HONG KONG - On your mark, get set, go for that quadrennial festival of
nationalism, greed and vanity known as the Summer Olympic Games. Officially,
the rings represent the five continents. Really, each ring signifies appalling
people and values behind the Games.
First, there's the International Olympic Committee (IOC), a fetid pool of
self-important minor politicians, disused royalty and former athletes. The IOC
has distinguished itself in recent times for its pomposity and propensity for
scandal. IOC members stole the spoons and asked for the furniture on so many
inspection tours of aspiring Olympic cities that they're no longer allowed to
visit bidders.
The corruption flows from greedy developers, politicians and civic boosters who
see the Games as a golden opportunity to stroke their edifice complex using
other people's money. Resultant steroid-enhanced Olympic architecture produces
dislocations and distortions of urban life lasting long after the memories of
the Games fade. Taxpayers in Montreal are still working off debt from the 1976
Games; quick, name a medal winner from 1976. Less than a year after the 2000
Games, Sydney's main Olympic site had become a concrete desert, devoid of life,
except for misguided tourists surveying locked gates and the empty seats behind
them thanks to a convenient rail link to the center of town.
Once, corporate sponsors of the Games might argue they were contributing to the
worthy cause of amateur athletics, but their money has helped warp the Games
beyond recognition. Today, corporate sponsorship not only covers Olympian tabs
but leads to the spectacle of athletes and sports governing bodies - largely as
venal and corrupt as the IOC - arguing over clothing and shoe contracts. Surely
a Nike star can't wear the national team's Reebok gear. A simple solution would
be to return to the original Greek Games fashion of athletes competing naked.
Investors in sponsoring companies should scream to boards of directors about
wasting shareholder money to forge a key link in the five-ring chain of greed.
Nationalism, along with greed, is one of the most destructive forces on Earth
(add religion for the trifecta). Like architecture, nationalism gets juiced for
the Games. Sure, winning more gold medals than the Soviet Union reassured
Americans their society was superior, but it didn't stop the invasion of
Afghanistan and the rise to Osama bin Laden. There's your real 1980 "Miracle on
Ice". Similarly, Jesse Owens yanked Der Fuhrer's mustache in 1936, but his
golds didn't prevent the invasion of Poland or the concentration-camp slaughter
of millions. The most Olympian expression of nationalist aspirations came in
1972 when terrorists and German Keystone Kops rescuers left Israelis and
Palestinians resting in peace together in Munich.
The Games provide an opiate for a state's oppressed masses, as the excitement
surrounding Beijing 2008 demonstrates. But non-host nations also win kudos when
their teams wave the flag on this world stage, particularly when seen live on
the government-run or -licensed television station. Olympic success can further
bolster execrable regimes; since we won a medal, we must be doing something
right. Everybody loves an underdog, but let's pray that Myanmar or Sudan do not
hear their national anthem played from the podium in Athens.
But of course the Games are really about the athletes. (So why not play medal
winners' favorite songs? I wonder if Jennifer Capriati would request "Bombs
over Baghdad" now.) Let's forget for a moment drug cheats and millionaires in
short pants or matching sport coats. Forget Tanya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan,
who recited the true Olympic motto after her clubbing, "Why me?" - a reminder
that athletic excellence at this level requires equal parts selfishness and
vanity. Medals start with M-E.
Forget all that and see the parade of athletes with shining young faces and
pure hearts as the embodiment of the Olympic spirit, the best of our one race,
the human race. Admire their determination, their dedication, and their
sacrifices. Then think of what a better world it would be if they put those
efforts into curing cancer or bringing world peace rather than obsessively
pumping iron. It's that massive waste of human potential in the name of phony
ideals for a corrupt international money machine that makes the Olympic Games
so reprehensible.
So don't watch this extravaganza of excess and self-congratulation. Instead,
join me in extending a middle finger for the Olympic ring of your choice.
Eliot Cohen is a former sportswriter and founder of 8 1/2 Global
Communications in Hong Kong.
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