Going for Gold in Hubris
written by Kevin Summers, January, 2006
Every four years Australia competes in a relatively minor sports meet and
does very well. We win lots of medals and tell ourselves that we are a
particularly gifted nation, that our success confirms a superior national
character. It is called the Commonwealth Games and, of course, it is about
to descend upon our Melburnian heads.
It is to be hoped that we are cultivated hosts and keep the chest thumping
to a minimum but the portents are not good. There is every indication that
we shall be drowned in a tide of patriotic grandstanding and false
glorification of sporting achievement.
The sports media will lead the cheer squad. The writers and commentators
have a vested interest in our success. Nobody tunes in to hear about fourth
placegetters, nobody reads about quarter final exits. Highlighting our
successful quest for gold is good business. We can confidently look forward
to screaming headlines and delirious adjectives as medals are draped on
necks and the music plays. This will only encourage an unfortunate trend.
As a nation we are experiencing what can only be termed anthem mania. One
cannot attend the opening of a door without some vocalist belting out
"Advance Australia Fair". The footy finals, the Melbourne Cup (even
provincial cups), the Grand Prix, the cricket, no matter where one goes it
is demanded that one stand and listen to the excruciating strains. Some
Australian sports folk have taken to some lusty communal singing - often
with hands on heart - just to reinforce their patriotic zeal.
The Games' motto is "Equality, humanity, destiny." They are just words on a
caption if the host nation plunges into a frenzy of self congratulation. It
is worth remembering the Olympic motto - "Faster, higher, stronger." The
founder of the modern Olympic Games, Baron de Coubertin, chose those words
to describe the feats of individual athletes. Their nationalities were
immaterial and a medal tally was unthinkable.
While Hitler's Berlin Games of 1936 are rightly regarded as an example of
the subversion of the Olympic ideal, its Teutonic agenda followed the tenth
Olympiad at Los Angeles where winning athletes first ascended a podium and
national anthems were played; Standard Oil, a major sponsor, invited
Americans to witness their sports folk "beat the world".
The Commonwealth Games need not be a pale imitation of the Olympics. It's
time to dispense with medal tallies, raised flags, national anthems and the
vacuous chauvinism that feeds off them. Is it too much to expect that we
could make a small start here in Melbourne by choosing not to revel in our
victories against the brave competitors from Namibia, the Falkland Islands
and Kiribati? Just quietly celebrate the personal achievements of all
involved and leave it at that. The event may then make an impact far beyond
its sporting importance.
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