By the time this newspaper goes to press, the Olympics – our Olympics – will be in full swing. Televisions across this great nation will be tuned in to the various events, and there will be celebrations from coast to coast every time a Canadian athlete steps onto the podium to accept his or her medal.
We may question the enormous expense of hosting a special event to showcase the talents of a relative handful of elite athletes at a time when many local sports programs can barely afford ice time, cringe over some of the political fallout from the games, and snicker at the irony of organizers having to truck in snow to Olympic ski venues and shore up everything with hay, while Ontario’s ski hills are blessed with an abundance of the white stuff. But now that the games are underway, we are as patriotic as any nation on earth. We wear our Olympic knock-off hoodies and headwarmers with pride. Athletes whose names were unknown to us a week ago are now our heroes.
Every Olympics comes with its share of controversy, and these games will be no different. By the time the closing ceremonies are over, there will probably have been at least one doping scandal, an uproar over the awarding of a medal, and a call for changes to the way an event is judged. If there is not a tizzy over the gender, eligibility or age of a competitor, we will be both surprised and relieved. The old adage that everyone loves a train wreck has its limits, and we have ours when it comes to this sort of news. What we want to hear about and see are smiling faces – Canadian faces. We want to hear our national anthem played time and time again, and scream ourselves hoarse as our teams win gold.
Unfortunately, the high-profile nature of the Olympics ensures the games will attract plenty of attention, and not all of it will be good. Even as we cheer on our athletes, we pray for their safety. Someone, somewhere in the world, has surely considered the possibility of using the games to make a political statement no one will ever forget. To say that no one wants to see a repeat of what happened at the 1972 games in Munich is a slight exaggeration – without a doubt, there are a few people who do. There have been numerous threats to disrupt other Olympic events over the years. We can only hope none of the threats comes to fruition at our games.
Terrorism has become a constant threat in this brave, new world of ours. But a much greater threat to the Vancouver Winter Olympics, and the future of the Olympics, involves attempts to gain a competitive edge by unfair means.
Much as we would like to think the dividing line between fair means and foul is straight and clear, it is not. When only a fraction of a second stands between gold and disappointment, athletes tend to go as close to the edge as they can – an extra few minutes on the ice, a food supplement that helps build muscle, new high-tech clothing. Procedures and substances are being developed constantly, and sometimes decisions have to be made on whether or not they should be permitted.
As long as everyone is playing by the same rulebook, there is no problem, or so the theory goes. Of course, real life keeps getting in the way of theory. How many years did we bemoan the fact that the professional hockey players in the NHL could not compete in the Olympics, while the “amateur” Soviet players, whose only job was to play hockey, took home all the medals? Some countries have more money to spend on leading edge technology and training than others. Some athletes have changed nationalities to better their chances for a gold medal. The efforts to tilt that level playing field ever so slightly in favour of your country’s athletes are as intense as the athletes’ quest for gold medals.
However, as long as there are people determined to keep the Olympic games fair and non-political, and willing to make tough decisions on what should be allowed and what should be banned, we will have the privilege of watching our finest athletes compete against their counterparts from other nations. And this winter we are doubly honoured as the host of the Olympics.
On with the games. May the best athletes win - and we hope they are Canadian.