Restoring Olympic Traditions

Posing nude for the cameras is a trend gaining increasing popularity with athletes. Four German Olympic sportswomen: sailor Petra Niemann, hockey striker Katharina Scholz, canoeist Nicole Reinhardt and judo fighter Romy Tarangul have posed for German Playboy, joining a host of other stars like Amanda Beard using nudity in the name of a cause. British triple jumper Phillips Idowu , British cyclist Rebecca Romero and Scottish swimmer Gregor Tait have also bared all for an advertising promotion. Why shouldn’t they? Their bodies are beautiful and judging by public reaction the majority aren’t complaining. If the Olympic movement can turn it’s back on it’s purist, amateur tradition and go all out for big bucks, why can’t athletes flaunt their sexuality?

Why not then take the whole thing a step further and revive the ancient tradition of staging the entire Olympic games nude? In the ancient Olympics, of course only men competed, but surely that rule could also be relaxed. Nude Olympics would boost television ratings into the squillions and arguments over discrimination with beach volleyball uniforms would be put to bed forever.

In ancient times, the ideal for male athletes was the possession of a small, uncircumcised penis. Circumcised athletes tried to conform to the fashion using the painful procedure of epispasm to restore the foreskin. If this ancient Olympic tradition was restored, this might also be a problem for many male athletes. After all, who wants an unfashionable penis? Circumcision features in this list of the top 10 bizarre surgical procedures.

Debate still rages over the benefits or otherwise of this form of mutilation. Dr Karl Kruszelnicki commented that saying a circumcised penis functioned better was akin to saying an eye functions better without an eyelid. Whatever the health benefits of genital mutilation, one could certainly object on aesthetic grounds.