The Olympic Games: What Benefit The People From Them?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

"Happy is he who does not know boredom, who is completely unfamiliar with wine, cards, tobacco, all kinds of corrupting entertainment and SPORT" - PF Lesgaft, after whom the Russian National State University of Physical Culture, Sports and Health is named …

The scandal with the decision of the Olympic Committee to suspend the Russian national team from participating in the 2018 competitions and ban national symbols split the Russian society into those who consider the performance of compatriots under a neutral flag acceptable, and those who call such a decision "betrayal."

Moreover, the second is clearly more, even despite the massive information campaign deployed in the media to justify the position of those athletes who are ready to put personal ambitions above the interests of the country.

Disputes continue to gain momentum, moving mainly to the political plane: there is a lot of talk about the anti-doping agency's bias and its double standards, about the fact that Russian athletes have been purposefully oppressed for several years now, taking away their medals, about the fact that the Olympics have turned into an instrument of geopolitical struggle, etc. We will not argue with the presence of a political factor, but we will invite our viewers to look at the problem from a different angle, which in fact is of much greater importance.

To answer the question “how the Olympics are useful to the people”, let us voice the main announced goals of the Olympic Movement and see how they correspond to reality. After familiarizing yourself with the history of the competition and the principles set out in the Charter, you can find out that the main goals of the Olympic Games are:

• creating a peaceful society, promoting the unification of people and friendship of peoples
• concern for the preservation of human dignity and respect for universal ethical principles
• familiarizing people with physical education and sports through a positive educational example
• making sport at the service of harmonious human development

Now we will analyze each item separately. Let's start with the first: "Creating a peaceful society, promoting the unification of people and friendship of peoples." It sounds sublime and beautiful enough, but, unfortunately, it does not correspond to reality. In the political sphere, the Olympics are increasingly turning into a platform for scandals and discord. In the social plane, pedaling the principle of competition between nations and peoples, which is by default inherent in the competitive nature of the event, also carries a destructive algorithm, and does not contribute to peaceful cooperation and the formation of creative principles. Concerning second paragraph- "concern for the preservation of human dignity and respect for universal ethical principles", then since the Olympic Movement has adopted the spirit of tolerant ideology associated with the attitude to the topic of perversion and LGBT people as a norm, it is no longer necessary to talk about humanity. At least for Russian civilization, these supposedly universal ethical principles certainly do not have a relationship. Implementation third paragraph- "familiarizing people with physical education and sports through a positive example" looks at least controversial, since the period of the next Olympics is characterized not by a surge in visits to sports clubs and joint training, but by a surge in beer consumption and sitting in front of TV screens. The Olympics, having turned into a television show, which is supported by advertising money, including those of fast food manufacturers and beer brands, has completely lost its creative propaganda appeal.

In addition, in order for a mass audience to engage in physical education, first of all, a well-developed sports infrastructure in each settlement is needed, and not separate huge and expensive Olympic venues, which a very limited circle of people can get to. Fourth point, which sounds like "the formation of sport at the service of harmonious human development", let us consider in more detail. The fact is that the Olympics really make a significant contribution to the development of sports, but not mass sports, but professional ones. Professional sports at the present stage is essentially a sports and entrepreneurial activity, which, due to the high entertainment of the competition, provides commercial benefits for television, sponsors, sports organizations and the athletes themselves, allowing them to play sports and nothing else. And now the main question is, does professional sport contribute to "harmonious human development"? No. The path of an athlete of high achievements in most cases begins at the age of 5-6 years and is a daily many hours of training, in the shadow of which all childhood and adolescence passes. With this approach, there is no time left for the development of many other areas necessary for the harmonious development of the personality. Even if it is possible to achieve high sports results, then by the age of 30, a career usually ends, and a person is left with undermined health, with a lack of any professional knowledge and a poorly developed outlook. There are exceptions to every rule, and similar characteristics do not apply to all athletes, but the systemic mechanism is built in this way. Also, in relation to professional sports, all the facts given on the following demotivator, which has become widespread on the Internet, are also relevant:

The main indicator that professional sports has nothing to do with "harmonious human development" is the statistics according to which the life expectancy of professional athletes is shorter than that of ordinary citizens, and according to the Ministry of Health, only 12% of people remain relatively healthy after playing high-performance sports. … For the same reason, the media promotion of professional athletes does not benefit society, since in terms of their personal qualities, most of them, due to the very inharmonious and unbalanced development, serve as a bad role model. And the most vivid example is the consent of the majority of the members of the Russian national team to play under a neutral flag.

Summarize. None of the announced goals of the Olympic Movement are being implemented in practice. On the contrary, on all the points listed above, the Olympics objectively contributes to the achievement of opposite results and therefore does nothing but harm the majority of people

Many will ask: "What about the honor of the country?" First of all, the honor of a country is expressed in the health, well-being and humanity of the people inhabiting this country, and the Olympics in its current form, like all professional sports, impedes the first, and the second, and the third. And besides, to talk about the honor of the country, looking at the athletes performing under a neutral flag, to put it mildly, is not necessary. And finally, a little personal, directly related to the activities of the Teach good project. In early December, there was another fairly indicative incident. On the TNT channel, in the Comedy Woman show, in which Russians are regularly portrayed as perverts, prostitutes and alcoholics, a joke was heard about an Ingush girl who was presented in a negative light in the program. A couple of days later, 50 adult guys arrived at the TNT office, and the next day, the director of Comedy Club Production, Andrei Levin, already tearfully apologized to the permanent representative of the Republic of Ingushetia, Alikhan Tsechoev, and a video with apologetic actors was shown on the TV channel. This is from the series “to defend the honor of your people” … A performance under a neutral flag or sitting in front of the TV, justified by “feeling sick” for your country, causes nothing but sadness and pity.