I have a problem with flag-waving people. There you have it. No matter how you turn it, flag-waving still smells like nationalism to me. Of the worst kind. It’s the symbolism that turns me off: it happens everytime I see a winning athlete picking up a flag from the crowd and draping himself/herself in it. I mean, that athlete, he won the race himself and on his own, right? Why bother running around with the country’s flag? If I finish a masterpiece of programming work, you think I would drape myself in the national flag and run around the office? Sounds silly, right?
For some kind of reason, I keep thinking that the flag-draping and waving stems from the early Eighties, and to be specific, from the Olympics. 1980 and 1984 to be exactly. Maybe I’m wrong.
Guess, I won’t be watching the Olympics. Unless athletes decide to run around with flags with pictures of their relatives and trainers.
I agree with you, to a point. In sports, I’m a little more tolerant of it. One of my favorite Olympic stories (that will probably be told by some commentator this summer) is about a marathon runner from some poor African country, who fell behind — way behind — so that when he finally arrived at the stadium, he was greeted by applause and cheers for his determination, more than his prowess as a runner. When asked why he kept running, even though he was long out of contention, he said, “my country sent me to run this race, not just to start but to finish.” In a case like that, feeling some tie to your nation is OK in my book, if it means a feeling of shared success or achievement.
Yep, I disagree a bit too; I think I would be embarrassed to see Dutch athletes wrapping their selves in our flag. However, speaking generally, the Olympic games left many, many memorable moments (and very tragic and dramatic ones – think Muenchen in the 70s). Among the impressive ones, are ofcourse Jesse Owens’ medals in the 30s, Muhammed Ali’s torch bearing in Atlanta; and what about the several sensational 4x100ms for men.
The only thing that bothers me is the over commercialisation: It used to be a sports fest for amateurs…
Paul: I understand that the country-part can be a motivation to achieve the best of the best (we also see that during groupsports like Soccer, Hockey and others), but the determination to finish a race or game is still the greatest personal win.
Maybe partly the over-commercialization of the Olympics is to blame. Maybe the IOC should focus more on the individual achievements of the very athletes that make the Olympic Games?