Lowell Cohn: Olympic Games are no longer fun

I used to believe in the Olympic Games. “Believe” being the operative word.

As a child, I found magic in these names - Rafer Johnson, Bobby Morrow, John Thomas. And later, Cassius Clay and Joe Frazier and George Foreman. There were more names. I could fill this entire column with names. Bob Mathias (from Tulare, went to Stanford), Bob Richards (The Vaulting Vicar), Wilma Rudolph, Carl Lewis, Floyd Patterson. On and on and on. The magic of magical names.

For me - as a child and young adult - the Olympics represented the height of human endeavor. Competition in its purest form. A realized ideal. And the Games showed the United States at its best. I felt overwhelmed by American pride. I covered two Olympics - Los Angeles in 1984 and Sydney in 2000. So I have form, as they say in detective novels.

But now I am skeptical because I looked behind the curtain, I’m not sure about the magic anymore. Or the truth of it all.

I see the Olympics as an advertising device - gimmick? - a publicity grab by the host country. I’ll get back to Brazil in a moment. In one way or another, the Games are all about money even if the host country goes into hock for the privilege of putting them on.

The athletes aren’t as pure as I thought. Maybe never were. Remember I was a kid when I believed.

All I know is this. They almost banned the entire Russian Olympic team for state-run, performance-enhancing drug cheating. Distrust of Russian athletes is so rampant you’d think these competitors were bank robbers. Many Russian athletes won’t get near the Games. That includes the track and field team. Total ban.

I love track and field in the Olympics. I also believe no man or woman who competes in the final of the 100 meters is on the level. Can’t be. Physically impossible. Every one of them has to be a drug freak who beat the tests. You don’t take something or other illegal and you can’t make the final.

Am I suspicious?

Hell yeah.

I probably should have been suspicious all along. But I was young and impressionable, and I took the world at face value.

Then there’s the issue of having the games in Rio de Janeiro. Nothing against Rio or Brazil. Beautiful city, beautiful country. But you read so many bad scary things.

Water pollution allegedly abounds where they’re staging sailing and long-distance swimming events. Brazil was supposed to clean up the water polluted by waste. But either did or didn’t. Note to swim competitors - wear gas masks. Note to participants in sailing - don’t fall out of the boat.

The Olympic Village is said to be a mess - it was clean and efficient in Sydney. You read about busted pipes, exposed electric wiring and clogged toilets in athlete housing. Maybe it’s all exaggerated. I only know what I read.

The Australian team already said no to the Village and is staying elsewhere. Not exactly an advertisement for the Village. The mayor of Rio offered to get the Australian team a kangaroo so the participants would feel at home. It’s not clear if Australia accepted the offer. Maybe the poor kangaroo would have died from the water.

You keep reading Rio isn’t safe. Criminals all over the place. I have no idea. Recently, a human foot washed up on a beach near the volleyball venue. What’s the occasional stray foot, anyway?

According to reports, two members of Australia’s Paralympic sailing team got robbed at gunpoint.

One New Zealand Jiu Jitsu guy - not competing in the Games - says armed bandits wearing military police uniforms forced him, at threat of death, to make huge withdrawals from two ATM machines. Not pleased, he tweeted, “What did you guys get up to yesterday? I got kidnapped.”

A sense of humor is helpful, although what happened to him doesn’t exactly boost the reputation of Jiu Jitsu. In a movie, he’d have knocked out the bandits and hand-delivered them to the cops. Life isn’t always like the movies.

It’s not Brazil’s fault, I guess, for the outbreak of the Zika virus in the country. But the virus and other negative conditions discouraged participation in the Games. Our own Stephen Curry isn’t playing on Team USA. Chris Paul never tried to join up. Also not competing is Argentina’s soccer star Lionel Messi.

Golf went up in flames. These top golfers aren’t participating: Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott. The list goes on. Because infection by the Zika virus can cause birth defects, Spain is equipping its athletes with 3,000 bottles of insect repellant. Some athletes have frozen their sperm before traveling to Rio. Are you kidding me?

You can read whatever you want into all these details. While you’re doing that, think this. Bad look for the Games. Bad look for Rio.

You wonder how Brazil can put on these monstrously expensive Games when so many of its citizens live in poverty. Talk about the haves and have-nots.

Things are so bad, Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff faced an impeachment trial and has been suspended as president pending a judgment in her case. On the positive side, she’s still living in the presidential residence until they do or don’t kick her out.

All that aside, let the Games begin.

For more on the world of sports in general and the Bay Area in particular, go to the Cohn Zohn at cohn.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.