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Have We Broken the Limits of Human Possibility?

03/22/2006

I watched about five minutes of the Commonwalth Games last night. Just enough to watch Australian mixed medley team swim so fast for the gold medal that the rest of the field didn't even feel their wake. Celebrations were in full swing before Shri Lanka even competed their final lap and I believe the world record was shattered. Is that kind of speed humanly possible?

I'm not playing the usual NZ vs Australia line here, I don't really buy into that rubbish, what I am interested in is what exactly we are achieving by breaking the limits of human possibility, using people who are literally athletic machines. Dad let out a sigh aftre the race at how it's all about being one step ahead of the drug tests these days, that and massive, massive funding. The great Kiwi athletes of the past were ordinary people, they went to work like everyone else, and achieved the extra ordinary in their own time. They were never paid to do it.

Nowdays with all the money involved, the investors demand a return, seemingly at any cost. Can we as the human race really feel proud of those tiny girls who have been packed off to gymnastics school and never experienced a proper childhood or should we just feel sorry for them?

Yes the records keep getting broken, yes, I also take great joy out of seeing the true limits to what we can achieve. But this doesn't seem to be an accurate measure any more, just a bunch of drugged up machines who must win at all costs. There is no human triumph there.

10:45 Posted in Chatting | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this

Comments

I think you make a good point demonstrative. what is the point of the endless swimming, running, punching, and so on. As Jason Ackermanis said (you probably don't know him as he is an AFL player), it is no longer the sporting industry but an entertainment industry. I think him to be correct. So it is no longer about sport it is about entertainment and then it all makes sense., As they used to say in the 60s and 70s, "its caned man". Australia and New Zealand are affluent countys, we have the luxury of spending time being entertained and what better way than with sport. The down side is the characters in sport have gone. They are to unpredicable and you don't know what they are going to do next. The corporatization of sport can't tolerate them as there is too many dollars at stake, and when that happens people need to be predictable. So the rules change and the the players are managed more tightly. In other words, hang a carrot of big dollars in front of them and they will jump through any hoop you want. There is a blog posting in this. Graffiti

Posted by: Graffiti | 03/27/2006

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