SOUNDING OFF:

There is an old adage that states the benefits of a medical action must be compared to its hazards, risks and complications in order to make a wise decision.

So it is with other life actions. A case in point is the uproar regarding the alleged underage Chinese gymnasts receiving gold medals. Should we really protest to the International Olympic Committee and the Gymnastic Federation and ask that these girls return their medals?

By many accounts, the Chinese gymnasts are victims also. They were doing what they were trained to do. But 14-year-old girls who win deserve their medals, too.

Let’s state right up front that cheating is wrong. The Olympic gymnastic age rule is an attempt to avoid serious injury in athletes younger than 16 whose long bones are not yet fused. But at best this is a disingenuous rule, as gymnasts may practice for years often daily for long hours under harsher conditions than the few minutes spent in Olympic routines. The rule does not prevent practice injuries.

Americans are also culpable in this obsessive drive for gold and fame. Do we always have to win all the events? Should not 110 medals be enough?

The 2008 Olympics were, by all accounts, a tremendously successful athletic, artistic, cultural, socioeconomic and political 21st century pageant. But they are not amateur athletics in any meaningful sense of the word. So if we’re going to enjoy and value them, let’s not be hypocrites.

The original Greek sense of athletics involved the high value placed on physical strength and beauty, and the belief that to compete was to strive for the favor of the gods. There was the winner of the event, and there was everybody else. Second place did not get two-thirds of the favor of the gods.

When the games were revived in the late 19th century, it was in the Victorian sense of amateur athletics. As athletics evolved in the 20th century, rules were put into place to keep it amateur and to protect the athletes. Since World War II, and certainly since the 1960s, these rules have become meaningless. Athletes may be highly paid professionals, or amateurs who are so heavily subsidized they amount to professionals.

Perhaps we should accept the games and big-time athletics as what they are, realizing that the vast majority of the athletes are there by choice, and either receive or expect considerable material benefits. They seek endorsements, not laurel wreaths. The favor of the gods counts for less than the favor of Nike, Wheaties or Toyota.

To undo all the international good this Olympics accomplished by our protesting a few Chinese seems foolish. Let’s not penalize a few young girls and a host country in order to protect ourselves from ourselves. We started the whole rich and famous spectacle and should take much of the blame.

MICHAEL ARNOLD GLUECK is a resident of Newport Beach.