By now it is clear just how very star-crossed the Olympics in Japan are. Every day another headline drives another nail into their coffin. This or that star won't attend or tests positive for COVID. No fans. Today I read that Toyota -- Toyota, mind you -- will not run ads connecting itself to this iteration of the games despite sponsoring them at the highest level and thereby having the right to display the Olympics logo on its ads.
Time was, the Olympics were the locus of a distinct romance, a place to inspire kids to strike out on their own and pursue the most exotic and improbable of dreams and know there could be great glory and honor awaiting them: curling, javelin, ping pong, whatever. It was really the greatest celebration of career diversity in the world. Which used to be very unique.
I suppose the internet and social media has in some ways upended that by showing that there are other paths to a disproportionate share of the world's attention. The Olympics were at least uniformly wholesome and to that extent probably preferable, though in recent years the consumption of them on TV had devolved into much too packaged an experience. Let's hope they make it back.
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