Before getting into the essence of this blog post,
I want to take the time to acknowledge the importance and the purpose of the
Olympics. I believe the Olympic Games are a celebration of sports, as well as the
hard work each athlete and their families invested in sports, irrespective of the
country they are from or their cultural background. Even though countries are
competing against one another, it is an event that unites the world every two
years. I think it is the prime example of equality because despite our
differences, we see that we are all the same, passionate people about sports
and life. This also reaffirms that every person in the world has the right to
play sports. I wanted to remind myself and you the reader about the purpose of
the Games because I think we sometimes forget the main reason for our
participation, whether you are an athlete or a spectator watching from your
home. In other words, the celebration of the Olympics can be very clouded by
the political, racial, religious and sexual orientation issues that are
discussed by the media.
Something that I think is ironic about these Sochi
Games is that the Olympics are all about equality (as mentioned previously).
However, not long before the Games, Putin passed an anti-gay propaganda law,
which prohibits Russian people from speaking about gay, lesbian and transgender
people in the presence of children. This, they say, is to “protect children”
(1). Now let’s just take a moment to pause and think about how incredibly insensitive
and horrible this new law is, especially in light of hosting the Olympics, an
event that traditionally supports human rights. How does this law make
participating gay and lesbian athletes feel, knowing that they would be going
to a country that doesn't accept them? Is the intent to make them feel like second
class citizens? In this respect, I think Russia is a backwards country because their
policies do not consider the rights of the people who are being alienated and
in some cases persecuted. If they don’t change their ideologies, they are going
to repeat mistakes that have been made in the past (i.e. lack of women’s rights
in various countries).
Various countries were quite enraged with the new
Russian law, so the Sochi Olympics was used as political platform by many
participating countries. For instance, at the opening ceremony, many heads of
countries were not present. Among the absent leaders, President Obama, David Cameron (British Prime Minister) and Angela Merkel (German Chancellor), Stephen Harper (Canadian Prime Minister)
were the ones whose absence attracted a lot of attention (2). In
addition, President Barack Obama made a point of sending several gay athletes
to the Olympics to represent the United States and to show to the world that he
believes in equality for all. He said, "One of the things I'm really looking forward to is maybe some gay and lesbian athletes bringing home the gold or silver or bronze, which would, I think, go a long way in rejecting the kind of attitudes that we're seeing there. And if Russia doesn't have gay or lesbian athletes, then it'll probably make their team weaker" (1).
In summary, the Olympics shouldn't be an outlet for
countries making repressive political statements. The political issues detract
from the uplifting and positive spirits of the Games. Also, the Olympics should
only be hosted in countries that support human rights for all. Hopefully in the
years to come, the Olympic organizing committee will select countries that are
able to accept and treat all people equally.
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