It happens only once every four years. It’s when the world comes together to celebrate the purity of sport and the wonderment of the human spirit.

It’s the Olympic Games!

Yawn.

Oh, I’m sorry. You were expecting me to weave a yarn about the Olympic ideal and human sacrifice? Sorry to disappoint.

I’m just not one to get caught up in the Olympics. My wife calls me a cynic, and perhaps that’s true to some degree. But I just don’t see what all the fuss is all about.

I struggled through the opening ceremonies Friday night simply because my wife, who claims to love the Olympics, made me. And even she went to bed before the Olympic flame was lit.

Quick, name five people who won a gold medal in the 2004 Olympics. And no, naming five members of the U.S. men’s basketball team doesn’t count. Oh wait, they didn’t win gold, did they.

OK, new question, name the team that won the men’s basketball gold medal at the 2004 Olympics. For that matter, name where the 2004 Olympics took place.

The problem with the Olympics is that the sports that Americans care about are second tier sports in the Games, or aren’t there at all.

There’s no football, no auto racing, no golf and baseball and softball are in their final Olympics before being eliminated.

However, there is rhythmic gymnastics, team handball and rifle events for your viewing pleasure.

Olympic soccer feels like junior league because the World Cup is that sport’s big event. Ditto with Olympic cycling and the Tour de France. Meanwhile, the professional leagues cheapen Olympic basketball and tennis.

And track and field, once the crown jewel of the Olympic Games, are now hardly more than an afterthought because of the culture of steroids that runs rampant through the sport.

Even after all that, I could still sit and watch some of the sports that interested me, namely swimming, and get some enjoyment out of it.

After all, it was all about the Olympic ideal, right.

But I can’t even do that this Olympics, because the International Olympic Committee took the so called Olympic ideal and threw it away, if it ever existed in the first place, by selecting Beijing, China as the host city.

Great idea. Put the Olympics in a communist country that allows no free speech, is neck deep in the Darfur conflict and, if that weren’t enough, the air quality is so bad, you can’t see more than a few hundred yards in front of you on some days.

To prove the point on China’s horrid human rights and free speech record, former U.S. Olympic speed skater Joey Cheek had his passport revoked by the Chinese government just 24 hours before he was to travel to China with the US delegation.

Oh, by the way, Cheek is very active in charitable work in regards to the conflict in Darfur.

However, such charitable work contradicts China’s political agenda in the Darfur region and as a result, they saw fit to revoke his passport without explanation.

This was done despite earlier promises to the IOC to clean up its human rights record in order to host these Olympics.

China isn’t hosting the Olympics because they care about the Olympic spirit.

They simply want to shove their communist agenda down the throats of the free world and they think that by putting on a great Olympics, it will do just that.

Well, I’ve never been much on propaganda, and I’m sure not going to help China try and prove that communism and a total disregard for human rights can work as long as you make yourself look pretty for the cameras.

So while many people may sit down and enjoy water polo or rowing, I’ll just find something else on television or read a book. That is, unless my wife gets to the remote first.

Jeff Edwards is the sports editor for The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3632 or jeff.edwards@natchezdemocrat.com