Watching The Olympics

Try watching the Olympics in a mixed nationality household and it is mayhem.  Mr. Jules, who came third in the 600metres Swiss Championships aged 13 and thus sees himself as an authority, is convinced that all the British athletes are drugged.  He includes the sailors – whose skills, last time I looked, are purely tactical and cerebral – and now since the Norwegians were stripped of their medals after their horses tested positive, our horses too. 

But it is not just the British he objects to – the Jamaicans are also using performance enhancing drugs, especially Bolt (… and Phelps’ swimming briefs are solar powered).  He has been reading his bible The Weltwoche (right wing rag printed on recycled paper) which backs up his convictions with trumped up opinions and dredged up evidence by disgruntled Swiss journos.  He storms out of the kitchen (we tend to watch the daily round-up over dinner) whenever I switch to the BBC “because all they ever talk about is Team GB, not Switzerland or any other nation” - eh alors?  (Actually it is also because I have a crush on Michael Johnson).   Thus we are forced to watch the adrenalin charged Eurosports most of the time.  I say WE because in spite of living in Switzerland and having dual passports the munchkins have turned proudly British this week.  

Call me idealistic and naive but I refuse to believe that Usain Bolt and Team GB are taking drugs.  Usain is just a beautiful evolutionary freak of nature.  In any case to take Mr. Jules’ cynical view is to live in a world not worth living in or fighting for.

Round Two:  Mr. Jules is all fired up:  The Jamaican drug controller just happens to be the Jamaican team doctor; growth hormones cannot be detected 48 hours after use so they are freezing blood tests in the hope that someday they will be able to prove that growth hormones were used.  Then I presume they will go back and strip them all of their medals and what a sorry day that will be for us all. 

According to Mr. Jules, the only reason the Swiss have not excelled at these Olympics is because they are the only nation not taking drugs.  The Swiss are a proud bunch, but the reason they are not doing as well as they would wish at these Olympics is simply because they have neither a big enough talent pool to dip into or the means to exploit that talent. You can’t win them all.   

PS I suggested to Mr. Jules that maybe he only came third at the Swiss Championships in 1973 because the other two were drugged.  It was fleeting but I detected a momentary glint in the eyes. 

copyright Julesritter August 2008