Just My Opinion | Why I Won't Watch A Moment Of Sochi - Part I

Namaste.

I have so much to say that after typing this entry, I had to split it in two.  I want to bookend it with reasons that are personal, with the political in the middle.

First and foremost, let me begin by saying that I LOVE the Winter Olympics.  I love them more than the Summer Olympics, which has led a few relatives to question my Caribbean blood.  I have watched every Winter Games since 1980: Lake Placid, Sarajevo, Albertville, Liliehammer, Nagano, Salt Lake City, Turin, and of course our home-soil games of Calgary '88 and Vancouver '10 (my favourite Olympics -- winter or summer -- ever.)  So none of my opinions are expressed flippantly or as someone with only a peripheral interest.  To not watch will be a major bummer; I will miss being thrilled and riveted by the downhill skiing, slalom, figure skating, ice dancing, ski jumping, luge, speed skating, bobsled, skeleton, snowboarding, aerialists, etc.  It is always inspiring to marvel at that level of athleticism, grace and skill.

The second thing I want to say is that it's unfortunate that deciding whether to watch the Winter Olympics has become such a moral dilemna for some. Not that it has been for everyone -- I've found it clear-cut for me personally -- but other thoughtful and good-hearted people (including even gay people) have struggled.  That fact that people have been put in the position of having to ask themselves whether their viewership makes them good or bad people is very sad in and of itself.

Thirdly, if I didn't have my own very strong opinions as to why I won't be watching Sochi, the tremendous hurt that I have seen this fervently hateful travesty cause some of my gay friends would suffice as all the impetus I need.  I don't just view homosexuals as a community deserving of rights.  I view them as my brothers and sisters.  I have gay people in my life whom I care for deeply and whom I will always defend.  I have read impassioned posts and emails and engaged in conversations with them about these Games and how they have been handled (or not handled).  I have seen and read expressions of deep-seated pain that have broken my heart and resonated loudly.  Even without everything else, my love and respect for them, and simply knowing how hurtful these Games being allowed to happen is to them, is more than reason enough.

Now for the political.  IT IS NOT JUST ABOUT PUTIN.

Not really, I mean.  Yes, the origin of this disaster is Putin's 'anti-gay propaganda' policy, which has not only targeted the LGBT population but in its wording has clearly suggested a preoccupation with children on the part of gay people.  (Age old nonsense, the planting of the homosexuality seed and the pedophilia seed side-by-side in people's minds.)  Putin is a power-addict, institutionalizing xenophobia for his own political gain.  If the issue at hand was just Putin, I might feel differently.  I might view him as a punk imposing his horrible laws on his people, but a punk who could have been sent a powerful message that might have forced him to back down, thus enabling us all to put supporting the athletes and celebrating the Olympic spirit first. Putin is a bully.  Many countries are unfortunately run by bullies.  I don't excuse his loathsome policies, not for one minute.  I just, sadly, stopped expecting basic decency from him awhile ago.  As the leader of the nation entrusted with hosting the Olympics, however, he should have been held to a certain standard. A high one. He should have had his feet held to the fire until they burned.

The main reason I'm boycotting Sochi is not because of Putin.  The main reason I won't be watching the Olympics is because I am disappointed, disillusioned and disgusted with the IOC.

Had the governing body of the Olympics done what they are charged with doing, this would be an entirely different situation.  In not speaking up against Putin, the IOC has become an organization that has, without apology, spit on its own supposed philosophy. It has shattered the spirit of the Games, the spirit of brotherhood, the spirit of fair play -- all of it. By allowing the Olympics to take place in a country that has essentially declared millions of its citizens' lives illegal -- a country in which homosexuals are not only being harassed but beaten, swarmed and tortured -- the IOC has shown more disrespect for the athletes' experience and boycotted the Olympic spirit more than could EVER be done by not viewing the Games.

So when people say that they want to support the Games to support the Olympic spirit, they fail to acknowledge the glaring reality that the Olympic spirit itself has already been destroyed, by the very people sworn to uphold it.  I can't bring myself to just turn on the TV and watch these Games as if there isn't profound ugliness baked into them.  

Of course, ideological friction and political disagreement have found their way into the Olympics before.  Individual countries have refused to attend various Games for a number of reasons, and I'll never forget the consecutive boycotts of the Moscow and Los Angeles Games by the U.S. and the U.S.S.R, respectively.  There was certainly internal tension in Sarajevo.  But part of what the Olympics have always been was, at least symbolically, a two-week agreement to share a common space as the nations of one world, despite those tensions.  I will never forget being choked up the first time I saw Iran and Iraq march back-to-back in the Parade of Nations.  There was no blindness as to the truth between these two countries, but there was something very beautiful about the temporary respite and the giving of the athletes their day.

It would be naive not to acknowledge that a certain amount of discrimination exists within every society.  I'm not suggesting that every country to ever host the Olympics has been all about gay people, or that racism/sexism/classism haven't ever existed before.  That would be revisionist history -- I mean, no one is forgetting 1936 Berlin.  But what I AM saying is that never in my lifetime, until now, have I seen an Olympics that conjures up thoughts of that one.  I have never seen a host nation, after being awarded the Games and with full knowledge of what they are supposed to stand for, declare war on a percentage of its own population.  

I wish the very best for the Canadian contingent and the Olympians in general.  Of course I do. Supporting the athletes and not watching the Games are not mutually exclusive, no matter how hard people try to make it seem as though they are.  No one is being MORE disrespectful to the athletes than the IOC.  It is a joke to believe that Russia or the IOC care about the Olympians; if they did they would NEVER willfully taint their experience in this way.  I can't imagine how many of the athletes have been devastated by the fact that these are the Olympics they ended up in.  I wonder how many wanted to boycott as well but felt that to do so would be a slap in the face to their parents, coaches and countries who have made HUGE financial and emotional investments in their training over many, many years -- not to mention to their own lifelong dreams.

Go to Part II