The Politicizing of the Olympics

You’ve probably heard that we – meaning Chicago – missed out as hosts to the 2012 Olympics. I know I’d seen a couple of news blurbs before the voting had started, mostly featuring Michelle Obama courting those responsible for the decision. I hadn’t really thought of the Olympics as being anything more than sports highest goal; the best and most elite athletes of the world bringing home the gold, not which country gets to host. I know, I know, there’s the prestige and, of course, the revenue that comes along with hosting the Olympics. But, blaming our DEMOCRAT president and his cabinet because obviously someone has screwed up something that should have been such a simple task, since Chicago lost out in the first round, come on people, that’s just absurd. Now why would all the reporters, bloggers, etc. swarm such a subject as being political, or even noteworthy? The Olympics have nothing to do with politics…
Hmmm, well now let me think, didn’t something political happen with the Olympics way back in history somewhere? Oh yeah, in Berlin’s 1936 Olympics didn’t Hitler storm out when Jesse Owens, a black athlete, won four gold medals in track and field. Kind of screwed up that old Arian Nation thing about being the best, didn’t it? But we’re too enlightened for that kind of thing now. There’s no reason for those kinds of tantrums. Oh yeah, didn’t some country boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics as a protest of the USSR invading Afghanistan? Umm, I think that was us, wasn’t it? How embarrassing. And to think, those irresponsible, mean old Russians boycotted us right back during the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics. How dare they!
Well, I guess if you want to get right down to brass tacks, the Olympics had a political undertone as early as A.D. 394 when Emperor Theodosius had to abolish them due to bitter relations between the Romans and the Greeks. In 1896 the US didn’t even compete as official representatives. A ten man team barely made it to Athens in time to participate. Another political move that was highly debatable was the cancelation of Jim Thorpe’s 1912 record of winning both the decathlon and pentathlon because he had played professional baseball; a move that was reversed in 1983.
So the question now should be when are we going to get along without all those nasty invisible political lines drawn in the sand? Losing out on hosting the Olympics in Chicago was nothing more than the rest of the world wanting to hold them in Rio. It wasn’t a political statement that I can see. I honestly don’t think the rest of the world really cares which political party is in the white house, only what we, as a country, do that affects their little corner. You would think that since humankind has reached space and found out that earth is more a beautiful blue gem floating in the darkness, than a bunch of little lines which no one can really see, all of us would be more inclined to consider this our planet over whatever political view we might have.