TORONTO – I am not embarrassed to admit that the athleticism of Olympians, male or female, approaches the levels of bewildering ability. From an individual contestant’s perspective, there is little to compare with the achievements of the human body in Track and Field or the acrobatics on the gym floor. This comes from a former coach in track. 

That said, the achievements of equally skilled athletes in team sports challenges the individual ability to work in concert with equally- driven team-mates to overcome a different “collective’s” matching goals. For that reason, I was disappointed that neither the Women’s soccer team nor the Men’s basketball squad was able to advance further.

In some respects, I am very parochial – I tend to cheer for my own, especially if they exhibit talent beyond the ordinary. So yes, I felt badly when our Canadian lads lost to the French side. One of those Canadian players was Dillon Brooks (hooray!), a graduate/alum from a basketball program I set up when a small group of teachers were tasked to start up a Catholic High School (Fr. Henry Carr) in North Etobicoke, Toronto. Not bragging; the program would have done much better if its senior coach (me) had known what he was doing… or if Dillon had been on the team. Alas, his parents were not yet born.

As to our women’s soccer team, I think they won the hearts of everyone in Canada for the grit they showed to overcome off-field shenanigans. The IOC and its French counterparts could not escape the criticism that surfaced regarding their propensity to favour the home side. While athletes, ours as well as those of others’, gave the competition their very best, the organizers gave a “performance” that was matched only by the polluted and toxic waters of the river Seine.

One wonders what fills the empty space between the ears possessed by the nutbars of the aristocracy that runs the IOC. That Committee really does operate as if it is above and beyond the reach of mere humans. They treat everyone with disdain.

The opening ceremonies went out of their way to insult, denigrate and spew hatred on the beliefs of the almost two billion Christians around the world and the creativity of the culture they have spawned everywhere. There is a certain irony that it would take place in the same month and in the same the country where, in 1789, 100,000 citoyens were sacrificed to achieve the ideals of the Enlightenment, during the Reign of Terror, at the hands of self-serving zealots trying to efface to old in favour of a new “inclusion”: it’s our way or that of Madame la Guillotine ‘s.

From what should have been a sporting competition to one where athletes were/are compelled to sleep in overheated, poorly ventilated rooms, resort to eating worm-infested foods, to insisting that swimmers compete in the fetid bacteria-laden river Seine, the host country stank.

Previously, international bodies like the IOC and other Sporting Institutions were known for their weaknesses in the face of corruption and cost overruns. These Olympics added a different kind of putrid to the mix. Vive la difference.