Olympics: Beijing gets their Olympics

On either my day off or when I get home from work, I listen to sports talk radio. And out here, from LA to San Diego, there are a lot of sports talk radio shows to listen to.

On Friday, July 13th, the topic of the day was Beijing, China being awarded the 2008 Summer Olympic games.

To say that a few callers and talk show hosts were a little upset would be an understatement. China was called everything from "evil empire" to every bad name my folks never taught me.

Paris was the overwhelming preference for most callers. My own favorite would have been Toronto, Canada.

Paris was eliminated from contention due to the fact that the 2004 Olympics are going to be held in Athens, Greece, and according to Olympic bylaw, no two cities in one continent can hold back-to-back Olympics.

Toronto's cause wasn't helped by their mayor saying that he didn't wish to attend an Olympic meeting being held in Africa because "he didn't wish to be boiled and eaten by natives." (Not too bright, eh?)

Callers were mainly upset about China's record on human rights.

Funny how those same people who have a problem with China's human rights record have no problem dishing out $75 for Nikes and Adidas for their kids. Guess which country really makes those sneakers, folks.

There always seems to be political controversy during the Summer Olympics. You never see any crazy stuff during the Winter Olympics. (Okay, we won't mention the fact that we STILL don't know which members of the USA hockey team trashed their hotel rooms in Nagano.)

Not only have politics played a part in the Summer Olympics, so has "the big payback." In 1993, Sydney lost their bid to Atlanta. Sydney was then given the Olympics over Beijing. Beijing gets the Olympics over Toronto, which was the Olympic committee's second choice. Do we see a pattern here? How much do you want to bet that the Olympic torch will soon be making an appearance in the "Great White North" in 2012?