I think the Olympics are great. I have followed both the summer and winter Olympics for most of my life. So I have noted the changes over the years - in events, in technology, in media.

I think the Olympics do represent a really good side of humanity, and considering how bad the world is, there still seems to be Olympics. But the "brand" is threatened by absurd, unbelievable, and obviously money-driven sponsorships. One example is some of the ads for McDonald's. These ads insinuate that if you eat McDonald's food, you can be an Olympic champion. Being really generous, that lacks credibility - so much so that it threatens the Olympics.

And when Olympic officials are so worried about their liability in the death of the young Georgian luge slider that they are overly quick to blame the young man while they are out in the dark of the night making corrections to their course that should have been obvious, it doesn't speak well for the organization running them. So the Olympics need to remember how sacred their brand is, and treat it with the respect that it deserves. Excellence has little to do with money. It has to do with the human spirit striving to satisfy itself by being the best that it can be.

Sure it costs money to put on an Olympics, but if the Olympics really want to be "green" they will scale back some of the extravagant costs of their venues. It doesn't take millions of dollars in contraptions to figure out who the best athletes are. Let's get down to the nitty gritty, respect the earth and natural processes, and thumb our noses at those that want to use excellence for personal wealth and adulation. The Olympics is at a crossroads. Either it proves that it isn't just for corporate profits or it loses its credibility and becomes just one more corporate advertising platform. I hope that doesn't happen, but I can't say I'm confident that it won't.