04/20/24
February 20, 2002
WWII?: Hey Herb, good thing the Five Nations don't have an Olympic Hockey Team. '"Maybe that's why they lost the Second World War, guys," Brooks said.' Has anyone else noticed that this Olympics has become a forum of xenophobic sentiment and generational vendetta? With this Games being an opportunity to escape the pre-packaged and over-cooked patriotism of the last few months and showcase the value of our global village, this turn to pre-picked medals, propoganda, and age-old grudges makes the wait for the next Games too short.
Nationalism and xenophobia has a rich tradition in the Olympics. Nazi Germany used the 1936 Olympics as a display of German nationalism. (I just discovered that the 1936 Winter Olympics were also held in Germany; they were also marked by a scandal on the ice involving Canadians, this one featuring British-born Canadians who played for England.) The US boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics because of the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. The boycott made some athletes feel like pawns and devastated others. The Soviet Union boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics as payback. So these Olympics don't seem that out of line.
posted by kirkaracha at 02:21 PM on February 20, 2002
I apologize for the above gross misrepresentation of the Olympic games. I have projected my unrealistic and utopian values of what I thought they-the games-should and could be. Maybe its the picture of me sitting in Caesar's chair in the original Olympic stadium I have hanging in my apartment, but is it ludicrous to think that the games could be re-fashioned to resemble their original form?
posted by garfield at 03:08 PM on February 20, 2002
Me, I think you're looking at a molehill and seeing a mountain. What I've seen in these Olympics is much what I've seen before -- team spirit made concrete by individual achievement. The coach's remark was kinda dumb trash talk but hardly rises to the level of "xenophobia". A xenophobe wouldn't be at the Olympics. Generational VENDETTA? Overcooked patriotism? Could you possibly use more loaded words? (well, we can blame boisvert for using the word jingoistic). The "original form" of the Olympics is shrouded in mythology, whether you're talking about Coubertin's revival or the ancient games. I don't feel that Coubertin's vision of the games has been compromised. He believed that sports and athleticism were an important basis of adult character, not to mention national character, and that competition was the refiner's fire of this alchemy. With few exceptions we have seen individuals achieve their medals by exemplary sportsmanship and long years of determination marked by the unstinting support of a small group of fans. I don't know what you see in it, but when I watched Flowers just weep as she stood on the podium and sang the national anthem, I knew what that was all about. She'd done well for herself, she'd overcome the odds and the irony of having quit the team to come back and ride with a dark horse to a gold. Then she got to stand up and say, "in the values that got me here I represent the best of my country". I can't see a thing wrong with that. Besides, it's hardly the first Olympics where people have waved the flag. You can concentrate on the exceptions, but certainly the figure skating debacle doesn't have to detract from what everyone else has achieved, whether or not they're in a judged sport.
posted by lakefxdan at 10:55 PM on February 20, 2002
Well if the England football coach had made such a remark, there would have been a huge storm about it, and he would have to resign. So should Brooks.
posted by salmacis at 04:06 AM on February 21, 2002
There is no comparison between what should happen to an English football coach making WWII comments and an American hockey coach making such remarks. For one, hockey has a way lower profile in the US than football has in the UK and the argument could be made that the coach therefore has less of a public responsibility to be culturally sensitive. A more compelling point, however, is that the subject matter is not quite as much of a hot-button issue over here. We did not have to put up with the Blitz or occupation or anything of the sort. These events have created in Europe a certain sensitivity to things concerning that era. This sensitivity has created an atmosphere that is less tolerant of certain kinds of speech than that found in the US. This is why a French court can rule that Yahoo! has to take down all Nazi-related material from its auction site, while a US court basically tells Yahoo to ignore the French court. And I don't think the England coach would ever say anything of the sort for another reason. The Swedes were neutral in WWII.
posted by holden at 08:46 AM on February 21, 2002
Since when was the Olympics about warm and fuzzy internationalism? It is a jingoistic celebration of athletics. Otherwise why have national medal counts? That said it sure is fun to watch the hockey. The NHL looks at it as a marketing opportunity but all I find myself thinking is "This is so much better than the NHL!". That can't be good advertising. It says "If we were really interested in showing the fans good hockey we would have wider ice surfaces but dammit we want the extra money from the gold seats." Go Belarus!