Sport is Sideshow at Beijing Olympics

Scenes of pro-Tibet protesters harassing the procession of the Olympic flame through London have reduced sport to a mere sideshow of the Beijing Olympics. As Nosher and I cleared the unseasonal snow from our greenhouses and cloches down on our little allotment plots, we were already discussing the issues raised by awarding the Games to a brutal, ruthless non-democratic police state.
'The truth is' said Nosher, kicking the snow from his boots 'the ideals of the Olympic movement were long ago subverted by the labyrinthine Olympic bureaucracy, along with the need for heavy commercial sponsorship, and the desire of governments to use the games to promote their own international standing. Sport has long been a sideshow as the Games have become an exercise in cynicism, self-promotion and political gamesmanship.'
'So you think that sport is merely a media attraction that enables all these other things to proceed?' I asked.
'Yep!' Nosher replied, as we walked to his shed and got comfortable inside on our old deckchairs. The little paraffin heater gave the interior a warm glow, and a warm mug of soup replaced the body heat lost to the cold outside.
'The point is' Nosher continued, warming to his theme 'the idea of keeping politics out of sport when the event is on such a large scale as the Olympics is simply nonsense. Both commercialism and politics are going to figure big-time, however much anyone denies it. And the sporting participants are also sucked into it with sponsorship deals and, for the more successful ones, lucrative deals for when they give up playing their sport. The ideal of a strictly amatuer event when the costs of participating on any level and in any way are so huge is simply self-serving hypocrisy.'
'And, of course' I added 'no government is going to pass up the opportunity to use the Olympics as a showcase to the world in order to promote its political and commercial interests.'
We sipped our soup in silence for a few moments.
'China's being awarded the Games is simply an insult to the supposed ideals of the modern Olympic movement' Nosher said 'a country that is non-democratic, oppressive, has an appalling human rights record that it has done nothing to improve, despite promising the IOC that it would, and which is operating a policy of repression and cultural genocide in Tibet. How can anyone feel comfortable with that?'
'I agree' I said 'keeping politics out of sport almost amounts to indifference towards the suffering of others. On the other hand, I think our sportsmen and women should attend Beijing, if only to enable the issue of Tibet to be kept in the headlines for a few weeks.' Nosher gave me his 'You're so wrong!' look.
'No, they should definitely stay away' he said 'sport these days is merely entertainment, along with providing an opportunity for competitive self-indulgence for people who like a shot at winning some status through physical prowess.'
'Well, in the best spirit of mutual respect and tolerance that characterises allotment gardeners, I think we should toast our disagreement' I suggested. We touched our soup mugs together and imbibed the thick warm dark mixture.
Outside the dark clouds were giving way to blue sky and sunshine, a universal metaphor for hope in a cruel and unforgiving world. We will have to wait and see whether the political oppression that currently characterises China will one day give way to enlightenment, tolerance and freedom.
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