The Olympics: can’t we just enjoy them?

From Laurel Hubbard’s inclusion in the women’s weight-lifting to Simone Biles pulling out of various gymnastic events, this year’s Olympics has been filled with opportunities for people to

air their opinions, voice their grudges, or generally sound off because they feel like it. Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but for once can we, collectively, just not?

Once every four (or in this case five) years, the most talented athletes on the planet converge for one, extraordinary fortnight. Us mere mortals are given the chance to watch the very best

people in the world excel at a huge range of sporting endeavours. From riding to hurdles, kayaking to karate, a world of talent is on our screens and we should take a moment to appreciate

it.

Sport and politics are inextricably entwined and there are numerous examples in recent sporting competitions, the Olympics included. Yet this doesn’t mean that conflict and controversy need

to be invented just to make headlines and clickbait.

We’ve seen Twitter, of course, exploding over Simone Biles’ decision to take herself out of many individual gymnastic events, with endless commentators (largely political, not sporting

ones), debating her decision and whether or not this makes her inadequate as an athlete. None of them seem to have mentioned the enormous wealth of other talent that also competed in the

gymnastics, with near flawless routines from her American team-mates.

We’ve seen the debate over Laurel Hubbard’s inclusion swallow up the incredible performance by Great Britain’s Emily Campbell, as she became the first British female weightlifter to win an

Olympic medal.

From the chatter around the merits of specific athletes who could do more in their sleep than their critics could manage in a lifetime, to the comments on whether coming, *God forbid*,

second in the Olympics, is actually an achievement, the chattering classes seem to have completely lost their grip on reality.

We’ve seen some of the most incredible performances ever, with world records being broken left, right and centre, with performances ranging from Karsten Warholm running a 400m hurdle race

that looked more like art than athletics, to Yulimar Rojas setting a triple jump world record in the process of winning Venezuela their first female gold Olympic medal.

British athlete Keely Hodgkinson won a silver medal in the 800m, setting a new British record in the process at the age of just 19, and Tom Daley finally got his Olympic gold, having first

attempted it at 14 years old in 2008. Every single one of these performances shows a level of natural talent, determination and dedication that is completely unfathomable for most viewers.

Everything about it should be celebrated and enjoyed for what it is.

So next time you see some armchair pundit gobbing off about what he considers success to look like, just remember: the mere existence of Olympians like this is a success and a credit to the

army of people around them, who make these 16 days such a joy to watch.

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