Her Name is Rio and She [Wrestles/Swims/Plays Volleyball, etc.] In the Sand

The 2016 Olympics in Rio were poised to begin not with a bang but with a whimper, amid a state-sponsored doping scandal in Russia and concerns over how prepared the venue was to accommodate the influx of foreign visitors - not to mention the possible threat of the Zika virus. But, so far at least, things seem to be going okay.

After the world came together over their fascination with the flag bearer for Tonga

Yes, the Rio Games are days away from their conclusion, and the world will be free to stop pretending that they give a shit about competitive swimming, table tennis, and equestrianism. 

I don't want to unleash too much hate on the Olympics as an institution. It's just that I don't really get the appeal. To me, the Olympics are one of several annoyances that come around every four years and I just have to put up with. Right up there with presidential elections, the FIFA World Cup, and the case of herpes I caught during my senior year of high school.

There have been some great moments in Olympic history - Jesse Owens at the 1936 Games in Germany comes to mind - and there have been some moments in this one that are not to be discounted. This year, for an example, a Refugee team competed, which represented a great step forward when it comes to highlighting the plight of refugees and otherwise stateless people worldwide. Sure, as athletes they weren't very competitive in their events, but it was a positive thing for them just to be there.

It's kind of like "Cool Runnings", but less irie, mon

Among American competitors, this year's games have also seen the most racially diverse women's gymnastics team, as well as the first Muslim American woman to compete wearing a hijab. Now, both of those are great things, I'm not discounting them. It's just the actual games themselves that I find boring and unwatchable.

The way I see it, the Olympics suffer from just being too much of a spectacle. They go on for over two weeks, there are 306 events in 28 different sports, with over 11,000 athletes participating. There's just too much going on there to digest. If there was ever a sporting event that desperately needed to be condensed into highlights, it's the Olympics. Thanks to the beating my attention span has taken courtesy of the internet and social media, I can't watch for more than 20 minutes or so without passing out on my couch.

There's also the logistics of holding the games. Each host city is tasked with building a new venue, as well as housing for the participants, basically from scratch. And after the games are over, those buildings are likely going to just sit there, vacant, for God knows how long.

This is particularly troubling in a place like Rio, where a significant portion of the population lives in poverty. It's hard to look at the display of wealth that is the Olympics without thinking that the money that built it wouldn't have been better spent improving the city's infrastructure. But of course the International Olympic Committee isn't in the business of urban development, they're in the business of making money. Oh, and organizing the Olympics, but that's kind of secondary.

Again, I don't want to pour out too much hate - there isn't much I've said here about the Olympics that isn't applicable to a lesser or greater degree to just about any major sporting event of national or greater size. And there have been some impressive feats of athleticism on display this year. Michael Phelps broke an Olympic record that had stood for over 2,000 years, and now has the most gold medals of any Olympic athlete. The United States has a comfortable medal lead over the competition, with Great Britain and China trailing in second and third, respectively. If nothing else, the Olympics this year are one thing that seems to be going right for America, and given the year we've had, I don't think anyone is complaining about that.

Closing ceremonies are on August 21st, coverage is available on NBC