The Chauvinist Corner                  

THE REAL SPECIAL OLYMPICS

We have a program set up for those who cannot compete with the healthy, normal athletes, called the Special Olympics. It is a great opportunity for those who otherwise would not have an opportunity to participate in athletics to get out and compete. I applaud this program! But let us stop and think a minute about why these individuals are not invited to the real Olympics.

Ah, the Olympics! The celebration. The pageantry. The torch being carried for such a long distance, handed off from runner to runner and finally used to light the Olympic flame. Let the games commence. Here we have an institution where we can watch the worlds very best athletes in competition with each other. Or do we?

Let us take the 100-meter run. In 1996 the fastest time put in was 9.84 seconds. It was a good time. (In 1908 it had been 10.8 seconds.) There were several men who came close to that time but they were not the best, and so the gold medal went to Donovan Baily of Canada. The winner of that event had been established for those Olympic games.

But wait! They are running the same race again. The fastest time in the second 100-meter event is only 10.94. They award a gold medal for this inferior time. A time that was beaten by most if not all of the losers of the first event. A time that would have lost clear back in 1908, when diet and training conditions were abysmal! Obviously we are looking at the Special Olympics section of these games and the medals for that certainly are not considered the same as for the real event. Are they?

For some reason, or for lack of it, the Gold Medal for Gail Devers’ time of 10.94 is awarded a medal that is counted just as if it were the real Gold Medal for the United States. Can this be? Is it just a foul up? No. We have the same thing happening in the 200-meter, 400-meter, 800-meter, 1500-meter, 10,000-meter, 5,000-meter and the marathon. We find a long list of other track and field events where the same thing is happening, along with many swimming events. This is not a fluke, it is by design.

We have a Special Olympics section included in the real Olympics, where we count the medals, whether Gold, Silver or Bronze, equally with the real medals and no one bats an eye, except apparently me. We do not have a 200 meter run to see who is the fastest in the world. Instead we have two 200 meter runs: one to see who is the fastest in the world; and the second to see who is the fastest member of the Special Olympics participants. Why? Because it is politically correct. How is it that we can exclude other lesser athletes from the Olympics and yet still allow women to compete? Is it fair? No. Is it consistent? No. If we were consistent we would have events and invite any who could qualify through performance to participate. We would not have the real events and then the Special Olympic events run side by side, counting medals from each as if they were equal, because they are not.

We do not have an Olympic event to see who is the fastest one-legged human on earth. We do not have an event to see who is the fastest human, 100 pounds overweight. Who knows? Maybe they will someday. That seems to be the way the PC crowd is moving the nation. The Olympics today are already a joke with all the events that they are putting in, and of course letting women compete in them, but only against themselves.

In Greece, the original Olympics excluded women. Instead women had their own Special Olympics separate from the real thing. I may be a minority of one but I think that was a wise choice.