Thread by @StanisElsborg

THREAD - THE OLYMPICS AND POLITICS
Every day during the Tokyo Olympics, I will in this Twitter thread post an example on the link between sports, politics and the Olympic Games. First example below👇

#1 - 🇨🇳
In 2008, the Chinese organisers used the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing for political self-promotion. The opening ceremony was for example used to signal ethnic integration in the world’s most populated country with more than 1.4 billion people>

Children in national costumes from the 56 different ethnic groups in China carried the national flag into the stadium before handing it to Chinese military personnel who oversaw the hoisting of the flag>

It later turned out that the children were not at all representatives from all the different ethnicities, but only from the ethnic group of Han Chinese, which makes up 92 per cent of the population>

At the flag hoisting, a small, beautiful Chinese girl in a red dress sang the patriotic song "Ode to the Motherland". What the audience did not see was that the girl only mimed, as she was a stand-in for the girl Yang Peiyi, who in the eyes of the Chinese organisers>

were not pretty enough but had the beautiful singing voice. In that way, the opening ceremony got the perfect voice for the perfect face, without the viewers becoming aware that two girls appeared as one. Watch the scenes from 18.00 and on👇[END]

2 - #Rule50, the Olympics and politics - U.S., Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia
One of the clearest examples of the limitation of athletes’ freedom of expression happened at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. During the playing of the U.S. national anthem at the medal ceremony>

of the men’s 200 meters, Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised a black-gloved fist – a symbolic gesture showing their dissatisfaction with their home country’s race policy. Their political statement subsequently resulted in condemnation>

by the sports authorities and repatriation in disgrace while they were also being asked to return their gold and bronze medals. At the same Olympics in 1968, Czechoslovakian Vera Caslavska captured the world’s attention when she turned her head down and away from the Soviet flag>

when the Soviet anthem was played at two medal ceremonies. A politicisation of sport? Not according to IOC. Caslavska was later awarded the Olympic Order for her “particularly distinguished contribution to the Olympic Movement” and in 1989>

she was awarded the Pierre de Coubertin International Fair Play Trophy by UNESCO for her “exemplary dignity”. A great fight for human rights in the U.S. was not accepted, but opposition to Soviet rule was praised.

While Smith and Carlos’ demonstration was condemned in '68, it's now praised at The Olympic Museum’s Change Makers section with tributes to the athletes’ raised fists and the headline “When the podium becomes a stage – Denouncing poverty and racism” [END] change-makers.blog-tom.com/en/tommie-smit…

#3 - 🇺🇸, George W. Bush and 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics
In the last decades, nations like China, Russia and Qatar have invested heavily in sporting mega-events – not for the sake of sport but in an understanding of sport as a political tool. However, it was the democratically>

elected president of the United States, George W. Bush, who dared to change the opening words from the head of state at an opening ceremony of the Olympic Games – an address which according to the IOC must have exactly the same wording every time.>

But did the IOC then forget to enforce its rules when Bush – with a not very concealed hint to the terrorist attack at the World Trade Center in 2001 – twisted the opening words of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City?

"On behalf of a proud [We are not beaten], determined [We are coming after you] and grateful nation [Thank you to the nations of the world for supporting the fight against terror]. I declare open the Games of Salt Lake City, celebrating the Olympic Winter Games.”, Bush said>

Even though Bush’s addition to the traditional opening declaration may have drawn sympathy, it was also against the rules. The former president of the United States was also surrounded by American athletes, and during the flag ceremony,>

a burnt and torn American flag allegedly found in the World Trade Center after the attack was carried by athletes as well as 9/11 police officers and firefighters. Watch👇[END]