Folks, we're starting today's episode with something truly special.

It comes courtesy of one of my heifest at the LA Times, column one editor, Steve Padilla.

He's here to give you a rendition of a tune you might be familiar with.

Take it away, Steve.

Boom, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, Oh, the Olympics, they're great.

At least I love them.

Athletes doing their thing, the parade of nations, even countries putting aside their

differences for like two weeks.

Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, for like two weeks.

It's all enough to make us channel our inner Simone Biles and Sean White,

but there's a dark side to the Olympic Games,

and it's becoming impossible to ignore.

I'm Gustavo Ariano. You're listening to The Times, Daily News from the LA Times.

It's Thursday, February 3, 2022.

The 2020 Winter Olympics, officially the 24th Winter Olympiad, it kicks off tomorrow in Beijing. But those classic Olympic horns, that you hear every two years on NBC's nightly news? Well, they're starting to rust. Thank you. The road to this Olympics has been anything but smooth.

We've got human rights abuses, diplomatic boycotts, and of course, COVID.

The International Olympic Committee is telling athletes to be prepared to handle the coronavirus during the Beijing Games.

Wearing a mask, using jail, why not self-testing when it's possible?

It is really important that those preventive measures are in place.

On top of all that, there's a growing realization that the brilliance of the world's greatest athletes,

well, it isn't enough anymore to cover some glaring problems that come with putting

on the games every two years. The people who run the Olympics, the International Olympics Committee,

...