However there is a lot more wrong with "elite" sport than that. Where to begin?
Firstly and most obviously the whole shebang is a freak show. Elite sports people are not like you and me. We have nothing in common with them. We do not walk run jump or throw like them, we do not eat sleep drink or live like them. We have little in common with them and they have no impact on our lives apart from the fact that we pay them. Their lives are artificial, devoted to "training" for intermittent high profile events. They travel to altitude to train for some events so that they will raise the haemoglobin levels in their blood to give them an advantage when they return. Would it not be easier to take an injection to get the same effect - oh no! That would be cheating. They work out like mad to develop stronger muscles. Would it not be better to take some drugs to do the same and use the time saved to do something useful? Oh no! That would be cheating.
It is a nonsense. Elite sport is a droll farce with nothing to commend it - what on earth does it matter that one person can run any given distance a few fractions of a second quicker that another? In scientific parlance these differences among the top few are insignificant. To this end the athletes are additionally abusing their own bodies - Olympic medallists have a reduced life expectancy compare with normally active people.
We can fix this. We can stop paying for it. Do not attend elite sports events, do not watch it on TV and it will die. We can use the time we save not watching this nonsense by getting out and about a bit more, meeting our fellow men and women, being more active and getting healthier and fitter. Win win all round. Lets do it!
