Today's Olympic Hyperbole

I'm sure there will be plenty of examples during the next couple of weeks that the Olympic Games go on in Vancouver, but Jay Mariotti at FanHouse seems overly dramatic in his response to the death of the Georgian luger:

So sadly, for a subtle country that aches to show its might and efficiency, Canada already has its defining moment of the XXI Winter Games. Regardless of Vancouver's beauty or how spectacular the competition turns out, how are we going to forget that a luger perished because a bunch of morons built the track too fast? A full house of Canadians, trying to make the best of an awful situation, mustered cheers and energy Friday night during the Opening Ceremony inside B.C. Place. But frankly, they should have postponed the Ceremony for a night out of respect to the fallen athlete, even if NBC protested and had to air Conan O'Brien reruns. Only seconds into the proceedings, the public-address man announced somberly that the ceremony was being dedicated to Kumaritashvili's memory. No matter how many lights sparkled, how many times they played the stirring "Oh, Canada," how many athletes tried to smile and how many native singers entertained -- Nelly Furtado, Bryan Adams, Sarah McLachlan and k.d. lang among them -- thousands of us sat inside the downtown dome and thought only about the senselessness of it all.

You can read the preceding paragraphs of his piece here to get more background on the controversy surrounding the track. Yes, they've got problems with that luge track. They may have built a track that's not only too fast but actually life-threatening as shown by yesterday's terrible crash. That can be dealt with.

However, canceling or postponing the Opening Ceremony would have been foolish. The Games are about the ideal of sport, not about any particular individual. I think they handled it all quite appropriately and went on with the festivities just, as I imagine, the departed athlete would have wanted. Maudlin mourning and hasty overreactions would not have made his death any less senseless.

Let the Games continue.