www.culturalolympics.org.uk
Culture @ the Olympics
, 2002: vol. 4, issue 4, pp. 9-12
CO
Culture @ the Olympics
issues, trends and perspectives
The Truth about Olympic Truce
i
Rights, responsibilities and the impossibility ofbeing global and apoliticalAndy Miah and Beatriz García
On the penultimate night ofthe Salt Lake Olympic Winter Games in February2002, demonstrators were inthe city centre reminding visitors that the Olympics isabout global peace, notwinning medals orbreaking world records.
These were not simply anti-Olympic protestors, rejecting thegratuitous indulgence thatsweeps an Olympic city duringGames time (although ifprompted, surely this would alsohave been objectionable to them).Rather, the protestors werereferring to the Ancient Grecianconcept of the Olympic Truce, atime when enemies would,supposedly, cease war againsteach other and enter intoOlympic festival and worship.Now, in the era of the ModernOlympic Games, Olympic Trucehas been revived by theInternational Olympic Committee(IOC) aspiring for countries torecognise its ideals and lay downarms during Olympic Gamestime. In 2000, the IOC created theInternational Olympic TruceCentre, consolidating a year ofmeetings to discuss theinitiatives. It is, indeed, anambitious expectation and onethat is praiseworthy, framedwithin an interest to promote andprotect human rights. The IOCcontinues to strive for recognitionof the Olympic Truce frompolitical authorities, with somesuccess. For example, the UnitedNations Secretary-General, KofiAnnan called for the UNAssembly to recognise theOlympic Truce as a moment forcease-fire in the approach to theSLC Games.
The Olympic Truce, section photograph
www.culturalolympics.org.ukMiah and García, 2002:
Olympic truce
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In the wake of September 11, theSLC Games were a particularlypertinent moment to assess theweight of such an initiative tofurther global peace for a varietyof reasons. The SLC Games is thefirst Games since September 11,2001 and is uniquely placed dueto the overwhelming shadow ofsuccess from Sydney 2000. Aswell, these Games were to be heldin one of the most politicallycontroversial countries of theworld at this particular moment,the United States of America.
[the 2002] Games were to beheld in one of the mostpolitically controversialcountries of the world
This political controversy wouldbe furthered when, upon beingrequested by the IOC President Jacques Rogge to cease fire inAfghanistan, US PresidentGeorge W. Bush flatly refused.As well, in the OpeningCeremony of the SLC Games, theSalt Lake Organising Committee(SLOC) used the tattered US flagfound among the rubble of theWorld Trade Centre afterSeptember 11. This flag, whichhad become iconic of the USA’striumph over disaster and theviolent terrorism it has sufferedsome months before, was nowpart of a ceremony that issupposed to be premised uponpeace.Given the social significance ofthe opening ceremony of theOlympic Games, this was animportant statement from the USto the rest of the world and onethat, arguably, ought not to havebeen made so boldly.Notably, the IOC, having controlover some formal aspects of theceremony, refused the use of theflag in the Athlete’s Parade ofNations, where a chosen athleteleads their country into the mainstadium and, perhaps, into theglobal combat of Olympiccompetition.Such occurrences reveal theinherent contradiction or, at least,tension within which theOlympic Movement finds itself –seeking non-governmental statusfrom organisations such as theUnited Nations, but continuing tocourt political statements in itsmanifestation.Indeed, the SLC Games was notthe first occasion when theimportance of politics hasovershadowed competition. InSydney 2000, one of the mostmemorable moments was in theOpening Ceremony, where Northand South Korea would enter thestadium marching under thesame flag.Thirty two years earlier in theMexico Olympics of 1968, blackAmerican athletes Tommie Smithand John Carlos protested thetreatment of black Americans byraising black-gloved hands on
www.culturalolympics.org.ukMiah and García, 2002:
Olympic truce
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their medal podium, in astatement of black power andunity. In a moment of beingcheered by their idolisingsupporters, they were alsodecrying the government thatpresides over them.Most recently, the IOC and theideals of the Olympic Movementin general have raisedcontroversy in relation to theawarding of the 2008 OlympicSummer Games to Beijing, China.Protests have already been madethroughout the world as to how itis possible for a country withsuch an inadequate regard forhuman rights, to be awarded theprivilege of hosting an event, theideals of which are premisedupon individual liberty. All this,when the IOC was still under firefor its culture of corruption,relating to the SLC biddingprocess – of which one of themost senior IOC executivemembers, Chinese Kim Un Yong,was implicated.In Salt Lake City, protestorsquestioned whether the 2002Games had been a hypocriticalmedia event, as the US continuesits assault on Afghanistan despitethe Olympics taking place. Inone respect, it has been fortunatethat it is the Winter Games takingplace now rather than theSummer. Had it been theSummer Games in the US so soonafter September 11, the greaternumber of Middle Easterncountries might have challengedthe viability of the Games rathermore substantially. The pressureon the US to have a cease-firemight have been much greater.As it is, very few countriescompeting in the Salt Lake Gameshave any serious politicalimplication with the Afghanistansituation that is counter to the USapproach.The protestors are seeking an endto the war in Afghanistan andwant answers from the USgovernment about September 11.They stand in the name of Truthand Peace, claiming that this iswhat the Games should be about.Olympic Truce, as theInternational Olympic Committee(IOC) officially calls it, is aninternational movement withinthe Olympics. The concept hasbeen revitalised by the IOC forthe first time since the beginningof the Modern Olympic Games in1999 with the support of theUnited Nations. Despite a strongpresence at the Sydney 2000Olympic ceremonies, its successand capability is in question. TheIOC continues to strive forapolitical credibility, thoughOlympic Truce seems tocontradict this possibility.Perhaps Olympic Truce worked3000 years ago, when theOlympic Games consisted only ofGrecian competitors, who sharedreligious and cultural values.However, in the modern OlympicGames, the breadth of values,beliefs, and religious affiliationsmakes it far more complicated to
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