Apology time for bladdy Olympic agents

2012-08-13 08:24

Chris Moerdyk

Once again, the Olympic Games had me captivated, enchanted and occasionally in tears.

The TV coverage was outstanding and I have to say that the organisation around each event was absolutely impeccable, professional and pretty much spot on time.

Which brings me to my favourite gripe about massive global events such as the Olympic Games and World Cup Football.

When in Hades will the local media and all those pessimistic party-poopers in host countries start to realise that their depressing, negative, doomsday talk in the run-up has become boring?

Before the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, the Australian media were wringing their hands and gnashing their teeth with daily claims that the event would be as disaster.

It was spectacular success.

Pessimism

The global press got on the pessimism bandwagon with the Beijing Olympics and it was an even more spectacular success.

The Greeks nearly gave the media apoplexy by timing their readiness run right up until the last minute but once again, it was not only a spectacular success but even more spectacular than Sydney.

Then came our own 2010 World Cup which scores of bladdy agents were being supported by the media in their conviction that South Africa would stuff it up completely. We didn’t. In fact, it was a superbly-spectacular success.

The same has happened with the London Olympics. The British media got their knickers in all sports of knots about how the UK was going to cock it up. Even the US Presidential hopeful, Mitt Romney, got on the bandwagon with disparaging remarks.

One just has to Google "Olympics criticism" to see the hundreds of news items featuring people not only claiming the Olympics would be a disaster but also all those whingers and whiners complaining about everything from the fact that a fast food company was a sponsor to some remote backwoods community saying they were not standing to gain anything from the London Games.

Nothing left to chance

It is actually pathetic to see how negative some many people can be.

The same is going to happen with the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and two years later the Olympic Games there.

You watch, the media and know-alls will soon start banging on about how the World Cup and games will be disasters.

The will not have learnt by now, that because there is so much money involved, organisations such as the IOC and Fifa don’t leave anything to chance. They are both hard taskmasters and kick butt with abandon to make sure everything goes well.

These aren’t bunches of amateurs organising these things. These are people so powerful that when they tell presidents and prime ministers of host countries to jump even the most draconian of them will ask how high.

Anyway, I hope that all those bladdy negative agents will apologise once again, just like all those after the 2010 World Cup.

From my point of view, I enjoyed every minute of London 2012. It was brilliant.

Proudly South African

I am so incredibly proud of those South Africans who brought home the medals.

They made me jump for joy and thrilled to be a South African.

I am not in the least bit disappointed,  as I am quite sure President Zuma and SASCOC's Sam Ramsamy are because our athletes failed to bring home the "12 medals for 2012" that they demanded.

Well done Team SA. Well done London 2012. Well done DSTV. You were all bloody brilliant.               

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