The Winter Olympics and Globalization
I wonder how many of you who watched the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics were struck, as I was, by how it is simultaneously the most global of events and yet the most nationally chauvinistic. Unlike the world that most of us live in, where intercultural cooperation is the pursuit and the prize, the Olympics emphasize competition between cultures and nations. The great irony, of course, is that globalization has taken the edge away from many national advantages that competing countries used to have. There are now many athletes and coaches playing and working across national lines. For example, the seismic shift from Russia to North America in awards for ice dancing (Canada taking gold and US taking silver) was aided by a pair of Russian émigré coaches. Many of the biathlon medalists are from France, Germany and Russia, despite the event’s obscure origins in the Norwegian military. The US team also made it to the podium for the first time in 86 years by winning a silver medal in the Nordic combined event, thanks to a new mixture of experts devoted to the sport. All of this provides additional testimony to the power of globalization and its continuous impact. Let us know your thoughts.
-Mike Schell
I didn’t see the opening ceremonies, but watching the games, I have indeed been struck by the extent of national chauvinism on parade in this global event. I tend to be bored by watching a couple of countries take all the medals, and I like to see athletes doing their personal best, regardless of country of origin, and often root for the underdog (remember the British ski jumper, Eddie the Eagle, from a couple of winter events ago – he was great
and I love to see winter athletes competing from countries like Jamaica!).
Having said that, pitting not only person against person, but country against country in the Olympics seems to be the nature of the beast, so to speak, similar to the World Soccer Cup or other international events. This perhaps speaks to why we will never have a complete melding of cultures but always maintain our own national and cultural identities and pride therein.
Of course a lot of the way we see the event is dictated by the media and what they choose to show at any given time. I find the US media especially chauvinistic in showing “Team USA” as much of the time as possible, or so it seems. It is too bad that we can’t all attend the Olympics first-hand. I had the opportunity to do so many years ago, working as a volunteer in the media center. At those Olympic games I met and talked to people from all over the planet – that was truly a “globalizing” experience.
I have a different perspective on this. I think the Olympics today probably represents where we are in terms of globalization and the concept of global community. There are many people “crossing borders” to follow opportunity, such as the Japanese figure skater who became a Russian citizen to follow her dream. Or the ice-dancer who’s half Canadian and have US-American but competes for the US. Hockey players who work and train together year after year in the NHL take a break from being teammates and compete against each other for their countries. While some people take it too far (hence the rather unsportsmanlike protests when “our” athlete doesn’t win in some sports), that’s an unfortunate characteristic in sports and pretty much all competitive events. I like the fact professional athletes can now compete, and how they put aside their professional affiliations for a short time and simply compete to be the best that day (not the most famous or highest paid, etc.) There probably is too much commercialization (which leads to things like that Dutch skater whose coach messed up lamenting “how much money it cost him” rather than the loss of a gold medal) but that’s another question!
But aren’t the olympics supposed to replace wars?