The IOC Held To Account....

Rex Murphy: Faster. Higher. Stronger. Dumber.

Posted: February 13, 2010, 9:00 AM by NP Editor Filed under: Rex Murphy

 

There have been a few odd, pre-Olympian moments of late, offering interesting aperçus on the eve of the official opening of the Vancouver Olympics. It turns out some 90 buses rented from California were judged not to be quite capable of making the grade up to Cypress Mountain. What did they expect — they’re California buses, probably all very green, with the carbon footprint of a ball of lint and emission standards lower than a rock. California buses don’t have engines: They have pedals. The IOC — high Lords of Olympus — forbade a 16-year-old Australian figure skater, Cheltzie Lee, from competing while wearing “a tiny good-luck charm bracelet she wears in memory of her dead friend”: A teenager’s honest sentiment fails to move the marble gods of the world’s greatest exercise in harmony and the formation of good character. The IOC claims the memorial bracelet comprises a form of “sponsorship,” and I guess to the myopic wizards of Olympic bureaucracy it is difficult to distinguish a memento on a 16-year-old wrist from the corporate billboards of the world’s voraciously advertising megamarketeers.

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