What goes around, comes around
My recent post upon the way the apparent unhealthy path down which world sport is headed [The parlous state of world sport – National Rust 9th February] – containing the statement that I had taken a deliberate decision to avoid any viewing of the Winter Olympics currently taking place in Beijing because of my revulsion at the host nation’s authoritarian and anti-democratic Government and general geo-political tactics – was the unwitting cause of probably the biggest flood of social media comment from around the globe (both for and against my stance) to the offices of this organ that we have received since it launched.
I would like to point out here that in making said comment I wasn’t picking exclusively upon China at all, but rather referencing the current Winter Olympics as yet another example of the “dodgy manner” in which global sport is generally run in practice, this despite the supposedly high-minded principles upon which it was first conceived and established and for these purposes, I shall take the year 1896 – and the first Olympic Games of the “modern” era held in Athens – as the start point.
As every schoolboy knows, the Olympics were revived largely through the influence and drive of the French historian and educator Pierre de Coubertin, original founder of the International Olympic Committee, who encapsulated his creed in the famous statement:
“The important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle, the essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well”.
Some might regard such a principle – or anything like it – as hogwash or codswallop.
These days – for many – it is a matter of “He (or she) who wins, wins … and the rest come nowhere”.
Innumerable nations – whether they be First World/“Western” democratic or, alternatively, run by either anti-democratic dictators or politburos – tend to view global sporting success as the equivalent of “a military war won” in terms of the prestige – and ultimately the power, respect and potential economic success – it can bring them upon the world stage.
Don’t get me wrong.
There are cheats, schemers, shysters, ne’er-do-wells, rule-benders and “wrong ‘uns” a plenty in every walk of human life – and, most often (surprise, surprise) the greatest number of them are operating in the most lucrative avenues, cue a reference to the old (Yorkshire-originated?) adage “Where there’s muck, tha’s brass”.
There’s another well-worn dictum that’s worth repeating:
“A leopards cannot change its spots”.
As I wrote in my original post, I have deliberately avoided watching any of the Winter Olympics now in progress.
However, that saying came to mind this morning as I took on board the latest news from Beijing …
See here for a link to a report by Rachael Bunyan and Shekhar Bhatia that appears today upon the website of the – DAILY MAIL
