Welcome to the Olympic celebration!

The NBC talking heads tell us repeatedly that the Olympic games are a celebration of dedication and sacrifice, with homage paid to martyr-like mothers whose support make success possible. But mainstream media narratives notwithstanding, the games are a celebration of wealth, technology, self-absorbed athletes, and monopoly capitalism—something that people from wealthy, high tech, medal winning corporate capitalist states now see as normal.

     
Those tuning into the spectacle won’t be told that 80 of the 204 nations participating in London have never won a medal, and another 51 claim less than 5 medals in Olympic history. Some nations have not won a medal for at least 40 years. But many wealthy nations have enjoyed much success with the U.S. winning 2,549 medals and various configurations of Russia/USSR and Germany winning 1755 and 1,698, respectively, since the modern games began in 1896.

China and India with over 35 percent of the world’s population have won 429 and 20 medals respectively, with all of China’s medals being won since 1984 when wealth began to accumulate for some people. Furthermore, the generally poor nations that have won medals often are represented by athletes who have trained in the U.S., Canada, or Western Europe or benefited from resources delivered to their region by talent scouts and athletic training missionaries from wealthy nations here there are resources to travel the world and spot medal winning potential amidst poverty and then help to train them.

Even in wealthy countries, a disproportionate share of medals is won by athletes from well-off families. We’ve heard more than a few times that women made up half of Britain’s 2012 Olympic team but little is said about half of the team attending exclusive private schools and training in sports that require resources that are out of reach for 90-percent of living human beings. If data on the socio-economic status of Olympian’s families could be collected in other wealthy nations, we would see similar patterns.

Exceptions to this celebration of wealth are Cuba and the former Soviet Union where central state planners used public money to produce an impressive number of medal winners. Other exceptions are the individual athletes with wealthy corporate sponsors. For example, U.S. hurdler Lolo Jones has the face and physique to attract corporations seeking to capitalize on the media attention she receives. But even Red Bull, her major sponsor, hedges its investment in Jones by arranging for 22 scientists and technicians to work with her over the past seven years. These performance specialists monitor her every move with 40 motion-capture cameras, an Optojump system that replicates how her feet hit the track surface on every stride she takes during 110 meters of hurdling. The Phantom Flex high speed camera moves astride of Jones and records 1500 frames a second as she runs. The resulting analyses of these data and input from other specialists shape her daily training.

Because athletes in a growing number of events are maxing out the potential of the human body, they now see technology that will give them an edge. That technology is delivered and managed by physiologists, biomechanists, medical experts, biochemists, strength coaches, nutritionists, psychologists, recovery experts, and statistical analysts who work with coaches as they turn science and technology into a training necessity for winners. Access to this technology and the people who can use it costs more than most villages in developing nations produce every quadrennium.

Elite athletes today focus 24/7 on training to maintain their access to these experts and the technology that sponsors provide. This leaves them no time for normal developmental experiences. But we hear glowing narratives connecting this endless self-absorbed training with character and leadership development, discipline, and overall success in life. What we don’t hear how many of their friends and family members no longer enjoy their company, how many of their athlete peers are left in the wake of this training regime, and how training for highly specialized athletic performances leaves many of them unprepared to cope with post-sport challenges.

For spectators who pay outlandish prices to enter the areas in and around the Olympic Village and the athletes staying there, McDonalds, Coca-Cola, and the IOC make sure that free enterprise is nowhere in sight. Logo spies roam London’s commercial zones to see if any form of the word “Olympic” is being used in shop windows. Tech detectives monitor millions of blogs, tweets, and social media sites to identify ambush marketing. The message: it is illegal to benefit financially from the Olympic spectacle and its unpaid athletes unless you pay millions upfront to do so.  

Docu-dramas in the media coverage of the games won’t include up-close and personal stories about the people fined $200 for entering street lanes reserved for Olympic officials and the executives and guests of sponsoring corporations, or about small businesses that suffer and sometimes fail due to the disruption caused by the games.

For the 17 days and thousands of hours of television coverage, people watching the games at home will marvel at the bodies and performances of the athletes. Most conclude that there’s no sense leaving the couch to do sports at level that is embarrassing after watching Olympic athletes. As spectators experience their highs from sugar-filled soft drinks and carbo- and fat-laden fast foods, they will hear about WADA making certain that the athletes are competing clean. The media companies spending billions on rights fees cannot afford to have spectators think otherwise.

So enjoy the games and the media generated fictions created about them. It would be a shame to use that giant flat screen TV and pay those budget-breaking monthly provider fees just to watch reality shows and play video games.