I must admit I never understood why the Olympic Games were given to China. OK, they promised more openness and freedom. But where is it? The Internet is censored, pro-Tibetan protesters are being arrested and the opening ceremony was partly faked.
But well of course there is at least one attractive reason to watch the Olympics: The male swimmers ;-) Michael Phelps is an incredible athlete! And nice to look at, too ;-)
But there were comments on German TV that really turned me off. One report was called: “Die Schwimmer: Begnadet oder nur gedopt?” (“The swimmers: Talented or only doped?”) ZDF heute, 12.08.2008. Another one titled: “Zum Ziel hin schneller: Gedopt?” (“Faster towards the end: Doped?”), ZDF heute journal, 15.08.2008.
And do you want to know why I did not like these reports? Because of all athletes participating in the Olympics they chose the American ones to ask the question whether they had well trained or maybe were just well doped. They did not mention any of the Chinese athletes although China is leading with 26 gold medals now, nor did they question the German swimmer Britta Steffen (congrats by the way!) who swom down her rival at the end of the race to win the gold medal.
The athletes that were explicitly mentioned in these reports were Michael Phelps, Dara Torres, Muna Lee and Allison Felix. All American. Which leads me to ask the following question:
“ZDF journalists: Objective or anti-American? Or maybe just doped?”
More on this in German by Dirk Maxeiner on the “Axis of Good”: “Mit dem Zweiten beim Rufmord in der ersten Reihe”
(The male readers of my blog might want to have a look at one of the German female Olympians here. Enoy!)