4 February—With the Winter Olympics (evidently that’s supposed to be capitalized, like Black) having opened in Beijing, People’s Republic of China (PRC, also capitalized), the big news is that sunrise around here was 7:01 this morning.

Not to take anything away from the Olympic athletes, many of whom are Black or White, who may even be driven by enjoyment of their sports and the exhilaration and challenge of competition as well as medals and potential income—but who really gives a damn? Silly question, to be sure, given the money involved.

In 2014, for instance, NBC paid the International Olympic Committee (IOC) $7.75 billion for exclusive Olympic broadcasting rights through 2032. Last summer, The Guardian headline said it all: “NBC paid $7.75bn for its Olympic rights…and we got televisual vomit.”

Olympic Games are the business of the IOC. But if you believe the IOC’s impressive website, https://olympics.com/ioc/overview, its real business is building a better world through sport. Here’s what it says on the home page under a picture of the IOC’s magnificent headquarters in Lausanne:

[Warning: the IOC’s spelling of “organization” is not intended for American readers.]

“The International Olympic Committee is the guardian of the Olympic Games and the leader of the Olympic Movement.

“A truly global organisation, it acts as a catalyst for collaboration between all Olympic stakeholders, including the athletes, the National Olympic Committees, the International Federations, Organising Committees for the Olympic Games, the Worldwide Olympic Partners and Olympic broadcast partners. It also collaborates with public and private authorities including the United Nations and other international organisations.

[And most important:]

“The vision of the International Olympic Committee is to Build a Better World through Sport.”

Notice how all the important entities as well as the United Nations are capitalized, but not trash like athletes, broadcast partners, public and private authorities, and other international organisations—without any of which the IOC would certainly not be rolling in dough.

The real vision of the International Olympic Committee is obviously to Build a Bigger Bank Balance for its Principals by Abandoning whatever Principles it may claim to have. The IOC has been corrupt at least since the thirties when it cozied up to Hitler for the Berlin games. And this year’s games in Beijing, given the PRiCk’s contemptible record in virtually everything involving human and animal rights, redound disgracefully to Berlin.

In 1998, for some inexplicable reason, the sporting world—which should have known better—was said to be shocked by widespread corruption within the sacrosanct and sanctimonious IOC that (finally) came out that year. Oh, the horror! How could it be that incorruptible IOC members had accepted bribes—including cash, gifts, and college tuition for their children—for putting the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City? Like it hadn’t been the IOC’s modus operandi for a century?

And then there’s the IOC’s former rule that only amateurs could compete in the Olympic Games. Professionals were totally verboten until fairly recently. It meant that unless you were independently wealthy or had a sponsor to support your activities but not actually pay you a wage, salary, or honorarium for working out rather than just working, you weren’t good enough to compete with other superficially amateur athletes. Ya think?

Remember Jim Thorpe, the great all-around athlete and first Indian (whoops, make that Native American) to win an Olympic medal? (It was only the fourth Games, so his ethnicity was no big deal back then.) In fact, he won two golds—in pentathlon and decathlon—in 1912. But the IOC took them back in 1913 when it came out that Jim had a couple of years earlier played semi-pro baseball for a couple of bucks a game. (His family got the medals back in 1973, two decades after Thorpe’s death.)

On the other hand, there was Harold Abrahams, the subject of “Chariots of Fire,” a truly dedicated amateur sportsman of some wealth, who was able to take all the time he needed and pay a private coach to help him win a gold medal in the 100-meter sprint in 1924. All that for a few seconds. Rich or poor, it’s nice to have money.

Makes you think of the dreaded National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) that has been victimizing college athletes for over a century and only recently appears to have relented, however reluctantly . . .