I've always been a touch mystified by fervor over the Olympic Games. Yes, all those athletes competing at the highest levels are very impressive, but if you don't watch swim meets on something like a regular basis, why would you get worked up by them on a quadrennial schedule? Moreover, given how massive sports infrastructure projects almost never lead to long-term benefits for hosting municipalities, I have to agree with Frank Deford that bidding to host the Olympics "is like bidding to host an epidemic."
That said, I was struck by a BBC article on a team of Olympic athletes, composed entirely of refugees from various conflicts, which is to compete in the Rio 2016 games. In some sense, I suppose it's a heart-warming and inspirational story. Nonetheless, it strikes me as a shocking indictment of the current age of horrors visited on too-large swaths of this sad world.
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