Olympic Controversies by ETHAN

Every four years the best athletes around the world gather in one city to relive the athletic spirit and compete against each other represent their country, and………….to go for the gold. Athletes come together and enjoy this special event every four years after hard training. Not only do the athletes come together, but so do the billions of spectators. Everybody considers the Olympics a fun and lively event, but sometimes the Olympics aren’t always perfect. Many times controversies arise and sometimes things go out of hand and people get banned from the Olympics. But why does this happen?

Here a few major controversies in this year’s Beijing Olympics:

1) Steroids: Many men and women take steroids to improve their performance during the competitions, but the drugs are illegal because they don’t show the true athlete and the drugs are also illegal.

2) Opening Ceremony Faults: It is said that the Chinese girl singing in the Olympic Ceremony was lip-synching to the words of another Chinese girl. The girl who actually sang the song happened to not be the best looking but had the best voice, so they took her own voice and took a prettier girl to sing the song.

3) Racist Pictures: Many countries like to show that they have the Olympic spirit and this year’s Asian spirit due to the host country. But did Spain’s basketball team picture go too far? During team photos for Spain, the players were pressing their fingers against their temples to show the Asian Spirit but China took the actions seriously and thought of it as racist. Being racist was not Spain’s intent.

4) Did China Cheat? : Recently, during women’s gymnastics, China won gold in a few events. Many athletes from other countries are arguing whether or not the athletes from china were underage! In the Chinese newspaper the next day, the newspaper stated that the gold winner was 14 rather that at least 16.

5) Restricted Government Officials: George Bush was attempted to not be permitted to the Olympic ceremony but Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe President, was restricted from coming to the opening ceremony. George Bush was attempted to be restricted from the Olympic ceremony because before the ceremony because he was criticizing China. Mugabe was not allowed at the ceremony because many people don’t agree with his past actions towards his own people in Zimbabwe.

Despite these major and minor problems in the Olympics, many of the other athletes focus on their commitments rather than veering off out of their path. In the end the Olympics turns out fine. After all the Olympics is about getting together as one world and competing together fairly.