14:26, 14 December 2023
After the IOC’s decision to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to participate as neutral athletes in the Paris Olympic Games, everyone has spoken about Latvia’s participation in them, and the author of these lines will only add to the archive of these opinions. It should be added here that the decision on the participation of Latvian athletes in the Paris Olympic Games will not be made by politicians, the government or Latvian television, but by the vote of the Executive Committee of the Latvian Olympic Committee. In my opinion, the situation is so serious that a decision should be taken by a vote of the General Assembly.
I will compare the situation to a game of chess. While you turned away from the table and wrote down your move, your opponent has placed an extra pawn on his side of the square, perhaps hoping that you won’t notice or hoping that you will settle. You have several choices, the best of which seems to be to take the table and hit your opponent over the head, but the opponent is well-built and muscular, and the results of the collision are unlikely to be in your favor. Another version would be to run to someone to complain, but at this point it turns out that your opponent is also the main judge of the competition. And then you choose to make a few more moves with the hope that you will be able to fork your opponent with the horse.
That’s how the Latvian Olympic Committee is currently looking for the best move. The best move would be to find a broad enough coalition to leave the unfair competition together. If at least 6 European countries announced their non-participation in the Olympic Games at the same time, then perhaps the Olympic Committee would reconsider, because firstly, the Olympic Games is a business determined by television broadcasts, advertising, hotels, logistics, airlines, betting (gambling) business, but only secondly or third comes interest in sports results, victories of national sports teams or, for example, doping.
The purpose of this article, strange as it may seem, is not to glorify sports, glorify Olympians or defend the need to participate in the Olympic Games. The purpose of this article is to simply and honestly admit that one of the 5 largest global businesses, the largest world religion and global politics is hidden under the term “sport” today, but “sport” as a lesson in school is just a jumble of concepts created by an unknown Latvian politician. in the nineties, which renamed “physical education classes” as “sports”.
The anthem of the Latvian Olympic Committee clearly and brightly says that sport is the joy of the Gods, beauty, justice, courage, honor and joy, fertility, progress, peace.
From the point of view of the Olympic movement, Olympic sports (although today it is actually impossible to distinguish between Olympic sports and sports of international leagues) should integrate everything called Olympism – a philosophy of life, a way of thinking, a desire for the harmony of mind, body and spirit. The ideal of Olympism is a harmonious person in a harmonious society. Looking at what is happening in world sports life in the 21st century, it is difficult to see harmony and philosophy of life. The decision of the current International Olympic Committee to invite Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in the Olympic Games is determined only by business and political considerations – if the Russians participate, the television audience will increase by at least 100 million people, but the French president can go to the elections with a dove of peace on his shoulder (that’s right, this dove is made of clay and intended for bench shooting).
In my perception of the world, sport means health and medicine. I really don’t know anything more important in the primary, secondary and tertiary prevention of a person – health preservation and restoration after illness – than physical activities and sports. What’s more, I really believe in the healing power of sports in oncology, psychiatry, orthopedics and many other areas. And in the end, rehabilitation is built on the basis of sports and physical movements.
New words in the Olympic anthem – O Sport, You are business, religion and politics
The great sport has completely turned into business, religion and politics.
Globally, sport has become one of the five leading types of business, the world’s richest super-billionaires are trying to buy a European Championship football or National Basketball League club. Such a club nowadays costs 5-8 billion euros – almost half of Latvia’s budget.
Where is the business? A nice toy in the hands of a billionaire? Business can be direct – for example, selling tickets to 100,000 spectators for the final of the football championship for 3,000 euros (on average) per ticket. At the same time, the price of television broadcast rights for the most important sports competitions is always measured in billions, while selling not only broadcast rights, but also the right to invite one or other athletes, to interview them (interviews in which “nothing” is said), to advertise anything during the games, but often – to determine the start time (when the most spectators are sitting in front of the TV), sportsmen’s clothes and even hair curling.
Sports business is often modern human trafficking – athletes are bought and sold for huge sums of money, leaving a few percentages to the coaches and sports schools that actually trained and trained athletes as children. Business can be a popular athlete’s earnings – a professional athlete earns a very high salary, but the team owner, shareholder, coaches, agents, physiotherapists, family and many other people live on his earnings.
Sports is a very important indirect business. For example, sports is one of the biggest players in the TV market, sports is one of the biggest players in the advertising market, sports supports the betting business, sports occupies about 12-20% of the global information market (this could also be understood as the average man’s newspaper, magazine or on the portal, direct and indirect information about sports occupies 20%, and for women – 12%). Municipalities all over the world spend a large part of their money on their beloved club.
Sports create millions of jobs, because sports goods (or simply cross-country shoes, which sports have brought into everyday life) are the top ten merchandise.
Attending sports competitions (both as participants and as spectators) is an important part of global tourism, but holding large sports competitions in countries develops local infrastructure, stimulates construction. It seems that the Paris Olympic Games will cost France an amount corresponding to Latvia’s annual budget – around 20 billion euros, but the sports and residential infrastructure, climate control modernization, modern IT solutions, new metro lines, trains, electric bus infrastructure, etc. will remain. If someone asks – how is it – Sweden and Latvia submitted documents for hosting the 2030 Winter Olympic Games, but the hosting of the Olympic Games will go to France again – the answer is simple – the IOC is only selling the right to host the Olympic Games, and the municipalities of the French Alps understood this hosting as a business, and Latvia and Sweden – as expenses (according to business signs, Saudi Arabia could also host the Winter Olympic Games).
It is more difficult to explain how sport has become a religion or taken the place of religion. People go to watch sports (in the stadium or on TV) with the same religious conviction, fanaticism and regularity as they used to go to church (for example, every weekend).
Sports has largely taken on the role of idolatry – jerseys and windbreakers with the image of Messi, Ronaldo or LeBron James are produced and sold many times more than the same goods with the image of Jesus Christ. Similar to the way they used to wear crosses on their chests, sports religious today wear clothes similar to the uniform of one club with the athlete’s number and the name of the top striker, hang relishers, wear badges and carry umbrellas in the colors of the team.
Popular athletes take on the role of idol or religious leader. The great football player has hundreds of millions of followers on Facebook, Instagram and other social networks, and he is a bigger influencer than girls with botox lips. American basketball players become fashion icons because they have taken the place of the son of god in people’s minds. The opinion of athletes is trusted, even if the athlete knows nothing about the specific topic, and the athlete is elected to the parliament or at least to the municipality of a small town.
As once the largest and grandest building in every city was a church or a mosque, today the largest building is a stadium or a closed hall. Often it is related to the local sports religion, for example, rugby is the religion of New Zealand, basketball is the religion of Lithuania. And in the end – if a team achieves something on an international scale, then Juris Visockis publishes a book in “Jumava”, while some amateur directors create an amazing film.
Why do I claim that sport is politics? The IOC’s decision to allow athletes from aggressor countries to participate in the Paris Olympics is largely politics. Russian and Belarusian athletes will march under the flag of the five Olympic rings as neutral athletes, but their uniforms will be in the (national) colors of the flags of Russia or Belarus. In fact, coaches, masseurs and journalists will also be wearing red, blue and white. And what information will these “journalists” provide to their Russia?
Sports has become a national policy, or at least an opportunity for countries to highlight themselves globally. The performance of this year’s hockey players and basketball players in the world championships has allowed many people in the world to look for Latvia on the map.
On the other hand, politicians whose existence no one would even suspect (for example, the average member of the Saeima) appear to take a picture together with the Olympic medalist, and look – for 40 minutes it appears at the top of sportacentrs.com or another equally important portal. I will not talk about individual politicians who themselves joined the hockey or basketball team of the national team, at least with the outfit and the desire to sign.
Politicians perceive the success of sports as their merit, even if they themselves have banned the nation from playing sports for a year (there is no greater crime against the children of Latvia and the health of the nation than the Kariņa-Pavļuta seat with a ban on sports).
Sports as politics is expressed in the details. The countries of the world invest millions and billions in the development of a certain sport (for example, thousands in bobsled skates, which speed up the descent by 0.01 seconds; I think that at the Sochi Olympics there was an opportunity to change the ice coldness of the luge track, depending on who is driving – own or foreign ). But the most unpleasant thing is that countries do not hesitate to invest money in physiology, biochemistry and pharmacology research, which in the end means the development of doping (we have an inkling of Russia’s activities in this field, but looking at the Olympic results, some Asian country is definitely even more aggressive in the field of research and achievements).
Conclusion – the mission of the Latvian state and people is to think about children’s sports, not to worry about possible non-participation in the Paris Olympic Games
The greatest and most important value of sport is movement. The World Health Organization says to exercise for at least half an hour every day at least five times a week. The author of these lines says to exercise every day for at least an hour from childhood to old age.
There is no task more important to us than children’s sports. Children’s sports are the only method to keep children away from alcohol, tobacco, drugs and gambling.
To some extent, the realization that the Olympic dream can be dreamed is a moment of purification. Maybe right now it is time to change the sports law and define in it that sport is health. That the state’s duty is to allow everyone to play sports and to help everyone to play sports, competing old with old, and young with young in their age group. That the most important thing at a child’s age is not uniform training in one popular sport chosen by the father, but comprehensive physical development.
The state must invest in sports teachers – so that they are authorities and examples, and at times – well educated in physiology and psychology. Not all children need the same amount of exercise, but every child in Latvia needs at least one hour of sports a day – to achieve better results in school and to promote cognitive development.
I will return to the original setting – to vote “for” participation in the Paris Olympic Games with the participation of athletes from Russia and Belarus or “against”? I would say that I know a person in Latvia who knows how to coordinate decisions with the Baltic States, Poland and Nordic countries, and only joint efforts would make the IOC make a choice – to allow Russians and Belarusians or Ukrainians, Baltics and Scandinavians to participate in the Paris Olympic Games. This is the country’s president, Edgars Rinkevičs. And this time he will have to put domestic political activities aside and return to what he knows and understands best in Latvia – diplomacy.
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2023-12-14 12:36:13
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