So a beautiful symbol: the burning torch, fire and flame, warmth and light. It has been bringing this to man for a million years. But sometimes he burns himself on it too. So be careful if the torch is mentioned again as a sign of hope when traveling these days. On Monday it started in the venerable Olympia and then via Athens to China. In 109 days she is supposed to light the Olympic flame in Beijing.
So that it becomes light around the hearts of the people. This is what the high priest of top-class sport, Thomas Bach, wishes for, in a civil function, President of the International Olympic Committee. His solemn words accompanied the ignition and dispatch: The Olympic Games are “the only event that brings the whole world together in peaceful competition”. Let’s see.
Anyone who regards the torch as a symbol of enlightenment could get the idea that it not only shows the Olympians the right path to the People’s Republic, but could also help to illuminate some gloomy things. For example, the background to the protests of a few scattered Tibetans on Sunday at the Acropolis and on Monday in Olympia.
Or the news about the persecution of Uyghurs, attempts to re-educate ethnic minorities, mass arrests, torture, bringing civil society into line … The IOC cannot do anything about this either and is pleased with the role of the neutral visitor. This is practical because, as he puts it, Bach’s games “can stand above political differences”. In other words: We don’t care if those in power let us go – this time in the snow and on the ice, of course.
But there are athletes who don’t care. This group is growing and with it the strength to question pragmatic association policies that have been practiced for decades, to reveal the contradictions: World championships, Olympic Games, neutrality praised by business acumen or not, have always been used politically by the creators of sport, the Lords of the Rings. Or they have allowed the instrumentalization with seeing eyes and at the same time tremendously suppressed even quiet protests from athletes.
Those days seem over. And so the blazing torch is also a signal for the fire when traveling, which could be kindled on the way to the Winter Games or even during the competitions. Because the resistance that self-confident and thoughtful athletes, now supported by some societies, offer, force a sometimes painful argument.
Something far better can emerge from it than speechless and thoughtless Olympic tourism. If this process seems too hot, even extremely dangerous, the Olympic Games or World Championships should not be awarded to China or Qatar. Or put out the flame.
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