When we fully started, it became somehow easier. And that was a complete feeling of some kind of Olympic emasculation and uselessness, which did not pass even after the opening ceremony. A wave of negativity, which there was no reason not to believe, met with the same wave of positive, which looked more like a propaganda operation. Everything was mixed up, and concentrated and even exaggerated — a pandemic, politics, weather, the threat of an impending war, old and new feuds, arrivals and non-arrivals, positive and negative tests, justified doubts and weak hopes. Everything was discussed with fervor — everything except the sport itself, which turned out to be somewhere on the side.
And the sport itself as something separate from all this whirlwind has long been gone, especially at the Olympics, especially now, when the planet is shaking every day. And not because it shakes that the universe is offended — humanity itself creates problems for itself with diligence worthy of a better application. And when he comes to some next frontier, beyond which the abyss, he suddenly catches himself, shouting that it's time to grab at the straw, and the straw, here it is, ready, tested, not to say that it is very reliable, but it is what it is.< /p>
The Olympics, as a phenomenon, certainly a major and important one for mankind, cannot and should not take on more than it can give.
This is not a universal cure for insanity, no matter how they try to present it as such. The trouble is that humanity does not have universal tools that can contribute to universal progress and prosperity. But this does not mean that the time has come to abandon the Games — even when, according to all the signs, it was necessary to transfer this particular Beijing-style Winter.
Yes, China would never refuse, it is too ambitious to afford to show weakness. In this case, he had to demonstrate to the whole world that there are no problems that could not be solved by a country with the most advanced, according to its concepts, ideology and the desire to become the number one world power with all the consequences. China would host the 2022 Games, even if they were actually boycotted by a dozen or two countries — however, the International Olympic Committee would in any case support the host country, especially a country like China.
The organizers tightened the covid nuts almost to the limit, placed the Games in a closed circuit space, introduced the strictest restrictive measures, but it was important for the IOC that the hosts never expressed doubts about the advisability of holding the Olympics against the backdrop of an aggravation of the pandemic. The opening ceremony was supposed to demonstrate absolute fidelity to the slogan of the Games “Together for a common future”, although against the backdrop of tough and obviously necessary disunity under the protocol, it should have sounded like “separately for a common future”.
Olympic Games Opening Ceremony in Pekin. Photo: David Ramos/Getty Images
I looked at how the talent of director Zhang Yimou and his associates fit perfectly into the virtual space of the vast arena of the Bird's Nest, and I thought that people could also be drawn with such impressive technological capabilities — the ceremony would not be too much lost. China, in fact, wittingly or unwittingly showed us a fairly close future, as safe as possible and just as cold, where there is no need for security reasons to shake hands, hug and, God forbid, kiss. Let virtual characters do it — they do it better.
But the official main Olympic flame in the form of a miniature torch instead of the usual bowl surprisingly accurately reminded precisely of the human filling, so small and fragile, requiring some kind of especially careful care. The image turned out to be both unexpected and impressive.
The comments in the television report of the Rossiya channel, in which banal enthusiasm such as “this is something incredible” and calls to unite and rally around the Russian team, which again passed through the oval of the Olympic arena under a neutral flag, prevailed, one could not pay attention. If it were my will, I would generally make the passage of athletes common, without division into countries. And I would cancel, realizing the futility of the cancellation, the medal standings, even if it is now unofficial.
Because there is nothing more politicizing sport than this team medal division, which has long become a subject of pride and self-deprecation, which canceled the Olympic principle “athletes compete, not countries.”
Among the big and small sports powers, there are, alas, few positive examples here — basically everyone, with a greater or lesser degree of exaltation, is fighting for the number of medals, especially gold ones. Russia is ahead of the rest here — we have a trend to blame everyone and everything for the politicization of the Olympic movement, and at the same time do everything possible to capitalize on sports success for the benefit of the existing government. We do not hide the fact that big sport is completely dependent on the state and should work for it — hence all the preferences, from cars for medals to life annuity for Olympic gold.
The level of state concern was to be confirmed by the visit of the President of the Russian Federation to Beijing, which became possible thanks to the personal invitation of the head of China. The leaders of the two countries did not fail to make a joint statement after the meeting, demonstrating the commonality of views on key issues of international relations. The tone of the statement was unequivocally stern and contained no surprises — apart from the fact that it was made before the opening ceremony of the Games, by their very holding, designed to smooth out sharp corners «for the sake of a common future.»
The official display of the opening ceremony ignored the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin at the stadium, as well as his reaction to the passage of the team under the flag of the Russian Olympic Committee along the oval. But the Americans hurried in, fixing how the distinguished guest crouched slightly in the box, or simply closed his eyes. Neither side succeeded in inflating the scandal, although there were attempts.
Vladimir Putin on the podium during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. Photo: Anthony Wallace — Pool/Getty Images
Now it was necessary, as Dmitry Guberniev, the TV commentator of the Match TV channel, delegated to help the Rossiya channel, calls, «to unite and unite.»
Here it should be noted that our government and its leading propagandists tried very hard to do everything so that we could not simply cheer for our athletes sincerely and without any pumping.
So much bad and tasteless has been done that speeches about sports heroes are often perceived as a parody, and most of the heroes themselves, alas, have long confused the Motherland and the state, and quite deliberately, even if not from a good life.
I would like, of course, to separate the flies from the cutlets, and empathize with the athletes without sublimating the degree of patriotism. But then you have to turn off the sound, which I did during the women's ski skiathlon with silver by Natalia Nepryaeva, and the dramatic mixed relay in biathlon, which ended in bronze for the Russians. It was a completely worthy start and a worthy performance, from which it by no means followed that everything would go on as if it were written.
The coronavirus will not give, and daily updated tables with the number of sick and isolated athletes, coaches and staff will be no less relevant than the “medal” tables. This is the reality of the current Olympics, which under no circumstances will acquire the clarity and ringing inherent in similar events in the not so distant past. It remains to accept and try to enjoy as much as possible.
At the TV screen, it seems to be easier to do than being directly in Beijing and in the two mountainous Olympic clusters.