The IOC seems to be having concerns over the U.S. handlement of the games.  


[b]Chariots of ire: is US jingoism tarnishing the Olympic ideal?[/b]

[size=1][i]Duncan Mackay in Salt Lake City
Friday February 15, 2002
The Guardian[/size=1][/i]

The wave of American jingoism and intense security that has marked the first week of the Winter Olympics here has led to senior officials of the International Olympic Committee privately expressing concerns about whether the US can ever stage another Olympic event.

The games have already been dubbed the "red, white and blue Olympics" because almost every event has patriotic overtones in the wake of the terrorist attacks on September 11. Nationalism has always been a part of the Olympics but IOC officials here feel the event is being used simply as propaganda for the US war effort.

"This is a show designed to send a message to Osama bin Laden," said one IOC member. "President Bush is saying: 'Look at us: you bombed us but you can't stop us going about our normal lives.' But that is not what the Olympic Games are supposed to be about."

The IOC is embarrassed that the very public presence of the 15,000 police and military is projecting a tense and uncomfortable atmosphere for an event that, since its first staging in 1924, has been a sedate, friendly festival. There are more American security personnel here than in Afghanistan and three times as many as were present at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles during the cold war with the Soviet Union.

"Bush wants to show the American public that he can guarantee their security and they have nothing to worry about," said the IOC member.

The heavy-handed security operation could have serious repercussions for a proposed bid from New York for the 2012 Summer Olympics. IOC officials have been speculating openly that if it requires this much effort to protect an isolated area in the midwest, then how many troops would be needed to secure the world's most famous city. "It just can't happen," said another IOC member.

From being forced to back down in the row over using the flag recovered from the World Trade Centre ruins at the opening ceremony to the overt security operation, the lords of the rings are angry.

The tone was set during the opening ceremony when President Bush broke with protocol by opening the games from a position among a group of US athletes. He then departed from the Olympic charter when he put the words "On behalf of a proud, determined and grateful nation", in front of the official line, "I declare open the Games of Salt Lake City..."


Read the rest of the article:
[url]sport.guardian.co.uk/olympics/story/0,10308,650452,00.html[/url]

Waaaaaaaaahhh!!  [>Q]

We have enough corruption here as it is, let 'em go some place else! This fiasco has cost us (the taxpayer) several billion.....

Here's an idea to please "The Guardian".  (Well, besides requiring all Americans to turn in their weapons to end crime.)

We dismiss all of the security and move the detainees from Guantanamo to Salt Lake City, where we release them to their respective countries and award them all medals.

Everyone goes home and lives happily ever after!!

The IOC, NCAA, The Red Cross, The United Way and the Mafia - all criminal organizations but I would only trust one to deal with - The Mafia.

As far as I'm concerned, you can through the UN in there with the others.  Their so-called "ideal" is about as real (and as dated) as Ozzie & Harriet.  While once the Olympics did set some sort of a standard of excellence, with the years the steroids, 'performance' drug scandals, corruption around site 'competition', judging hanky-panky, enrichment of developers, and commercialism, they set the bar for today's youth, but it's not the high-jump bar, it's LIMBO!!!  How low can you go?

If they are thinking to never again host any events in the U.S., my only comments are
A) Just Dew IT!!
B) Take the UN with you, pleaaase.

To me, all that's worth watching (shooting, hockey, biathalon) could be combined into the X-games.  The rest would be better off being played on a local basis & forget the international competition.