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Christopher

Christopher

Portland, OR
November 2002

JUL 18, 2004 11:35 PM

I remember someone describing the event on the Black Rock Playa in Nevada called “Burning Man” as an example of the carnivalesque, what Mikhail Bakhtin calls ambition to “uncover, undermine - even destroy, the hegemony of any ideology that seeks to have the final word about the world, and also to renew, to shed light upon life, the meanings it harbours, to elucidate potentials; projecting, as it does an alternate conceptualisation of reality.” When we are confronted with spaces of carnival, like Burning Man or Renaissance Fair, we also think of its temporary nature, the Temporary Autonomous Zone of Hakim Bey, and its ability to redirect revolutionary and counter-revolutionary impulses into impulses of the body.

It appears that Olympians know this all too well. The Olympic Village, the social space for all of the world’s athletes competing in both summer and winter games, also operates as an autonomous zone.
Imagine the world’s toughest athletes who are not only representatives of their sport or country but of the human form all in a space the size of a city block-- approximately ten thousand of the most fit and excellent people drinking, socializing, gazing, and competing with one another. They are also stimulated by their body’s natural chemical production.

They are slaves to an irresistible physiological force called "tapering" that works like this: many competitors in endurance sports consume as many as 9,000 calories a day at the height of their training cycles. But they swim or run or pedal seven hours a day to burn these off. In order to peak for the Games, however, they reduce their training time to mere minutes in the days preceding their events while keeping the calorie count virtually constant. Thus an athlete is spring-loaded for his or her moment in the sun: lots of rest, lots of energy - boom. The results, particularly within a large, like-minded population, can be electric. "When you have 10,000 people walking around who are amped up on their own glycogen you can almost see the sparks flying off their skin," says BJ Bedford, the American backstroke gold-medalist at Sydney.

Sex at the Olympics has, in the past, been frowned upon. It was believed that sex reduces an athlete’s ability to run, jump, or lift. But this notion has also been revised.

Prior to the Barcelona Games, however, doctors at a Jerusalem sex clinic advised women on the Israeli team to have sex before their events. "Women compete better after orgasm, especially high-jumpers and runners," one of the doctors claimed. The German team physician endorses sex for male and female athletes, saying: "Sex does not cause any loss of strength."

He may be right. This year, a Russian psychologist told a German newspaper that neither gender should abstain. "It’s simple," she said. "More sex means more gold."

Even at the Salt Lake City Games, where the Mormon city council was disturbed by the events that transpired at their Olympic village, 250,000 condoms where given to the competitors.

So, the Olympics have been reduced to a small number of true Olympians and a larger majority of "athletic tourists", establishing a haven of glycogen fueled sexual fervor all bent on fucking. But, then again, it's sponsored.

It's also insightful when one thinks about the conditions that govern an event like the Olympic Village and an event like Burning Man. What sort of insight do these athletes achieve when they accomplish what so few of us can accomplish and then screw it all away? I would like to think that the world, at its lowest common denominator, could be like the Olympic Village: a pure, blind fuck-fest. At its best, like Burning Man: insight into the nature of humanity, love for others and the self, and a lucid, transcendent fuck-fest.

ViolenceJack

ViolenceJack

Wichita, KS
April 2003

JUL 19, 2004 12:30 AM

That's fucking beautiful. That first sentence has got to be a run-on, though.

Christopher

Christopher

Portland, OR
November 2002

JUL 19, 2004 02:03 AM

There are two wonderful quotes in that article:

Edith Thys, an American skier at Calgary and Albertville, agrees that the partying gold should probably go to the Canadians, but she awards the licentiousness medal to the French. "They are by far the most promiscuous," says Thys, "but only with each other. I’m not sure if that’s because they wouldn’t sleep with anybody else, or because nobody else would sleep with them."


and

Kent remembers sitting in the village, watching athletes walk through the door and playing a game of Guess What They Do. "The bikers have skinny little upper bodies, farmer tans and massive, clean-shaven thighs. Invert them and you get the kayakers, who have skinny little legs and massive backs and shoulders. The seven-foot-tall giant who ducks under the doorway entering the cafeteria is probably from basketball. The seven-foot giant who smacks his head on the door frame is definitely a rower; they don’t have that hand-eye co-ordination thing. The kids running at the rowers’ ankles with the high-pitched voices are gymnasts. It just goes on and on. Being at the village is like taking your place in a wild anatomical parade seen nowhere else on the planet."

anatomist1

anatomist1

Denver, CO
April 2003

JUL 19, 2004 04:30 AM

Ugh. I suddenly have the sensation that I'm in grad school.

Mnemesis

Mnemesis

Japan
June 2004

JUL 19, 2004 05:43 AM

bakhtin will do that to you.
fucking comp lit assholes.

deviever

deviever

Portland, OR
July 2004

JUL 19, 2004 05:57 AM

Beautiful and hilarious.

What a spectacular ending : "I would like to think that the world, at its lowest common denominator, could be like the Olympic Village: a pure, blind fuck-fest. At its best, like Burning Man: insight into the nature of humanity, love for others and the self, and a lucid, transcendent fuck-fest."

*smiles*

Just wonderful. shocked

pavlovsdog

pavlovsdog

Asheville, NC
May 2004

JUL 19, 2004 09:02 AM

I need to brush up on my table-tennis. biggrin

alpha_hazard

alpha_hazard

Fort Collins, CO
April 2004

JUL 19, 2004 10:32 AM

hmmm, seems a little dangerous to me...I mean, what if you injure yourself during the act? then what are you gonna say...Also, it seems with all those endorphins flowing you could possibly push yourself past the healthy limits of your own body during your competition too...

hehehe, that's till really awesomely cool though

Jeff_Fries

Jeff_Fries

Humptulips, WA
September 2003

JUL 19, 2004 10:45 AM

This shouldn't gross me out, but it kind of does. I mean I know that Olympic athletes having sex is 'beautiful', but it makes me uneasy for some reason.

reacher

reacher

USA
March 2004

JUL 19, 2004 03:35 PM

Sex before competition? My high-school football coach is turning in his grave.

Lemonkid

Lemonkid

Canada
May 2003

JUL 19, 2004 05:31 PM

christopher said:
There are two wonderful quotes in that article:

Edith Thys, an American skier at Calgary and Albertville, agrees that the partying gold should probably go to the Canadians, but she awards the licentiousness medal to the French. "They are by far the most promiscuous," says Thys, "but only with each other. I’m not sure if that’s because they wouldn’t sleep with anybody else, or because nobody else would sleep with them."




It's nice to know Canadians now know their true place in world athletics.

And to think that I'd once, as a youth, convinced myself.. "why would anyone ever want to go to the Olympics anyways?" Canadian Men's Curling team.. here I come.