Amid all the politics of Sochi, athletes are left fighting for what’s left of the limelight.
1440 days. This is the how long olympians have been waiting since Vancouver 2010. That’s 34, 560 hours. Or 592,457 practice bobsleigh runs. After countless training sessions and gym workouts, athletes from all over the world are ready to compete when the Sochi Winter Olympics officially begins today. The world’s not interested in the bobsleigh though, or that weird event involving gravity and a metal tray. No, there’s bigger stuff to bicker about. The next few weeks aren’t about athletic ability, but about the convoluted circus that big sporting events have become.
The trouble all stems from June 2013. Russia passed a set of laws which criminalised the promotion of “non-traditional sexual relations” to minors. Officially this law is not nearly as draconian as Stephen Fry would have you believe. Britain’s equivalent law (Section 28), which was only rescinded a decade ago, is already creeping back into British society. A recent Stonewall report highlights that over half of lesbian, gay and bisexual children experience direct bullying in school. If people are going to take the moral high ground let’s at least be certain the ground is steady.
Homophobic discrimination that accompanies government legislation is what we should all be worried about though. Using the media attention that a global event brings, Julie Dorf, a senior adviser at the Council for Global Equality, believes that “Sochi in many ways is the beginning of a new chapter in the LGBT movement, and our work is to educate people at home.” On Wednesday a global day of protest was organised in over 19 countries, under the tagline ‘All Out’, demanding big sponsors such as McDonalds and Visa disassociate themselves.
Like hell they will. Nothing will change. Even after a year of criticism, Thomas Bach, the head of the International Olympic Committee, is resolute that the IOC “do not have a mandate to impose measures on sovereign states”. Athletes may make political statements in non-accredited press conferences, but will be punished for doing so whilst competing or during ceremonies.
This reeks of double standards. Athletes can’t talk politics but nations have license to shape the narrative to their political gain. China splashed a staggering amount of yen on Beijing 2008, the opening ceremony a palpable display of sheer economic clout. London 2012 was awash with political rhetoric intending to re-establish the capital as the world’s most influential city. And during this summer’s Commonwealth Games, Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond will spend the entirety in front of television cameras inside the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, perched on Sir Chris Hoy’s knee, shouting “Gie it laldy!” while draping a ridiculously over-sized Saltire over Sir Chris Hoy’s broad shoulders. The IOC turns a blind eye when the host country, leading politicians and sponsors want to use the Olympics as a vehicle for their own agenda. Meanwhile athletes are told to keep shtum.
This isn’t just about the Olympics though, or politics; other global sporting events are succumbing to a similar fate. FIFA awarded Qatar the 2022 World Cup under the pretense of spreading football to all the corners of the globe. It just so happened that this humid corner of the globe had plenty of cash to sweeten the deal, a very shady deal as it turns out. There is a reason why nobody at FIFA bothered to ascertain if it’s medically viable to play competitive sport in a country composed largely of scorching sand plains. It’s not viable as it happens. It would have taken Sepp Blatter ten seconds to type “what’s the temperature in Qatar during summer?” into google. But who cares if its 50C. This is about dollar.
Today sport is big business and these international tournaments are far removed from their initial embryonic stages. In the first Winter Olympics in 1924, following the devastation of World War One, France’s bill was a fraction of the $51bn that Sochi has cost. The Olympics is a different beast these days, sort of like Harry Styles post-X Factor.
Trimmed of the decorations, the World Cup is merely teams of 11 playing each other, over and over, until one player is given an odd-shaped trophy to kiss while everybody claps. But these days it isn’t that simple. If it’s not the staggering sums of money involved, it’s something else. The Guardian’s excellent investigation revealed that Qatar was responsible for the death of 185 Nepalese migrant labourers. Amnesty International’s ears started burning and they got involved. Big sporting events are no longer synonymous with sport but just an occasion for disgruntled human rights activists to bitch about the misconduct of nation states.
And rightly so, to a point. The deaths in Qatar were a shocking atrocity that needed to be made public. Similarly, Russia (meaning Putin) can’t expect to enjoy the immense benefits of hosting a global sporting event, without international scrutiny on some ill-timed and ill-conceived anti-gay laws. The Olympics are the quintessential event to campaign for equality. You’ll hear plenty of antagonistic talk referencing Principle 6 of the Olympic Charter over the following fortnight, the Google doodle kicking off the party. That’s because for protestors it’s justification gold- ‘discrimination based on “race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise” is incompatible with Olympic ideals.’
Amid the furore over Russia’s anti-gay laws, it’s easy to overlook the fact that homosexuality is not actually banned in Russia (for what it’s worth), compared to more than 75 countries worldwide. As the Western world cheers on the Jamaican bobsled team, no one will be mentioning the fact that being gay in Jamaica could land you up to ten years in prison. Why? Because it doesn’t match the stereotype- ”but Jamaica’s chilled out and fun-loving.”
While combatants wrangle over who controls the agenda, athletes are impotent pawns caught in the middle of a high-profile game of chess. More so than their Summer Olympic cousins, media attention is exactly what these athletes need. Like many others, American snowboarder Jonathan Cheever dovetails his intense training schedule with a full-time job, as a plumber. Without making a name for yourself, sponsorship is a distant dream.
The Olympics should be first and foremost about sport. If you remove the money and wade through the politics, all you’ll find is sports men and women pushing their bodies to the limit. As British figure skater Mathew Parr admits, “The Olympic Games is the pinnacle for any amateur athlete.” A pinnacle they train towards for 1440 days, but can only savour for 14. While Putin wrestles snow leopards, and the honourable LGBT campaigners wave rainbow flags, athletes are left to fight for the meagre limelight remaining. And the IOC won’t even let them open their mouths. This is the reason gay snowboarder Belle Brockhoff is scared to speak out, simply for fear of damaging her medal hopes.
Of course sport has a responsiblity to speak out against injustice. Athletes should define the games. Not the IOC, Putin or, even, LGBT protestors. And, hopefully, if this is the case, we will not only witness inspirational sporting achievement but also a poignant moment the world can benefit from in the quest for equality, as symbolic and monumental as that black power salute at the Mexico 1968 Summer Olympics. Fingers crossed.
Featured image: Duncan Rawlinson via Flickr.
Inset images: Bosc d’Anjou via Flickr, Asian Media via Flickr, Steve Rhodes via Flickr, pds209 via Flickr.
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