I think the Olympics in particular are mostly supposed to be a less violent outlet for nationalism, but I think we learned from the Anger Management craze that safe outlets lead to a normalization and more of the original problem.

> Am I supposed to root for the Chinese-Australians as if they're any more representative of me than the Chinese-Canadians?

It's particularly damning that you picked two countries with almost entirely modern colonial populations.

The second best male player in the world* is as an ethnic Swede.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truls_M%C3%B6reg%C3%A5rdh

no serious fan of the sport would agree. not even truls would consider him to be the 2nd best in the world. but yes, he did have an amazing run to the silver

Financially RoI? probably, but there is more to life and sport allows you to do this.

Absolutely but you can enjoy playing a sport without making it your primary way to make a living is the point being made.

I would imagine people operating at an Olympic level are training and breathing the sport so much it's hard to have a normal career on top that isn't also related to the sport.

Then you see the Australian breakdancer and you see they are all in it for the fun.

With her, I got the impression that it was some political protest thing, although I'm not sure I see the connection.

Nah, she's grifting now too. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c938l80ekejo

Breakdancing should never had made it into the Olympics. Breakdancing is art or it's not. It's certainly not sport.

Cf. Rhythmic gymnastics free routine is borderline but there's a whole bunch more set pieces the young women do with balls and hoops which are sport. Figure skating is also borderline but does have figures and set moves and a high physical danger factor (you try leaping high, at speed on the ice, or being lifted). Freestyle skiing doesn't belong in the Olympics.

The ancient Greeks separated arts into the Pythian Games at Delphi, which celebrated Apollo and featured competitions in music, poetry and drama ... plus athletics. Rather than including the arts in the Olympics perhaps an international quadrennial Pythian Games should be established.

Agree. Shame it made it into the Olympics over the likes of Squash or other sports that clearly have an international appeal and following.

I stopped thinking it was cool when athletes were prohibited from publishing their diaries because it violated some "exclusive media rights" deal. that was pretty much the last time I paid any real attention to it.

I knew 2 former UFC fighters (circa 2010/2016) that got USD 20K in average for their fights. The issue is that this does not cover 100% of the whole preparation that they need to be in the octagon. For instance, from little things since food and flight tickets, going to special medication (one of them was suspended by the USDA and got banned from UFC), sparring, fighting camping, and so on. One of them told me that the UFC was only the marketing for his personal Jiu Jitsu academy as a top of the pipeline for new students.

>USDA

You meant USADA, right?

Can confirm, noting that the $20k actually on the higher end for a UFC figher. Most UFC fighters get paid significantly less than $20k as pay is based on a fighter's "seniority" as measured by UFC matches fought (see https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2024/05/ufc-fight-night-241-v...).

While Dana White is worth $$$$ and on the board of Meta.