Comment: The Paralympics, the Olympics for the disabled, began right after the Olympics in Brazil. For the first time in the 56 years since these games began only 12% of the tickets were sold (BBC [1]). The Paralympics were moved from the sports halls to open fields so that people wouldn’t have to pay. Many disabled sportsmen from different countries could not come to the games because their travel expenses were not paid.
Answer: Unfortunately, the Olympics have exhausted themselves. The sportsmen gather in order to beat each other. These aren’t Olympic games anymore; it isn’t a sports festival nor a celebration of man’s physical achievements. Politics, chemistry, and drugs have deeply penetrated the sports because the goal is now victory at any cost and not the actual cooperation and sportsmanship itself. Instead of being a festival of friendship, the Olympics have turned into a war! This is the reason that many don’t want to be involved in it anymore.
Comment: Even if we take the Paralympics as an example, the attitude toward these games has always been of compassion and mercy and people used to come to watch the games.
Answer: Today, there is no compassion or mercy. Once drugs and other additives have entered sports, they are no longer a sport but rather a competition between chemists, and this brought the end of it all.
Question: What kind of sport do you support?
Answer: I am totally for clean sports, when the sportsmen are not bought and are not paid. Sports should be for amateurs. It shouldn’t be a political event.
But humanity will not return to this sort of event in any form because it advances according to its growing egoism [2], and so the Olympics have exhausted themselves. The human ego will not let us hold such an event as a festival or a celebration. Fights and rough and tough competitions will not impress the audience. Eventually every branch of sports will come to an end, even soccer, because it is impossible to win a victory in sports with money [3].
Comment: Your predictions are not very optimistic.
Answer: These were my predictions even 15-20 years ago and they are even more relevant today. Some are actually beginning to come true today.
[192605]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 8/24/16
Related Material:
A Bloody Brawl In Marseilles [4]
Pros And Cons Of Sports [5]
Sports And The Future [6]