My Olympic Pet Peeve

I really enjoyed watching the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. For two weeks, my TV setting scarcely left the CBC channel (the official Olympic network in Canada). It was like the "olden days" 60 years ago of being a kid growing up in a small prairie town in the middle of nowhere when the CBC was literally our one and only available TV channel, lol.

However, I have one major pet peeve about the Olympics -- all those #!@*&% athletes biting their #!@*&% medals! Gawd, I wish that hackneyed gesture would go the way of the dodo bird! By the end of the two weeks coverage, I was ready to put my foot through the TV screen every time I saw another athlete perform that stupid ritual.

In case you don't know why that gesture occurs, here's the background. Historically, tradespeople from long ago would bite gold coins to test their authenticity, since a comparatively soft metal like gold is susceptible to small dents or scratches from being bitten, unlike "fake gold coins" made of harder, inferior metals. Today, this biting gesture is an anachronism, of course. There is now very little actual gold in "gold" medals. However, the ritual is still performed by many athletes (regardless of whether their medal is gold, silver or bronze). It is, apparently, often done at the behest of photographers who see it as an iconic pose, no matter how clichéd it is.

Okay, rant over. At least for another two years until the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy.