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 have taken advantage of globalization. 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 emigre coaches.
The Chinese performance in aerial skiing was aided by Western coaches, and the medals for the Nordic events were shared by a number of non-Nordic countries. All of this provides additional testimony to the power of globalization. Let us know your thoughts here.
-Mike Schell
