Good Riddance to the Vancouver Games

No more advertisements for the official credit card of the Olympics. No more advertisements for the cell phone partner or the fast food partner of the Olympics.

No more made-up sports that are supposed to appeal to young people used to X games, such as moguls, snowcross, aerials, and half-pipe. Vancouver had so little snow that it needed to be trucked and made. The electric green Zambonis at the speed skating venue showed that they made the ice worse, not better.

The International Olympic Committee has already decided that women should not ski jump anymore. Because the women’s hockey competition is mostly between the United States and Canada, there is danger that the Vancouver competition will be the last time women play hockey in the Olympics. Maybe other countries should make more of an effort but the result is what matters. U.S. women and Canadian women were a combined 90-5 until they faced each other for the gold medal. They had previously taken away women’s softball from the Summer Games. The Olympics is the only place where women can play fewer sports each year.

I also think it was a mistake letting professionals compete in the Olympic Games. Yes, the Russians and the Soviet bloc were paying their athletes, using the fiction that they were in the Army. This was true of ice hockey, swimming, basketball and other summer and winter sports. It was always cool when college kids played for the U.S. in basketball and ice hockey. Now our professional athletes can beat your professional athletes in hockey, tennis and basketball.

So when the Winter Olympics move to Russia, they will not need to make snow. The time change is so bad for the United States compared to Vancouver, that most sports will not be carried live.