Here we go again ! The Olympic flame is lit, it will shine for the next 15 days. Against all odds. If there is one event that we were sure would not take place in 2022, it would be the Games! In the middle of the fifth wave of the pandemic, you!
Posted at 6:00 a.m.
The Quebec pee-wee hockey tournament, which was to get underway on February 9, has been postponed, but not the world meeting of athletes from around the world. A real all-you-can-eat buffet for variants from all over the world. In China, on top of that! I know, I know, I will not pass any health judgment on the Middle Kingdom. Far be it from me to be a humor columnist who plays the scientist. But admit that we associate the coronavirus more with China than with Tulum. Although we protect ourselves much better there.
That said, diplomatic relations between China and Western countries are at their worst. Until the last minute, we believed in a boycott of the Beijing Games. In the end, the United States and Canada decided not to send their dignitaries, but to send their athletes. Nasty means of pressure! The Chinese government must be overwhelmed that they don’t have to arm our delegation of officials. Justin Trudeau will not be able to put on his Mao collar shirt.
The question is to know why the IOC awarded the Games to a country that does not respect human rights, even less those of women and not at all those of non-binaries. Response from the barons: the Games are above politics. Let’s put. Distinguished way of asserting that the cash is above everything. But the unease is everywhere. So much so that the sponsors associated with the event do not brag too much about it. They are discreet. For companies that have spent 1 billion to play it low profile, it’s not going well.
Anyway, regardless of the place, the very holding of the Olympics is called into question. The entire company is from another era.
Scandals abound around their attribution. And fewer and fewer cities aspire to obtain them. Their exorbitant cost is no longer justifiable, in these times when social housing and health care are the priorities.
Add to that the use of drugs erected into a system, to such an extent that Russia participates in the Winter Games without its name or its flag, as a punishment. Not to mention the unhealthy climate that reigns in several sports federations in many countries, jeopardizing the mental health and physical integrity of an entire youth.
No, the Games are not worth the candle. But they are worth the flame.
There are a thousand reasons to turn them off, only one to turn them on. It’s the best: humans. Watching humans offer their life’s work. What they invested everything for, they sacrificed everything, to acquire such mastery of their passion. Such a level of excellence is more than sport, it’s art, it’s spart. They are Spartans, they are Spartans.
Planetary meetings, there are too few. And it’s always for disasters. Wars, attacks, natural disasters. The Olympics are the only time when the eyes of all Earthlings converge on the same place, at the same time, to witness happiness. The happiness of those who have just given everything. There is none more beautiful. There is none greater.
Alright, there’s another moment of splendor that brings us together; when we go to the moon. But we haven’t been there for 53 years. The Games means going to a star every two years.
Of course, we have to clean up everything that surrounds the holding of this too big show. But you should not deprive yourself of it. To deprive yourself of it would be to win all the losers who abuse it. Every human creation is a house. You should never stop cleaning it. As soon as the cleaning is finished, it must be started again. There is no way out. It is proper to man to soil. But it is also her genius to embellish.
Once again, there will be plenty of exploits to make us forget the pandemic, dictatorship, cheating and corruption. There will be thousands of days to remember it, to tackle it. Let’s take advantage of the second, the minute of ecstasy that propels us higher, which propels us stronger.
Happy Olympics, everyone!
For once when we say everyone, it’s really everyone!