The Olympics Are Coming

The olympics are coming and I just wanted to make a quick remark about how an event meant to unite the world in healthy athletic competition has evolved into a space for countries to exert political power.

In 1933, Germany was awarded the Olympic games as a way for countries to welcome Germany back into the world. In a sense, this was a peace offering, an ideology that the Olympics supported. However, Hitler wanted to use the Olympics to display the power of Nazism to the rest of the world. Germany displayed their wealth through the Olympics. The Olympics was a propaganda tactic used to display Aryan supremacy. The German athletes in the games were soldiers in thepropaganda war. The Germans needed to win as manymedals as they could in order to display their supremacy to the rest of the world. Despite African American achievements that shattered the ideology of Aryan supremacy, the Germans took home the most medals at the Olympics that year. Now this is a historical example but the most recent olympics in China were no different.

When the announcement was made that China would host the 2008 Olympics it was largely viewed as an award for the booming economy and recent improvements in human rights that were made in that country. Nevertheless when the Olympics arrived in China, they ensured that every element of the grand event was controlled and planned perfectly. It was even revealed that the opening ceremony (which was critically acclaimed) used fake fireworks in the television transmission to enhance the aesthetics. China wanted to make sure that as Communist host the world would not see the persecution of the Uighur ethnicity in Western China or any other perceived flaws in their society. They event went so far as covering unfinished construction projects with large banners to prevent people from thinking that these buildings were failed efforts of communism. Beyond the host, competitors in the olympics face the stress of upholding their country's honor. Losing competitions that are traditionally strong points of one's country is a disgraceful event (i.e. Russia losing to USA in ice hockey). At the same time the country that wins the most medals is cast as a global power in that they have the time money and power to create, and train athletes to compete at the highest level.