Why the Olympics are 'deeply' political: 'A shot of adrenaline for the country'
The Olympics are supposed to be all about sports. But with all the whole world watching, is it possible to avoid any overlap with politics, power and policy?
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In brief…
- With the 2024 Paris Olympic Games wrapping up on Sunday night, Lewis and Jon take a look at the political significance of these events.
- They offer a chance to showcase a host country’s strengths and a shot of adrenaline to declining nations, The News Agents argue.
- Some Olympics have come at a significant political moment in time, such as Berlin 1936, Moscow 1980 or Beijing 2008.
What are you going to do now? The 16 days of non-stop sporting action in Paris have drawn to a close after the Olympic Games’ closing ceremony on Sunday.
The athletes put in blood, sweat and tears to represent their nations while millions of viewers from across the globe tuned in from the comfort of their sofas.
With the whole world watching, are these monumental sporting events about more than just the athletes taking part?
Or do they go deeper? Do they have political significance and impact a country’s soft power on the international stage?
‘A brief shot of adrenaline’
“There's always this interesting tension or contradiction about the Olympics as politics”, says Lewis Goodall.
“It is an event which ostensibly and deliberately tries to portray itself as being anti-politics”, he adds.
But according to Lewis, whatever way it is painted, the Olympic Games will always be “deeply political”.
Speaking on an episode of The News Agents, Lewis says: “It is one of the rare occasions when you actually see pretty much every country in the world represented and doing something.”
You even see North Korea there, who are “basically ostracised from almost every other truly international kind of forum”.
And for the countries hosting the Games, there is a “brief feel good factor” which can “reaffirm to a country a sense of itself”.
That is particularly the case for countries like Britain and France, Lewis says, who have “long operated under a psychology of decline” where they ask: “What is purpose of us in the world today?”
But with the Olympics, there is a “brief shot of adrenaline”, he adds.
When Britain hosted the Olympics in 2012, Lewis says it presented a different story about the national character and a sense of optimism.
This is “really important in politics”, Lewis adds.
Of course, this does not last forever.
The UK may have been riding on a high in 2012, but just a few years down the line with Brexit and Prime Minister after Prime Minister in quick succession, Lewis says that “inevitably something like a sporting event will disappear.”
A historical ‘moment in time’
But not all Olympics simply vanish into thin air, with some making important political ripples, just by taking place.
“I think the more interesting political Olympics are the ones that last in the memory because they represent something," says Lewis.
“And so they're more historical events, not because of the sport themselves, but because they say something about that country in that moment in time.”
Take Beijing 2008 as an example.
Jon Sopel says this was “so important” and notes that is why the “Chinese state threw everything at it”.
It took place in the midst of China's rise to economic power after years of being a poor country. After industrialising and becoming the “workshop of the world”, China was given the opportunity to showcase its strength to the rest of the world.
Jon adds: “There was nothing that was going to go wrong or that was going to rain on Beijing's parade, where people might say ‘well, Beijing wasn't properly ready. Everything was done to the nth degree.”
One you might not remember is Berin 1936. But it remains forever etched in the history books.
Why was this one political? Well it came right in the middle of Hitler’s Nazi regime.
Yet it was still full of astonishing moments.
The most significant of which was arguably when Hitler had to hand over a trophy to Jessie Owens - the black American track and field sensation who secured four gold medals.
For Jon, the Moscow 1980 Olympics also stick out in his mind.
It came after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, with the US boycotting the tournament.
Fast forward to today, and Russia is still not competing and has not competed in the last couple of Olympics due to its Ukraine invasion and doping.
This is why, Jon says, the “idea that politics doesn't intervene is just ridiculous”.