Athletic jingoism (Michael Parenti)

Athletic jingoism
Author	Michael Parenti
Publisher	The Recorder
First published	1999-02-19
Type	Newspaper article

Athletic jingoism, also published as The unsporting sports, is an article written by Michael Parenti in February 1999. Some of the text of the article was republished in his 2004 book Superpatriotism.

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Recent revelations of corruption regarding the choice of Salt Lake City for the Olympic games should remind us that there is a murkier, unsporting side to the promotion and presentation of international sporting events.

Giving bribes is part of that mentality which says it must go our way "by any means necessary".

The same is true of the coverage of international contests. Consider how the telecasting of Olympic games has been marked by an increasingly unrestrained U.S.A. boosterism. Instead of bringing nations together, media coverage seems to fuel that "winning-is-everything" mentality: a hostile, chauvinistic, rah-rah competitiveness that defeats the very purpose of international games.

The Olympics are supposed to promote international good will and an enjoyment of the capabilities of athletes from all nations, not a shrill mean-spirited nationalism.

The networks project an image of U.S. athletic superiority, focusing mostly on U.S. Olympic contestants to the neglect of those from other countries, including many who might give superior performances.

ABC's coverage of the 1984 Summer Olympics was so shamelessly lopsided as to evoke an official reprimand from the normally placid International Olympic Committee. Similar complaints were registered by South Korean officials regarding NBC's coverage of the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.

The 1996 Summer Olympics coverage offered more of the same. The sports in which the U.S.A. did not compete or did not excel got little coverage. Soccer is the most popular sport in the world. But we saw almost none of it, because the U.S. team was not very good and got eliminated early. Volleyball is nowhere nearly as popular as soccer but we saw lots of it because the U.S. had a strong team. By the same token, we saw plenty of softball, another relatively rare international sport, because the Americans were winning most of the softball medals.

The camera concentrated on U.S. competitors even to the point of neglecting other nationals who finished ahead. For instance, in the kayaking competition we saw a pre-meet interview of the American Davey Hearn, we saw his wife, we even saw them getting married, and we saw him through most of the race. The only trouble is our Davey finished ninth. First place went to a Slovak, whose name I didn't quite catch because it flashed across the screen for only an instant. In another event, the U.S. entry was allotted an extensive interview — without mention of the fact that he finished 16th.

In some instances, the medal winners were never even announced if they were not Americans. Sometimes racism and Christianity win out over nation-state chauvinism. In the triple jump, the gold medal was won by an American, Kenny Harrison — but he was an African-American. So TV coverage concentrated on second-place finisher Jonathan Edwards, a white Englishman and devout Christian, who talked about his gift from God to compete and how he would never compete on Sundays — until he realised he was missing out on too many opportunities, then it seems God sent him a different message.

And let us not forget the media-conditioned American fans at these games, screaming for the kill, completely immune to the spirit of international fellowship, showing no sign of hospitality (the 1996 Olympics were in Atlanta), never applauding the fine performances of foreign players (if they were pitted against U.S. players). American fans snarled with rage when the Cuban women's volleyball team beat the U.S. team. But they roared their delight when seven-foot NBA pros pulverised a ragged little team from Zaire, composed of kids who had to work for a living and who might have practised in their spare time just a few months before.

Don't get me wrong, I like international sporting events. I just don't like the unsportsmanlike competitiveness and rabid flag-waving jingoism that comes with the coverage. With sports, we need to foster international friendship and the more gracious side of the human spirit. Let's have less chest-thumping and more handshaking, less on who wins and more on how the game is played. Better a family of nations than a multitude of screaming nationalistic egos.