Ripples on the brain

Which is a greater event? FIFA World cup or Olympics? Economist gives some reasons as to why World cup may be better than the Olympics:

1. Countries in the past have manipulated Olympics for political purposes. The examples it provides are Germany in 1936, US and Russia during the cold war and now US and China in the 2008 Olympics. In each of those cases, the political strength of the respective countries have been reflected in the medals tally of the Olympics. However, the countries that have reigned superior in the FIFA worldcup are third world countries who have no similar standing in world politics.

2. Wealthy countries were/are able to create machine-like athletes who win laurels for their country(eg. Russia and now China), but the same cannot be done with football as the game requires skill and technique that cannot be mass-produced.

I personally feel that though skill and technique are more important in games as compared to athletics, if it wishes, any country can mass produce that too. It is just that traditionally some countries are stronger in some games and it creates sort of a vicious cycle where the youngsters emulate their stars and enter the games in which the country is already strong. The US dominance in tennis (though now dimished to a certain extent) and the domination of table tennis (ping-pong) and badminton by the yellow race come to mind.