Olympic Embarrassment
I’m embarrassed by the Olympic games. And I don’t think I’m the only one. This is the time in a four-year cycle when we are forced to see headlines and watch news reports of spirited athletic competition between countries. It’s supposed to promote pride and excitement and appreciation of amateur athletes from around the world. But what I see is nationalism, male chauvinism, and the influence of big money. Let’s look at a few details.
The existence of a pandemic raging around the world for the second straight year was deemed insufficient reason to postpone the games any further. In the interest of safety, local spectators would not be allowed at the events but it’s ok for all the athletes to gather from the four corners of the globe to live, eat, sleep and compete together. Surely that can be done safely. After all, there is BIG money to be made from the TV broadcast rights alone. Still think this is about pride in athletic amateur athletic competition?
I think most of us have seen the pictures of the men's and women’s beach volleyball teams. The men are wearing comfortable, sensible light summer athletic shirts and shorts. Meanwhile, the women are wearing bikinis. Apparently, it’s an official rule that the women’s uniforms do not cover up too much bare skin. And when one team took a stand and refused to wear them, they were actually fined. Still think this is about pride in amateur athletic competition?
When the athletes compete in a track race or field event it’s an individual competition. Yes, each competitor has a home country. So by extension, a country whose athletes won more medals could be considered somehow superior if you ignore the obvious fact that the countries did not compete. The medals are presented to athletes, not countries. Such displays of nationalism serve only to keep us polarized when the world desperately needs to come together.
Given the relations between China, Russia, and the US, does anyone really think the pretense of country competition is helpful? This is nauseatingly similar to saying that the jockey and owner of the horse “won” the race and just as sad.
By the way, notice the order of the country medal count on the table above which I gathered from olympics.com. Does it seem strange to you that the country in row one has fewer total medals than the country in row two? It’s in descending order of gold medals. This seems to support the escalating point of view that winning is everything. And obviously, second or third place is not winning.
And let’s not forget to acknowledge the ridiculous situation of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC). Russia was banned from the 2020 (delayed to 2021) Olympic Games in 2019 by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). But athletes who were not involved in the doping scandal which resulted in the WADA ban are being allowed to compete anyway with restrictions. They just can’t display the Russian national flag or sound its anthem. So the athletes, most of whom would have been there anyway, compete as the fictional entity ROC in a clear display of a distinction without a difference. So now, not only do we have fake competition between countries, we have fake competition between fake countries
Finally, I can’t conclude without commenting on the USA men's basketball team. I remember the years before professionals were allowed to play. It was a competition of amateurs and quite entertaining. Now NBA players dominate the team. I honestly intend no disrespect to those players when I say, “Come on, is that fair?”. These guys play basketball for a living. And you may have observed they are unbelievable specimens of athletic ability. Their height, speed jumping ability, and deftness at hoisting the ball into the hoop after years of competition are astounding. I would be amazed if anyone in the world could ever beat them unless they just got bored with winning gold medals. Again, I say, is this really a fair competition for the Olympics?
So no, I am not watching the Olympic TV coverage nor following closely in the news. I do not closely follow the medal count of the USA and take pride in our national accomplishment. I took no part. I am a spectator. But I suspect most of America is also not watching. I don’t know if that would be for any of the reasons I have written about here, but I sincerely hope so.
