Cathal Kelly, the Globe and Mail's resident philosopher of sport, has penned a thought-provoking article on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and its role and relevance in the 21st century.
As Kelly opines, the IOC increasingly sees its role being "think Olympically" when everyone else is caught up in the nitty-gritty of fighting poverty, recession, etc, and the thankless task of making ends meet. He sees the IOC as functioning "less like a business conglomerate and more like a romantic cult" in which "the systemic belief in sport as a vehicle of cultural advancement is total". IOC president Thomas Bach is the chief Cool-Aid dispenser in this system, and Kelly perceives a "jagged edge of ecstatic fundamentalism" behind the "bland MBA terms" of his media deliveries.
Kelly even sees evidence of the IOC's ambitions for "social engineering" in the IOC's decision to bring non-sports like skateboarding and surfing under the Olympic banner. The inclusion of these disciplines (which are really lifestyles rather than sports) on the grounds that they are popular with the world's youth ("we go where the young people are", as Bach says) shows a rather alarming desire to subsume almost everything under the Olympic code, and to couch everything in terms of winners and losers. The IOC wants to represent itself as the "Manifest Destiny" of sport, to dictate what should be considered not only "Higher, Faster, Stronger" (as in Pierre de Coubertin's original motto), but even what is "Better, Purer, More Wholesome". Bach's justification of allowing the majority of Russia's athletes, despite the contrary recommendations of almost all other international sports organizations, on the basis of "natural law" is just another example of the IOC's Saviour Complex.
Much of this might be a little hyperbolic, but much of it rings true. The modrn Olympics is certainly an excessively bombastic, bloated, and almost certainly corrupt, affair. Disfunctional, even. For decades now, it has been blighted by the modern disease of assuming that everything has to be bigger, more comprehensive and flashier than ever before (Faster, Higher, Bigger?). Such growth is almost always unsustainable, and the Olympics are clearly starting to creak at the seams.
Much of this might be a little hyperbolic, but much of it rings true. The modrn Olympics is certainly an excessively bombastic, bloated, and almost certainly corrupt, affair. Disfunctional, even. For decades now, it has been blighted by the modern disease of assuming that everything has to be bigger, more comprehensive and flashier than ever before (Faster, Higher, Bigger?). Such growth is almost always unsustainable, and the Olympics are clearly starting to creak at the seams.
Mr. Cathal's essay is a provocative and challenging article, and not just because it supports to some extent my own belief that the Olympics have over-stepped their mission and out-stayed their welcome.
Call me an old fuddy-duudy, but I really believe that things started to go wrong when professional athletes were allowed into the Olympics back in the 1980s. Maybe, at the time the modern Olympics, were resurrected, it seemed like a good way to bring a disparate and dissipating world together. But now the Olympics are more a source of division than unity, and have become much too intertwined with politics and economics. We have the IAAF World Championships, the World Cup, Wimbledon, etc, etc, not to mention any number of Asian Games, Pan-Am Games, European Championships, etc, etc. Do we really also need an Olympic Games that has grown into an unwieldy and uncontrollable monster?
UPDATE
I remain hopelessly conflicted over the Olympics. I deeply believe all of the above, and I am convinced that the Games are an unjustifiable diversion of much needed money, an explosion of rampant nationalism and a medals-at-any-price philosophy, run by a corrupt and bloated organization that sees its mandate as the iron control of all that is sport.
And what have I done since the opening ceremony but cheer on Canada, glory in the splendid performances of the world's best athlete, and lap up the human interest stories that permeate the constant television coverage?
Whatever you might think of the Olympic Games in the theoretical abstract, it remains a gloriously compelling event like no other. Sometimes, it's just so hard to be a hard-nosed cynic and a holier-than-thou grouch.
Call me an old fuddy-duudy, but I really believe that things started to go wrong when professional athletes were allowed into the Olympics back in the 1980s. Maybe, at the time the modern Olympics, were resurrected, it seemed like a good way to bring a disparate and dissipating world together. But now the Olympics are more a source of division than unity, and have become much too intertwined with politics and economics. We have the IAAF World Championships, the World Cup, Wimbledon, etc, etc, not to mention any number of Asian Games, Pan-Am Games, European Championships, etc, etc. Do we really also need an Olympic Games that has grown into an unwieldy and uncontrollable monster?
UPDATE
I remain hopelessly conflicted over the Olympics. I deeply believe all of the above, and I am convinced that the Games are an unjustifiable diversion of much needed money, an explosion of rampant nationalism and a medals-at-any-price philosophy, run by a corrupt and bloated organization that sees its mandate as the iron control of all that is sport.
And what have I done since the opening ceremony but cheer on Canada, glory in the splendid performances of the world's best athlete, and lap up the human interest stories that permeate the constant television coverage?
Whatever you might think of the Olympic Games in the theoretical abstract, it remains a gloriously compelling event like no other. Sometimes, it's just so hard to be a hard-nosed cynic and a holier-than-thou grouch.
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