Sport, Politics and the Olympic Games
With the 2016 Rio Olympics now less than a year away, the crescendo of media, marketing and public interest will dichotomize its veracious newsfeed, neatly between stories of triumph and hope to the forbearing of poverty and pollution as the axiom of not mixing sport and politics is hung out to dry.
For as long as there has been a captive audience, there have been those that will attempt to slant it to suit their need. Yet in the age of the 24 hour news cycle, it is imprecise to assume that this is a 21st century problem alone.
The reality is that major sporting events have been the battle grounds of competing and contrasting interests for as long as scores have been kept. If Rio’s – albeit legitimately raised polluted water ways represent crisis – then what would we now make of Hitler’s Games in 1936, or of the Munich Massacre of 1972?
It’s not that sport is immune to society’s ills and moral dilemmas; just that if sport is defeated by it, what hope is there? Why in fact, do we put up with it? For all the political greed, capital avarice and corporate cannibalism, the fact remains, that once the action takes centre stage, it is the people who determine sport’s fate.
As an abstract means of examining this notion, you could ask, why does the class gap in India not prevent hundreds of millions living in destitution from cheering on its national cricket team? Or, did the pain of Brazil’s semi-final world cup football capitulation to Germany, eviscerate the hopes and dreams of countless numbers surviving in Brazil’s favelas any less than those in a position of affluence?
If the debate on life imitating art or vice-versa lingers on, then the rhetoric on sport and politics could bore even the chicken and the egg!
Rio of course, is not the first Games to be preceded by controversial headlines long before its Olympic flame reaches its zenith. In 2004, Athens was plagued with damning infrastructure reports, in what was perhaps a precursor to their current debt crisis, whilst Beijing in 2008 was beset with human rights controversies. Even the resounding success of the London 2012 Games, was widely purported to be target of terrorists, no doubt channelled from the horrors of 2005.
But for the myriad of tangible issues Rio might present, come August 5th, 2016 – the World will instead draw collective breathe in anticipation of the talents of a Usain Bolt or Jess Ennis-Hill and for that two week observation, each and every four years; bars, offices and lounge rooms instead become the residence of arm chair experts on the regulations of Modern Pentathlon or the legitimacy of a grounded foot in closing stages of the 50km race walk.
So why do the Olympics still matter? At its core, it reminds us that sport can still be a celebration of human endeavour. The value of Olympic sport is still richer than its commercial gain.
The first fundamental principle in the Olympic Charter states:
“Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example, social responsibility and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.“
The cynic amongst us might argue that in the days of the Olympics being branded by a sporting company tick, of a crimson-canned soft drink or indeed as a the harnessing tool of a multi-national chain restaurant, spruiked by an unendearing clown, that these words couldn’t possibly hold currency?
If history can present one tale to counter however, it could easily be that of the legendary Jesse Owens’ and his success in the long jump at the 1936 Berlin Games, one of four Olympic gold medals he won in a single day.
Owens, having fouled his first two qualification attempts was facing elimination, before he was approached by Luz Long, the Arian poster boy and reputed favourite of Hitler.
The blue eyed, blond haired Long – according to Owens himself – suggested he move his run up a foot further back, noting that he effortlessly possessed the distance required to qualify for the final.
Owens heeded his advice and subsequently qualified and would later that day jump 8.05m in the final, in what was then known as the “broad jump” to claim a symbolic gold within the swastika adorned Berlin Olympic Stadium.
Long finished second, to claim silver and the men were reported to have left the arena, linked arm in arm. Owens, speaking of the events many years later said:
It took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler. You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn’t be a plating on the 24-carat friendship I felt for Luz Long at that moment.
Poignantly, they never met again, with Long killed in service during World War II.
Sport and politics may indeed indelibly mix, but it shouldn’t dilute sport’s worth to humanity.
– Chris Abbott