If you have followed the recent Winter Olympic Games, dear reader, you will have noted that Murphy’s Law had been highly at play, if anything can go wrong, it will. There were several accidents, both indoors and outdoors, equipment malfunctions, and unwarranted costumes and/or decorations. Some of the medals awarded fell to pieces with the slightest pressure on them due to improper manufacture. There were awarded medals which were questionable, resulting in personal and national enmity. And, of course, there were teams which were not allowed to participate because their countries were opposed by other countries. In short, Winter Olympics 2026 was an event which never should have occurred.
Once upon a time, the Olympic Games were a friendly rivalry between the amateur athletes of the world. The contestants met, displayed their skills, collected whatever awards they could, and returned home filled with exhilaration over the experience. Even if they did not collect any awards, they were still hailed as heroes and heroines by the home-town folks. And they pledged to be better four years hence.
Post-World War II, the Games became political footballs as the rivalry took on ideological overtones whereby national governments vied with each other for domination on the athletic field and looked upon their athletes as soldiers on a battle field. Moreover, the big cities of the world vied with each other for the siting of the Games; huge sums of money were spent to influence (read: bribe) the Olympic selection committee in the hopes of reaping an enormous monetary bonanza. As it happened, many cities lost their collective shirts. (Only one city in the history of the Games lucked out.) The athletes themselves were pressured to win at any cost and to “bring home the gold.” Many contestants resorted to using illegal body-building chemicals and lost face when they were discovered. The final scheme was the recruitment of professional athletes to give the home team an edge.
And then there was television in all of this. TV networks viewed the Games as a “cash cow,” and they too vied with each other, spending large sums of money for the “right” to televise the Games. They re-couped their expenditures with expensive advertisements. And let us not forget that the advertisers themselves sought to re-coup their expenses by employing television and movie celebrities to hawk their products.
Truly, “the love of money is the root of all evil” (Timothy 6:10).
Verily, the Olympic Games have become a tool of capitalism. The athletes must spend large sums of money for training, housing, and equipment unless they can either be subsidized by their government or depend upon donations by sympathetic individuals and/or organizations. Worse, they fall prey to the latter which, in exchange for the largesse, forces the athletes to sign contracts to appear in the advertisements.
Gone is the innocence, the camaraderie, and the spirit of the Games.
The Coddington Agenda recommends the following:
•Place the International Olympic Committee and the national committees under the auspices of the United Nations, which would provide their funding.
•Staff the above committees with former Olympic athletes on a 50-50 basis.
•Require member nations to subsidize their Olympic hopefuls fully for their training, uniforms, housing, meals, and a monthly stipend for incidentals.
•Establish a permanent home for both the Summer Games and the Winter Games, e.g. Switzerland.
•Forbid the recruitment of professional athletes for the Games.
•Require that the television coverage of the Games be limited to reports at the end of each day.
•Maintain a minimum of security personnel to avoid turning the Games into military installations.
We may not restore completely the innocence, the camaraderie, and the spirit of the Games, but at least we can avoid the capitalist hucksterism which currently despoils them.
Just a thought.