Page 1 of 2 The Olympics as a political arena
By Dallas Darling
When Georgia and Russia came to blows over the long-sought-after reunification
of South and North Ossetia, it reminded me of ancient Sparta and Arcadia. In
420 and again in 360 BC, Sparta and Arcadia used the Olympic lull to attack and
defeat several neighboring Greek city states. [1] For anyone who believes the
Olympic Games brought peace and harmony, they are wrong.
The Olympics have instead been used as a political instrument to either further
imperialistic values and ambitions, or express international outrage against
human rights abuses. In the mythical world that the ancient Greeks dreamed and
wrote about, it would be easy to believe sports could be separate from politics
and war. In the real world, though, sporting events, such as the Olympic
arena, are often symbolic ritual performances of politics and conflicts.
Politics will always trump the Olympics and sporting competitions. Like history
and life itself, politics is all encompassing and inescapable, especially since
it deals with how individuals and nations govern and conduct themselves both in
private spheres and in public arenas. At the same time politics - sometimes
known as the Social Contract Theory - deals with how people, groups,
organizations, and institutions use different types of power to interrelate and
interact with each other. It includes economics and social principles like
justice and injustice, freedom and dependency, wealth and poverty, abundant
resources and scarcity, inclusion and exclusion, workers and owners,
participants and spectators, etc ... all of which was and is reflected in the
Olympic arena.
The first Greek Olympics arose out of, and reflected, war and conflict. The
games included the Few at the expense of the Many. Only Greek male athletes,
elite political leaders, and wealthy spectators attended the games and were
granted access to sacred rituals in offering-up sacrifices to national gods.
The majority of Greeks - women, and non-citizens, foreigners, slaves, and
servants - were banned from the games. Much like the current Olympics, families
and Greek city states with enormous riches and resources had a greater
advantage of winning and declaring their superiority over smaller and poorer
states. They could afford lavish structures for training, the best instructors,
safe travel, excellent equipment, and the finest foods and medicines.
The Greek city states selected and trained the strongest and most gifted of
individuals, usually soldiers, to compete in the Olympic arena. The original
Olympics modeled skills used in battle such as boxing, wrestling and running.
Winners received tremendous honors and elaborate prizes while the losers were
shamed, secretly making their way back home. City states used their athletes to
re-enact and spread myths of their own heroic Greek gods. The Olympics also
expanded the states culture and strengthened ties to the motherland.
Sparta and Arcadia, large and powerful imperial warlike states, dominated the
Olympics with enhanced and powerful athletes over more decentralized and
smaller states. Other Greek city states used bribes and civic influences in
persuading the judges.
Imperial Rome incorporated many aspects of the Greek/Hellenistic Olympics. In
their attempt to prevail over their predecessors, Roman emperors increased the
level of violence to the point of holding mock land and naval battles.
Thousands of gladiators and slaves fought to their deaths. Since the Roman
Games were associated with Caesar, the imperial cult, and mirrored Rome's
vicious political and social hierarchies, Christians refused to attend and
participate. Set against the Roman Empire and Games was the Church - a sharing
and egalitarian community. The physical body - the "temple of God", was to be
used for prayer, worship, caring for the sick, serving the poor, and other acts
of mercy (or martyrdom). Because of this, Christians viewed many athletes as
the epitome of vanity and pride, especially since they were glorified and
worshipped as gods and heroes. The games were completely eliminated when the
Roman Empire converted to Christianity. [2]
Fifteen centuries later in 1896, the West revived the Olympics and established
a pro-Western International Olympic Committee (IOC). Although Baron Pierre de
Coubertin hoped the games would promote peace among nations, [3] the Olympics
reinforced and transmitted many values and ideas from highly complex and
industrial nations. It also served to buttress the status positions of
capitalistic and technologically advanced empires. Some colonies and cultures
rejected such overly competitive and dominating sports in favor of their own
indigenous games. They were either punished by being barred from the Olympics
or, when competing, suffered from a disadvantage due to their own adherence to
traditional competitions and athletic values.
In 1904, Theodore Roosevelt, J P Morgan, and the elite industrialists from the
US hosted the Olympic Games in St Louis. Up until then, the Olympics had
faltered. For the wealthy monopolists and US government, the Olympics served
many political purposes and accomplished imperial goals. The St Louis Olympics
reflected a new American crusade in promoting the idea of "Muscular" and "Manly
Christianity", [4] diffusing labor and management tensions, and introducing the
concept of a nationalistic team.
The 1904 Olympics also espoused the prevailing ideals of the Western world.
Although sports can sometimes be a substitute for war, wealthy monopolists used
the Olympics and some athletic competitions to socialize youth for war,
maintaining values generally supportive of warfare like racism, ethnocentrism
and superiority.
After World War I, Germany, Bulgaria, Austria, and Hungary were punished with
war reparations and not allowed to compete in the Olympic Games. In 1932,
during the Great Depression, Los Angeles raised money through public funds to
host the Olympics. This caused bread riots and mass protests throughout the
city. It is well-known that Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party dominated almost
every aspect of the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. This was done to further their
standing in the world and propagate Nazi values and culture. [5] At the same
time, the Nazi Party removed anti-Semitic and anti-Socialist signs so as not to
offend visiting nations. Persecution against "undesirables" were also scaled
back. Jesse Owens, an African-American, made a political statement when he won
four gold medals and dispelled the myths of Aryan and Nazi supremacy. [6]
Harkening back to an earlier age, after World War II, Germany, Italy, Japan,
and several other nations were banned from the 1948 Olympics. The Cold War
between the US and Soviet Union, including their allies, polarized the Olympics
even more. For some, the Olympics became an extension of Cold War conflicts
between capitalism and communism. Communist countries were accused of being
totalitarian and derided for identifying athletes at and early age and training
them to compete in the Olympics. Capitalist countries, on the other hand, were
known to spend millions of dollars in research, facilities, lobbying the IOC,
and influencing the judges. Corporate sponsors also helped prepare and
commercialize the athletes. While the medal count was used to show which
superpower was superior, East and West German athletes became unified and
competed side-by-side. In 1949, when China became a communist country, the
pro-Western IOC refused to recognize or invite them to the Games for many
years. [7]
While international trade and global communications were primarily benefiting
the industrial empires and making the world smaller, tensions continued to
mount between the West and East and "developing" nations of the South. In 1956,
the Olympic Arena was dominated by the Soviet invasion of Hungary and the first
international boycott. [8] Because of apartheid and the massacres in South
Africa, the African Union (AU) boycotted several Olympic Games in hopes of
pressuring the IOC to take action.
Finally, South Africa's invitation to the Olympics were withdrawn in 1964 and
again in 1968. South Africa was eventually expelled in 1972 and returned to the
1992 Olympics when apartheid was dismantled.
The 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico occurred in the midst of the Vietnam conflict
and world-wide student-led demonstrations. In order to pay for the costs of
hosting the Olympics, Mexico raised taxes which especially hurt the poor.
Thousands of Mexican students and workers protested funding the Olympics at the
expense of those in dire need of food, housing, employment, clothing, and
medicines. Intent on maintaining a peaceful atmosphere, the Mexican government
and its troops fired upon
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