“The Olympics are where universal brotherhood, fierce patriotism and individual accomplishment meld creating the perfect microcosm of the world”
The modern Olympic games, where the majority of the countries of the world meet every two years now, it used to be every four years, is a microcosm of the world. It brings out the best in us: the athletes, the spectators and the countries of the world… who really become participants in the ‘greater’ event. We all put our differences aside as we are involved in this amazing global event, while at the same time exhibiting our deepest patriotic feelings and personal best efforts as athletes.When Sean White exhibits his newest boarding trick in Torino or Vancouver, the youth of the world is mesmerized. When an unknown luger from Georgia, Nodar (Kumaritashvili ), with a last name that almost no one can pronounce, dies in practice the afternoon before the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver Olympics the entire world, especially the entire Olympic athletic community, mourns. Or when Canadian Joannie Rochette loses her mother at the Olympics two days before her event, due to a massive heart attack, the entire world gasps. Joannie decided to continue on and skate in honor of her mother, who was her greatest fan. She skated her personal best and did not crack her game face until her phase-one bronze short-skate performance was completed, after which everyone cried with her. She ultimately took home the bronze medal, ending her performance with a kiss as her eyes were raised on high to the heavens, to a chorus of applause.
In 2003 before the Beijing Olympics, when Kim Collins sprinted to a stunning victory in the 100 meters at the World Championships, most people had no idea which country the letters SKN stood for. Collins, from the Caribbean island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, said his victory was “the biggest thing” to happen since his country with a population of less than 40,000 gained their independence in 1983.
The Olympics are the one place where you don’t have to be from a rich or powerful country, a wealthy family or a big or well-known nation to be treated equally and have the same chance to win. And for many, like Collins, their achievements add to their country’s national identity and help put it on the map for tourism or for others help the world see a softer side of a super power like when America’s Dan Jansen fell after dedicating his skate to his sister Jane, who died of cancer earlier in the day, to end up falling and crumbling into tears. Dan won that Gold six years later and took his victory lap holding his one-year-old daughter named Jane… for his sister.
As Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has noted: “When the world looks at Australia, so much of their image of Australia is shaped by what our sportsmen and women have done on the field of sport, including the Olympic sports” and what the world saw of our country as the Australian’s hosted the Olympic Games.
When Tanzanian marathoner John Stephen Akhwari dragged his injured leg to finish last with a time of four hours 30 minutes in the marathon race in the Mexico City Games in 1968, he received warm applause and cheers from a crowd that stayed and waited for him to finish. “My country did not send me to Mexico City to start the race. They sent me to finish,” said Akhwari, then 30. Despite finishing last, Akhwari became one of the most memorable figures in Olympic history and was honored as a national hero by his country in 1983.
National pride is ingrained in every athlete and every game or event, yet so is compassion for fellow athletes from all over the world. Over the years the world witnessed how Japanese volleyball fans roared in favor of their national team and how the Italians mourned their football team’s loss on home soil. We have seen Canadian powerhouse in soccer defeated by a long shot American team and the favorite beaten by less rated athletes, even from their own team.
And as Olympic training, in an ever shrinking world, has changed and overlaps more and more, we see true friendships and happiness for fellow athletes that are both friends and competitors like between the Canadian and American ice dancing Gold and Silver medalists, respectively, who share coaches and practice ice. And again as now coach Brian Orser, that the Gold always eluded as a skater, watched Kim Yu-Na become the reigning Queen as she took Gold as the first South Korean to ever win a figure skating medal.
At times it has been the host countries that were as much the story as the athletes. There were the Hitler Olympics ( Summer and Winter 1936) that allowed a madman to use them for propaganda. And then in 1972 Germany had her chance to redeem herself with the Munich Olympics where Jewish-American Mark Spitz took an unprecedented seven Gold medals but his accomplishments were ironically upstaged by the massacre of eleven Israeli athletes by a militant Palestinian group. There were the war years (1916 Summer, 1940 Summer and Winter, and 1944 Summer and Winter) that caused the games to be cancelled completely and the 1980 Moscow Olympics that were boycotted by the United States and affiliated countries including Japan, West Germany, China, the Philippines and Canada, which then caused the boycott of 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games by Moscow and allies, 14 Eastern Bloc countries and allies including the Soviet Union, Cuba and East Germany (but not Romania). And there were the on-going doping and drug-enhancing scandals of the Eastern Bloc athletes under their influence by the Soviet Union. And more recently there were the pre-Beijing complaints of human and animal rights violations. But the Olympic flame apparently ignited the Chinese people’s love for their homeland and a multitude of them took to the streets after overseas attempts to disrupt, or even sabotage the Olympic torch relay early on, plus for at least 17 days the Chinese government was aware and publicly refrained from many of their practices against human and animal rights. In the end the community of nations and the people of the world rose above the shadows.
And remember the 2002 Winter Games opening in Salt Lake City? A tattered U.S. flag recovered from the smoldering ruins of the World Trade Center was displayed as President George W. Bush declared the Games’ opened on behalf of a “proud, determined and grateful nation”. The heart of the world was with them. It was the U.S. message to the world: Americans love their country as they stood in the shadows of the September 11th tragedy, and the world should stand united to promote common ideals and hope for peace.
However, in the end it is the names and performances of the athletes like: Sarah Hughes, Franz Klammer, Dick Button, Jean-Claude Killy, Bonnie Blair, Bjorn Dahlie, Nadia Comaneci, Usain Bolt, Eric Heiden, Hermann Meir, Peggy Flemming, Steven Bradley, Carl Lewis, Dorothy Hamel, Jesse Owens, Scott Hamilton, America’s Miracle on Ice Hockey Team and the list goes on and on that make the games and add to the living spirit of the Olympics. Although Michael Phelps is generally considered the greatest Olympian, it would be hard to compile a list of the greatest. There are so many factors. And it is impossible to compare the athletes of the early Games against the professionals of the modern era.
Times of true crisis bring out the best in all of us, the people of the world, but the Olympics is the one event that for at least once every two years brings out the best in mankind without a crisis. There is a great story of the airport and town of Gander in Newfoundland who allowed almost 200 inbound American flights to land at their airport, after the airspace was closed over the United States for the first time in its history within hours after 9/11. But the 4-days that followed and the amazing hospitality of the people of Gander is the true story, and it is that essence, that emerges without the crisis, through the Olympic Games.
It takes much more than patriotism and ambition to host successful Games. It is important to show full respect to all athletes — to shining stars like Michael Phelps and Anton Apolo Ohno or those who purely persevere like Akhwari or the Cool Running Team from Jamaica, as well as to the countries and cultures of the world they come from, to the spectators who come to embrace the games, to the Olympic spirit itself, and to all those who have competed before. It is a fine line between love of country, personal ambition and at least for 17-days every two years, world unity. But, sitting together as a family and watching the Olympics with your children can be one of the greatest shared experiences a family can have including lessons and inspiration without a direct word ever being said.
The Olympics are the pinnacle of true global understanding and the personification of the outreach for a better world, unlike the Global coalitions, contractual leagues of nations and the talk of world orders put together and planned by selfish and scheming politicians and businessmen. Let us hopefully all remember that and follow the light of the Olympic torch and true unity rather than the darkness of idle chatter of dividers and conquerors.
By Marion Algier
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