Olympic Games: where universal brotherhood, patriotism and individual achievement merge

“The Olympic Games are the place where universal brotherhood, fierce patriotism and individual achievement come together creating the perfect microcosm of the world”

The modern Olympics, where most countries in the world now meet every two years, 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 truly become participants in the ‘biggest’ event. We all put aside our differences as we participate in this incredible global event, while showing our deepest patriotic feelings and our best personal efforts as athletes.

When Sean White shows off his new boarding trick in Torino or Vancouver, the youth of the world are 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 , he laments. Or when Canadian Joannie Rochette loses her mother at the Olympics two days before her event to a massive heart attack, the entire world gasps. Joannie decided to go ahead and skate in honor of her mother, who was her biggest fan. She skated her personal best and didn’t break her game face until she completed her phase one bronze short skating performance, after which everyone cried with her. She finally took home the bronze medal, ending her performance with a kiss as her eyes rolled skyward, to a chorus of applause.

Back in 2003, before the Beijing Olympics, when Kim Collins raced to an impressive 100m victory at the World Championships, most people had no idea what country the letters SKN stood for. Collins, from the Caribbean island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, said his victory was “the biggest thing” that has happened since his country, with a population of less than 40,000, gained independence in 1983. .

The Olympics are the only 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 an equal chance of winning. 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 superpower like when American Dan Jansen became fell after dedicating her skate to her sister Jane, who died of cancer that same day, only to fall and break down in tears. Dan won that gold six years later and took his victory lap carrying his one-year-old daughter named Jane…for his sister.

As Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd noted: “When the world looks at Australia, much of its image of Australia is shaped by what our athletes have done in the field of sport, including Olympic sports” and what the world he saw. of our country since Australia hosted the Olympic Games.

When Tanzanian marathoner John Stephen Akhwari dragged his injured leg to finish last with a time of four hours and 30 minutes in the marathon race at the Mexico City Games in 1968, he received warm applause and cheers from a crowd that stayed. waiting for it to finish. . “My country didn’t 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. through his country in 1983.

National pride is ingrained in every athlete and every game or event, but so is compassion for fellow athletes around the world. Over the years, the world has witnessed Japanese volleyball fans roaring for their national team and Italians mourning the loss of their soccer team back home. We’ve seen the Canadian powerhouse in soccer beaten by a long-shot American team and the favorite beaten by lesser-skilled athletes, even from their own team.

And as Olympic training, in a shrinking world, has changed and overlapped more and more, we see true friendships and happiness between fellow athletes who are both friends and competitors, like between gold medalists and Canadian and American ice dancing silvers, respectively, who share coaches and practice ice. And again, like now, coach Brian Orser, whom Gold has always eluded as a figure skater, saw Kim Yu-Na become the reigning Queen by taking Gold as the first South Korean to win a figure skating medal.
Sometimes it has been the host countries that have been as much the story as the athletes. There was Hitler’s Olympics (Summer and Winter 1936) which allowed a madman to use them for propaganda. And then, in 1972, Germany got its chance to redeem itself with the Munich Olympics, where Jewish-American Mark Spitz won an unprecedented seven gold medals, but his achievements were ironically overshadowed by the massacre of eleven Israeli athletes at hands of a Palestinian militant group. There were years of war (summer 1916, summer and winter 1940, and summer and winter 1944) that led to the complete cancellation of the games and the 1980 Moscow Olympics that were boycotted by the United States and affiliated countries, including Japan, West Germany and China. , the Philippines, and Canada, which later prompted the boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games by Moscow and its allies, 14 Eastern Bloc countries, and allies, including the Soviet Union, Cuba, and East Germany (but not Romania ). And there were the ongoing drug-enhancing and doping scandals of Eastern Bloc athletes under their influence by the Soviet Union. And, more recently, there were previous complaints to Beijing about human and animal rights violations. But the Olympic flame apparently ignited the Chinese people’s love for their motherland and a multitude of them took to the streets after overseas attempts to disrupt, or even sabotage, the Olympic torch relay from the beginning, moreover during at least 17 days the Chinese government was aware of and publicly refrained from many of its practices against human and animal rights. In the end, the community of nations and the peoples of the world rose out of the shadows.

And remember the opening of the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City? A tattered American flag recovered from the smoldering ruins of the World Trade Center was displayed as President George W. Bush declared the Games open on behalf of a “proud, determined and grateful nation.” The heart of the world was with them. It was America’s message to the world: Americans love their country as they stood in the shadows of the 9/11 tragedy, and the world should stand united to promote common ideals and hope for peace.

Ultimately, however, they are the names and performances of 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 who make the games and add to the living spirit of the Olympics. Although Michael Phelps is generally considered the greatest Olympian, it would be difficult to compile a list of the best. There are so many factors. And it is impossible to compare the athletes of the first Games with 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 Olympic Games are the only event that, at least once every two years, brings out the best in humanity without crisis. There is a great story of the airport and the city of Gander in Newfoundland that allowed almost 200 American flights to land at its airport, after airspace was closed over the United States for the first time in its history just hours after 9/11. . But the 4 days that followed and the amazing hospitality of the people of Gander is the real 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 the shining stars like Michael Phelps and Anton Apolo Ohno or those who persevere purely like Akhwari or the Cool Running Team of Jamaica, as well as the countries and cultures of the world from which they come. , to the spectators who come to embrace the games, to the Olympic spirit itself, and to all who have competed before. It is a fine line between love of country, personal ambition and, for at least 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 best shared experiences a family can have, including lessons and inspiration without a direct word being said.

The Olympic Games are the pinnacle of true global understanding and the embodiment of the quest for a better world, as opposed to global coalitions, contractual leagues of nations, and the claptrap of world orders crafted and planned by self-serving politicians and businessmen. intriguing. Let’s hope we all remember that and follow the light of the Olympic torch and true unity instead of the darkness of idle talk of divider and conqueror.

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