Quebecer Jean-Luc Brassard is a gold medalist at the Lillehammer Winter Olympics (OG) (1984) and former chef de mission of the Canadian Olympic delegations. He also seems to be the world champion in all categories of the criticism of this sporting event of the globalized world. It is enough to mention the Beijing Games to come in a few days to stimulate its reasoned demolition with hammer blows.
The diplomatic boycott announced by the United States, then the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada? “It’s really the bare minimum that we could do, and it was time to do it,” comments Mr. Brassard. It is a diplomatic gesture which does not change much and which will perhaps even do the business of certain diplomats who will not have to shake hands with people they do not like. Except that China has signed a bunch of international treaties, it should operate under international rules, but not respect them. This drooling side, I think many nations have had enough. “
Is sport not politically neutral? Should we therefore also boycott the competitions themselves?
“What is happening at the moment is not to be minimized, then answers the former champion. We hear that we are living in a pandemic and that athletes have the right to compete, etc. The usual ritornello. But for the first time in nearly a century, the Games will be presented in a country that operates a form of concentration camps officially called training camps. “
He contextualizes the situation in great detail, including a detour through the history of the allocation of the Olympics to Berlin and Garmich-Partenkirschen in 1936. It sounds like an article from the Diplomatic world or from Foreign Affairs with footnotes. China is the country with the most journalists, notes Mr. Brassard. Reporters and members of delegations present in Beijing will all be spied on, he predicts. And then the People’s Republic wants to take over Hong Kong. And then the Chinese power practices the ethnic cleansing of the Uighurs.
“It’s not as spectacular as in the days of the Nazi gas chambers, but when you sterilize part of a population, it’s another disaster for humanity,” said Jean-Luc Brassard after a good seven minutes of devilishly informed sociohistorical examples and perspectives. The message from the International Olympic Committee saying that it never gets involved in the internal politics of countries is completely out of step. We are not talking about internal politics here: we are talking about fundamental human rights, genocidal practices. We have moved into another category. “
Criticism of Critical Criticism
Totalitarian regimes, Professor Jean Lévesque knows. Russia specialist in the XXe century (including the USSR, therefore) and the Cold War, the UQAM history professor also studied international sport, a learned interest developed after his first passion for hockey, and goalkeeper Vladislav Tretiak in particular. He has just completed a book on the history of the Winter Olympics and is preparing another on those in Sochi.
“Sport is a human activity and inevitably, we find there the faults of human reality, of politics or of the economy”, sums up the professor, speaking of the intrinsic faults of the Olympics and other international sporting competitions.
“I do not defend the radical critical theses of sport which see only alienation of the masses,” continues the historian. I am not naive and candid either. Politics and sport have always been linked. The Greeks made softpower by organizing the first Games in 1896, despite limited resources, by showing that their small country in the Balkans was modernizing. “
China like Russia or Canada and all the other countries want them or wanted them again and again for the same symbolic reasons. Mr. Lévesque recalls that according to the analyzes of American professor Andrew Zimbelist, the Olympic Games like the World Cups are always bad economic affairs, with some very rare exceptions in the balance of accounts.
“Critics of the Olympics often come from economists or environmentalists,” says the professor. Were the Sochi Games worth 55 billion? You would have to be dishonest to say yes. As soon as a candidate is submitted to the referendum, the population does not want it. Authoritarian regimes, they set off on megalomaniacal projects without being accountable to anyone. “
By some estimates, hosting the FIFA World Cup in Qatar at the end of the year will cost around C $ 275 billion, 60 times the amount South Africa spent on the same event in 2010. The construction of the sites would also have cost the lives of thousands of workers. This World Cup will take place on grounds soaked in blood.
Look to see
The next Games could be less controversial, however. They have been awarded to Paris, Milan, Los Angeles and Brisbane. Fans like Mr. Lévesque will therefore be able to follow the performances while avoiding their sporting pleasure.
“I watched my first Games in Montreal, in 1976, when I was seven. I think I’ll watch them all my life. It’s the fan talking. But the analyst is not far away. I decipher the opening ceremonies. I wear almost two pairs of glasses at the same time. “
The fan wants the show to continue, but not at any cost. “The World Cup, I’m going to watch it too, but again, wearing both hats,” said the professor. Once we are aware of the political presence in this event, we can admire the performances just as we can admire a work of art or a great film, while remaining aware of their production context. “
Jean-Luc Brassard, for his part, would like the world to look more towards the world championships of the various disciplines, where athletic performances are often more remarkable. “The Games are bad for sport,” he said, still bluntly. After two weeks of competitions and sports indigestion, we can’t wait for it to stop and then we wait for it to start again two years later. Meanwhile, it is famine as the World Cups are exciting. Why not cover them more instead of putting the whole package on the Olympics? “
The gold medalist is not more tender towards many sportsmen, his comrades in arms of a former fight. “I have heard athletes say they would never allow their Olympic dream to be stolen for political reasons. It made me jump to the ceiling. This is a sect. I, too, have already drunk Olympic Kool-Aid, but it’s over for me. “
He adds to the blindness of sportsmen or sports journalists to think only of sport and nothing more. As if they were only machines to perform or to relay performances apart from all other human, very human considerations.
“I understand why people think they are just ‘hatletes, written with an H in the wrong place, and don’t ask them to count to 100 because the numbers will be backwards,’ concludes the former champion, now happy to say that he has the most wonderful job in the world, that of the father of two young children. He adds that mothers of single parent families deserve all the medals and admiration in the world.
“Me, if I was told that I had to return all my medals to free one Chinese family, I would. Athletes are too used to seeing the world revolving around them and not seeing anything else. I know the problem: I have already been soaked in that soup. “