombings, etc.. has only deepened my cynicism all the more. Never mind that every country that donated funds to help build the new IOC complex in Switzerland have all received the Games, or that judges have received huge bribes, er, I mean gifts from committee's trying to bring the games to their city. So much for the purity of sport. Now here's the latest. The Iranian Judo champion rigged his weigh-in to be found overweight so that he wouldn't have to fight an Isreali competitor. He was disqualified from the meet. According to Abdollah Ramanzanzadeh, a spokesperson for the Iranian government, it would be against: "[O]ur policy to recognize the Zionist regime in any international event. We cannot accept the presence of anyone in international events under the flag of that regime. " Heaven forbid that Muslims and Jews actually meet on a field of battle where they can't actually kill each other. Admittedly, Isreal is not a shining example of religious tolerance, but Iran is hardly one to throw stones either. At best, the Olympics are supposed to be about putting aside political differences and competing together as athletes first.
At worst, it's about settling international differences using sport as the proving ground instead of the battlefield. What Iran has done flies in the face of those ideals. What has the IOC to say about this? Nothing, not a peep. According to IOC representative Giselle Davies: "The issue has not actually come on the agenda of the IOC," she said at today's press conference. I guess it would be too much to expect the IOC to take a moral stand on this issue. Haven's know that they've never done it before. 
