The one thing that struck me about the London Olympics was not the magnificent performances led by that of the hugely talented, and even more hugely entertaining, Usain Bolt. It was not that China gave the United States a run for its money in gold medals and threatens to reach, or even surpass, it in Rio. It wasn’t the fact that we fared completely wretchedly, which came as no surprise.
What struck me about it was the couple of athletes who were banned from it.
The first was Voula Papachristou, a Greek triple jumper who was kicked out of her team after twitting the Africans in a tweet. Commenting on reports that Africans were carrying the West Nile virus, she tweeted: “With so many Africans in Greece, at least the West Nile mosquitoes will eat homemade food!” Social network users were enraged. One said, “If you are serious, the Greek Olympic Team should put you on the first plane and send you back.”
It did. The Olympic Committee argued that her views ran “contrary to the values and ideas of the Olympic movement.” Voula explained later that she was just joking, but her extreme-right sympathies belied it. Her coach remonstrated with the committee’s decision saying, “I respect the decision, but it is a little harsh for a kid we are trying to educate.”
The second was Michel Morganella, a Swiss soccer player who ranted against the South Koreans after his team lost to it 1-2. His tweet was in French, a combination of slang and text language, but its meaning was not lost on other tweeters. He called the South Korean team a “bunch of mongoloids” and said “they can go burn.” The “mongoloid” was apparently a reference to their Asian features. Irate readers called him out and the Olympic Committee threw him out of the games.
He later apologized, saying: “After the disappointing result and the reaction from Korea that followed, I made a huge error.”
I applaud the Olympic Committee for its decisions. Far from being harsh, they are proportionate to the offense. Voula’s tweet was by no means accidental or isolated. She earlier tweeted an extreme-right party spokesman who had just assaulted two women MPs during a TV talk show: “Be always strong and true!” Bigotry has no place anywhere, least of all in an activity that is meant to promote universal understanding, particularly in an activity that is meant to show what aspiration and transcendence mean, particularly in an activity that is meant to show the best that humanity can be.
Voula’s expulsion “was a little harsh for a kid we are trying to educate”? That is how you educate a 23-year-old “kid” who remains uneducated to this day. You give her a lesson in the consequences of spreading demeaning, or even hateful, thoughts like that. Xenophobia is no joke, racism is no joke. As Jews who were gassed to death, as African-Americans who were hung from the nearest tree, as Turks who have been beaten to death in German towns can attest to. They were not laughing their way hysterically to kingdom come.
As to Morganella’s excuse, everybody gets frustrated by defeat, everybody gets pissed off by being taunted afterward for it. Not everybody lashes back by using the favorite word of people who do not like to read—“mongoloid”—to describe his detractors. Especially so when the description refers not to what they have done but to how they look as a legacy of birth. That is foul and deserves more than a red card. Bigotry is no joke, racism is no joke. Anything that abets it should be nipped in the bud, and its abettors punished as they deserve. In the Olympics more than anywhere else.
Fortunately, the Olympics also offers no end of things that are the opposite of these, sights and stories that uplift and inspire. These are not the spectacles like the Jamaican team routing everybody else in track and field, with someone like Bolt demonstrating superhuman abilities—though I rooted for Bolt in the 100 and 200 as much as the next viewer. These are the sidelights, the small things that happen there, but that illuminate the Olympics far more dazzlingly than the record-breaking accomplishments. They happen again and again in every Olympics, but never fail to dazzle with their magic each time.
This time around, there was the “Blade Runner,” Oscar Pistorius, the first double amputee to run in the Olympics on artificial blades. He finished last in the 400 meters, but the crowd leaped to its feet and gave him a standing ovation as he neared the end.
There was Turkish runner Merve Aydin, who hurt herself early in the 800 meters, but, refusing to give up, limped her way in tears to the finish line. The crowd appreciated her efforts by clapping for her more loudly than it did the winner.
There was Liu Xiang, a former champion of the 110-meter hurdles, who crashed on the first hurdle, but also refusing to give up, hopped on one leg to the finish line as the crowd cheered. He was met by another hurdler, Balazs Baji of Hungary, who hugged him and raised his hand to tell the world who had really won that event.
All these show how the same attitudes, values, and disposition you need in life to get to the finish line are the same ones you need in sports, and vice versa. All these show how there is really very little difference between sports and life at their best, such as the Olympics, which is why Muhammad Ali is as much a historical icon to Americans, black or white, as he is a boxing one, which is why Nelson Mandela is as much a sports icon to South Africans, black or white, as he is to history. All these show how, in life as in sports, winning is not just about getting to the finish line first and at all costs, it is about getting there at all in as fine, as luminous, as awe-inspiring a way as possible.
That is what makes for champions. The other kind just makes for losers.