BY:WILSON SINK
Tonight, billions of people around the world will turn their attention to Sochi, Russia for the 22nd Winter Olympics. In the US, though, attention has been on Russia far longer. The US-Russian relationship has always been complicated, the Cold War coming easily to mind, and in the past year, tensions have been high again. The two nations disagree on much: the Snowden situation, Syria, and, now, gay rights.
In July, Russia passed sweeping new anti-gay policies. Gay couples cannot adopt children. “Homosexual propaganda” is classified as pornography, meaning that any pro-LGBTQ statement, protest or message is subject to punishment by fine or arrest. Further, non-Russians can be arrested and detained for promoting pro-LGBTQ ideas. This is in addition to hate crimes against homosexuals, which now may be further legitimized under the “pretext” of these new laws, according to a researcher at Human Rights Watch.
Such discrimination has created an international outcry with condemnation from leaders, athletes, celebrities and activists alike. Some have called for a boycott of the Winter Olympics, and many heads of state, including President Obama, will not be in Sochi. However, these types of protests are nothing new. The Olympics have always been influenced by politics.
Past Boycotts and Bans
The modern Olympics have been a source of political controversy in the past, starting with the 1936 in Nazi Germany, both athletes and politicians alike proposing to boycott the games. In the words of a protesting Mayor La Guardia of New York City, “Our athletes, I hope, will refuse to lend respectability to Hitler and his followers.” Of course, the US would attend the games, and the African-American Jesse Owens would destroy the Nazi myth of Aryan supremacy by winning four gold medals.
The first boycott would not come until 1956, with war stirring in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and East Asia. In protest of the Soviet invasion of Hungary, some European countries withdrew from the games. Likewise, intervention in the Suez Crisis triggered boycotts from some Arab nations. Finally, China refused to attend on the basis of the International Olympic Committee’s recognition of Taiwan. Politics were becoming more and more entwined with Games.
Notably, beginning in 1964 and continuing until 1992, South Africa was banned from the Olympics because of their racist apartheid policies. Likewise in 1972, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), a country also ruled by a white minority, was thrown out of the Games because of their racial intolerance. In 1976, more than 20 African nations boycotted the games in response to the New Zealand rugby team’s tour of South Africa.
Famously, The US, along with many of its allies, boycotted the last Russian Olympics, in 1980, refusing to go to Moscow in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. At the height of the Cold War, an absentee USSR would reciprocate this political showmanship at the 1984 Los Angeles games. Finally, after North Korea’s boycott of the 1988 South Korean games, the 1992 Games were boycott-free for the first time in 30 years, with a post-apartheid South Africa and reunified Germany returning. The games could once again focus on their founding principles.
Politics and Sport
As written in the Olympic charter, “The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind.” The Olympic flag shows five unified rings, representing the five continents (the Americas being combined), and the people of those five continents, connected through their common humanity. While the Games can never exist in a vacuum, sport is meant to bridge political divides. While athletes are representatives of their nations, they are also individuals; they are people. For many, the Olympics offer a crowning achievement for a lifetime of work. To take away the opportunity for political reasons undermines their efforts and takes away an athletes ability to transcend politics.
In 1936, there were calls to boycott the Berlin Olympics, but the US went. And there, Jesse Owens won, and was embraced afterwards by the blonde-haired German, Luz Long. That friendship mattered. That symbol mattered. Those individuals mattered. Nations are collections of people, not monoliths, and within them are a plurality of opinions and beliefs. There will always be prejudices and opinions that divide people, but the Olympics offer a chance to remind the world of its commonalities.
In modern Russia, discrimination undoubtedly exists, with homophobia and anti-gay propaganda threatening the rights and, sometimes, lives of the Russian LGBTQ community. While discrimination has been punished in the past, these Olympics can bring those issues to light, and offer a platform for activism and change. To this end, the US Olympic delegation sent an appropriate message. Two openly gay athletes, Brian Boitano and Caitlin Cahow, will lead the Americans in Sochi. The Olympics are about people from every race, color, gender, background, and even sexual orientation coming together to express their common humanity. It would be a shame not to represent every nation too.
