I love the Olympics in it’s current form, but I love the idea of what it could be even more.

The Olympics (particularly the summer Olympics) should be a much bigger deal that it is currently. It is where we as a species gather in a series of stadiums across the world that would put the roman colosseum to shame in order to discover the limits of the human potential. Who is the fastest, who can jump the highest, run the furthest, who represents the greatest of our species.

The Olympics in it’s current form is a missed opportunity for a much greater event.

I would propose the following changes:

  • Two weeks only from start to finish: The world should come to a halt and it’s attention should be captured for 14 days every 4 years.

  • No heats, no semis: These should be conducted before the official two week start date to keep athletes fresh for record breaking attempts in finals.

  • Maximum 50ish events per sex: No skateboarding, artistic swimming, shooting, etc. No having 100 different swimming events, no ping pong. Have 50 core events and make them MATTER.

  • No overlapping events: With less then 100 events in 14 days, no events would need to overlap. Have a global telecast broadcasting 15ish hours of events each day with breaks in between for commentary and building up the next event.

  • Medals = Money: Make medals worth big money. Gold medal athletes under this model would receive at minimum $50M USD either from their country or the governing body. World records should be $1B. If the attention is that of the world cup, current Olympics, and all political elections combined, this is feasible.

What are your thoughts, and why would this not be possible with enough support?

  • StewmungousBEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    I hate no heats or semis. I hate the event cap. I hate no overlapping events. I hate your proposal.

    “The world comes to a halt” How do you propose that. You basically want a mandate that the entire world fixate on the same thing at the same time. But this assumes everyone in the world should have the same interest. You envision this as a utopian vision of unity. I see this as a dystopian nightmare of enforced homogeny. People should be allowed to like what they like. Only because people choose to watch something does it have any value. As is the Olympics is remarkable because so many people of free will do tune in at once.

    In addition to literally being a fascist vision dictating what everyone should be interested in, it’s just impractical and dumb. I could go on into why there is no magical pot of money to draw from and the existing source of network money woul dry up because you’ve just massively cut the hours of programming, but honestly I’m a little mad at myself for engaging as much as I have with this assinine proposal as is