The Olympic Spirit vs. the Profit Motive

The impeccable writing and reporting that characterizes the consistently charismatic content of the Princeton Alumni Weekly exposes how the Olympics has become a predominantly craven commercial concern for calculated corporate benefit (“The Long Road to Paris,” July/August issue). The Olympic spirit was originally a globally shared thrill at human athletic excellence, celebrated magnanimously outside of all politics and nationalities. But inevitably, in the course of human events, such dreams get cloudy and become obscured.

The Olympics devolved into a showcase for nationalist egos and political scorekeeping. And though the original grand and noble Olympic spirit is still trumpeted as the theme of the spectacle, this is now only a marketing smokescreen. Regrettably the Olympics now is primarily and predominantly the cash cow for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), its television partners, and the associated corporate sponsors. All else about the spectacle is subordinate to this reality.

The PAW reflects as much, reporting how “Alarmed to see the age of the average Olympic TV viewer creep up, the International Olympic Committee and its television partners have embraced sports that skew younger and edgier ... .” Cha-ching. Perhaps singer/songwriter Cyndi Lauper in 1983 was onto something when, for her debut album, she recorded the song “Money Changes Everything.”