Why we need the Olympic Games now, more than ever
Two years ago, Japan hosted what was, despite the typhoon, a marvellous Rugby World Cup, arguably the best since 1995 when Nelson Mandela handed the William Webb Ellis trophy to his own Springbok captain, Francois Pienaar. Now, in Japan, the Springboks won the Cup for the third time, captained by Siya Kolisi. This is evidence that, despite the political and economic upheavals in the Republic, Mandela’s dream is sleeping, not dead.
Last summer, Japan should have hosted what would surely have been a brilliant and happy Olympic Games. The pandemic put paid to that. After a year’s delay, the Games are on again, but Covid is still with us and everything in Japan is very different. So different indeed that polls indicate that a majority in the country wish the Games had been cancelled or postponed again for another year. It is still sadly possible that surging cases, in the Olympic Village as well as throughout Japan, will make the decision to go ahead look like a terrible, even arrogant, mistake. But, with luck and the blessing of the Gods on Mount Olympus, this won’t happen.
The modern Olympic Games have been cancelled three times: 1916, 1940, 1944. The dates speak for themselves. It was impossible to stage an international celebration of sport when nations were ranged against nations in a terrible war. Today there is no such war, even if politicians may choose to employ the language of war when speaking about the pandemic. There is no visible enemy. Far from nation being ranged against nation, we are all on the same side or, if you prefer, all in the same boat. There are arguments about the way ahead, about the best route to follow, but these are like arguments between wartime allies over the strategy to be followed, like, for example, the intense arguments about when and where a Second Front against Nazi Germany could be opened.
It is easy to understand why so many Japanese have been – indeed still are – opposed to the staging of the Games this year. They fear that by bringing thousands of athletes, coaches, medical staff, administrators, journalists, TV crews etcetera, into the country, the Games will act as a super-spreader of the virus, no matter what precautions may be taken. The fear may be justified, even though there is good evidence that other, admittedly, more limited sports events – the Euros and the Tour de France – have been staged this year without dire consequences. In any case, the decision to stage the Games in arenas empty of spectators must reduce whatever risk there may be, or might have been.
No doubt the absence of spectators will give many, even most events, an air of unreality. There is, however, now plenty of evidence from football, rugby, cricket, tennis, golf and racing that performers are not much inhibited and that an initial atmosphere of unreality evaporates when the action starts.
Set aside what would have been the financial implications of cancellation or another postponement, and there are very good reasons why it is right that the Games should be going ahead.
First, it is the great coming together of the peoples of the world. There is nothing, not even football’s World Cup, that comes close to matching it. “The most important thing about the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part”. When Pierre de Coubertin, the founding father of the modern Olympics, made that declaration, even he could not have envisaged what the Games would come to mean. Touched by scandals, tarnished by malpractices, the Olympics nevertheless assert our common humanity. They should not give way to a mere virus.
Second, every Game since the resumption after the 1939-45 War has contributed, sometimes against the odds, to a moral advance. Perfection is impossible for imperfect humanity, but we can seek to achieve it, and the Olympic Movement has – occasionally, one must admit, even while dragging its heels – contributed to fostering the great principles of the French Revolution: Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. The word “fraternity” may seem limited today like the phrase the “Brotherhood of Man” or Robert Burns’s wishful hope “that Man to Man the warld o’er/ Shall brothers be for a’ that”, but it contains or implies a wider inclusive meaning. There are more women competing in these Tokyo Olympics than ever before. In the British team, 48.8 per cent are women, and the equality of the sexes has been recognized by the decision that when the team parade in the Opening Ceremony each should now have two standard bearers, one female, one male. Likewise, the magnificent diversity of competitors makes the case against racism more visible and persuasive than words or legislation ever can.
Third, the athletes in all their varied disciplines are the personification or visible representation of the Olympic ideal. They have devoted themselves to preparing for these Games for years, often making considerable sacrifices -sacrifices shared by their families also – in order to reach Tokyo. They deserve the Games.
Finally, while there will, unfortunately, but probably wisely, be no spectators at events, the Games will be watched worldwide by hundreds of millions. Throughout these months of lockdown and disruption, the televising of live sport has been not only a pleasure and distraction; it must also have made a considerable contribution to keeping many from depression, anxiety and anger. I would guess that in the last two years more of us have talked about “mental health” more often and with more understanding of what the words mean than in all our previous life. We have come to realise as never before that spectator sport helps to keep you sane and balanced.
I sympathise with those Japanese who think that going ahead with the Games is dangerous and wish they had been cancelled. Even so, remembering the marvellous enthusiasm of the home crowds at the Rugby World Cup, I would wager that many who have been for calling the Games off will be found following events passionately – and will feel all the better for being able to do so.
Fingers crossed, I say “Roll on, the Games” and may they give as much pleasure to distant viewers as the London ones did in 2012 and the Rio ones in 2016.