The Olympics is first and foremost a coming together of great amateur athletes around the world. It is fundamentally about the individuals’ pursuance of the highest level of perfection in their sport. Beyond the athletes there are the spectators. Gathering around televisions, streaming on computers or attending in the stands at the events themselves they are rooting for their country’s athletes in particular.
Politics inevitably arise when so many countries are in attendance, and this year has certainly not been an exception. Even before the games Russia’s stance on gay rights sparked talks of boycotting the Olympics. Countries and organizations made advertisements and overt statements in support of Russia’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community. Canada produced a commercial which shows two male luge athletes thrusting into their run with the tag line “The Olympics have always been a little gay, let’s fight to keep them that way”. Delegations to these Olympics made a point of including many openly gay persons. Athletes however, can’t wear any visible symbols in support of the Russian LGBT community. Fearing expulsion from sports they had devoted years of their lives to, many athletes refrained from wearing the obvious rainbow symbol. Instead a group called AthleteAlly uses principle 6 of the Olympic Charter which states that “Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race,religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.” By wearing and mentioning Principle 6 they can comment on Russia’s discriminatory laws without risking their chance to compete in these Olympic games.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) makes a very concerted effort to maintain an atmosphere focused on sport. Athletes can not wear anything displaying sponsors logos or make political statements, and this is a rule on which they will not budge. Rule 50 of the Olympic charter states that “No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propagation is permitted.” This includes honouring the dead. Athletes with memorial stickers to the late Canadian free style skier Sarah Burke were asked to remove them. The Norway Woman’s Nordic team were told they couldn’t wear black armbands when one of the athlete’s brother, who trained with the team, passed away unexpectedly. At first these two rulings by the IOC seemed unfair, even discriminatory. However when the Ukrainian protests became decidedly violent causing significant losses of life in Kyiv’s Independence Square Ukrainian athletes also wanted to wear black armbands. Doing so would be a very overt political statement. The IOC forbid the armbands and athletes instead had a minute of silence in support of their fallen countrymen. Several athletes have since withdrawn from the Olympic games without competing in response to the deadly ongoing protests at home.
In the end the Olympics is a nation-fueled show of both patriotism and deep rooted societal beliefs. The athletes are celebrated for their enormous achievements, but they are also seen as a product of their respective nations. The athletes do not escape the current social and political climates of their home countries because they are competing elsewhere. You can’t have an Olympics without nationalism and politics. Happily, in most cases the political overtones are secondary to celebration of individual athletic accomplishments. Just don’t look too closely at the recent, potentially biased judging for figure skating.
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