Wednesday, 4 August 2021, 1:39 pm
According
to Pierre De Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games,
the Olympic ideal was not about “winning, but fighting
well. Life is not conquering, but fighting well.” True to
that ideal, young people from all over the world do still
congregate together once every four years to compete
peacefully against each other. Yet in 2021, the Games are
also marked by rampant nationalism and by the fetishization
of winning medals. On the global stage the Olympics long ago
became a form of soft power, and elite sport is funded
accordingly by those nations that can afford the investment.