Monday, February 6, 2023
ac.news

AC News
Alternative Central News
The True Patriot

  • Main
Menu
No Result
View All Result
ac.news
No Result
View All Result

The culture war over the ‘Olympic Spirit’

08/08/2021
in Uncategorized
Text Size: A A A
0
The culture war over the ‘Olympic Spirit’

Tokyo 2020 has been a clash between sporting excellence and woke nonsense.

As many of us had hoped, the Tokyo Olympics have been lit up by extraordinary sporting performances that have risen above all the pre-Games predictions of doom. Yet, as some of us had feared, Tokyo 2020 has also become a political battleground where competitive wokeness has run riot, playing havoc with the Games. We are witnessing a culture war over the meaning of the ‘Olympic Spirit’.

The Tokyo athletics track has been set alight by several blazing new stars. Sifan Hassan, the amazing Dutchwoman, has already won the 5,000 metres and is going for an unprecedented treble in the 1,500 and 10,000-metre finals. Norwegian Karsten Warholm broke his own world record in winning the 400-metre hurdles – a performance so breathtaking one could almost forgive his ‘Superman-style’ vest-ripping reaction.

Nearer home, ‘Team GB’ has stirred something of a feelgood factor by piling up the medals in the swimming pool and more fringe events. Adam ‘the Beast’ Peaty, Britain’s double-gold medallist in the 100-metre breaststroke, is just the sort of single-minded monster you want representing you in the Olympics. You have to admire Charlotte Worthington, whose freakish backflip on a BMX bike won gold, and our 13-year old skateboard bronze-medallist Sky Brown, even if some of us old fogeys might think their sports look more at home on YouTube than on Mount Olympus. Britain has enjoyed less success this time where it really matters – on the athletics track – though it was good to see the wide-eyed joy of the three young women who ran in the 800 metres final, where Keely Hodgkinson declared taking her silver medal (behind America’s Athing Mu), to be ‘absolutely mental!’.

So far, so Olympian. Yet amid all the glittering sporting gold, there has also been a lot of cultural trash and political crap, as Tokyo lives up to expectations that it would be the ‘Woke Olympics’. There is too much of this stuff to mention here, although running lowlights might include the continual media emphasis on competitors’ apparently fragile mental health over their athletic and psychological strengths, and the attempt to focus on their cultural identity more than their sporting achievements.

This amounts to nothing less than a culture-war battle over the true meaning of the ‘Olympic Spirit’. There has always been a tension in this concept, since it was first defined by Baron de Coubertin, French founder of the modern Olympics. The Baron famously declared that, ‘The important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part, just as in life, what counts is not the victory but the struggle’. Yet Coubertin also coined the Latin motto of the Olympics (allegedly ‘borrowed’ from an athletics-loving priest), ‘Citius, Altius, Fortius’ – ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger’, with its obvious emphasis on winning and being the best.

This tension over the meaning of the Olympic Spirit has been exacerbated in Tokyo by the thick cloud of wokeness enveloping the Games. Not only has the ‘taking part’ aspect been elevated over the winning, but it has also been rewritten. What really matters this time, it seems, is not just the taking part but ‘who’s taking part’, with the focus on the racial, sexual, gender or other identities of the competitors. And the ‘struggle’ attracting all the attention is not Coubertin’s sporting one, but the struggles against oppression, white privilege, transphobia and to protect their mental health that so many Tokyo competitors are apparently engaged in.

So we witnessed the transformation of America’s gymnastic superstar, Simone Biles, from poster girl for the Olympic Games to poster girl for therapy culture, after she dropped out of several events citing mental-health issues. The problem here, as Brendan O’Neill observed on spiked, was not so much Biles’ personal decision as the praise that was heaped on her for backing out – and the bile then directed at anybody who questioned whether that was the way for an Olympic champion to defend her titles. In a similar vein, when British canoeist Mallory Franklin took silver, much of the media focus was on ‘the torment of perfectionism’ she had apparently suffered.

There was also the widespread unquestioning praise for Laurel Hubbard, the trans weightlifter who was allowed to enter the women’s competition. The BBC published a 3,000-word online hagiography of this ‘reluctant history-maker’, complete with dubious claims from experts about there not really being much hard evidence of a difference between men and women athletes in strength and speed sports. (Anybody watching men and women compete in the mixed-relay events in Tokyo might beg to differ, based only on the evidence of their own eyes.) When readers posted comments questioning the scientific basis of the BBC’s pro-Hubbard propaganda, the Beeb even threatened to report them to the police for expressing hatred.

The meaning of ‘winning’ in the Olympic Spirit is effectively being redefined. Thus Biles’ return to finish third in the balance beam event was hailed in banner headlines as her ‘triumph’. Never mind that she had been expected to repeat her multiple gold-medal haul from the last Games in Rio — what mattered most to the woke media and her social-media fan club was that Biles had won her ‘struggle’ with her mental-health demons sufficiently to get on the beam at all. The name of the 16-year-old Chinese girl wonder who actually won the gold medal in the beam final hardly got a look-in. (It is Guan Chenchen, by the way, in case anybody’s interested.)

There was also the spectacle of two high jumpers, Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi and Mutaz Barshim of Qatar, agreeing to share the gold medal rather than face a jump-off to decide who won. This almost unprecedented concession was widely praised as a great display of sportsmanship and ‘the true Olympic Spirit’. Pardon us old-fashioned curmudgeons who rather saw it as bottling out of a sporting contest when it mattered most. ‘This is beyond sport’, Barshim said: ‘This is the message we deliver to the young generation.’ I would rather they took inspiration from the example of Tamberi’s Italian teammate Marcell Jacobs, who won the 100-metre gold against all the odds, moments after the high jumpers ducked under the bar.

None of this wokeness has been a spontaneous outburst from the athletes. It has been encouraged and even institutionalised from the top down, by the Olympic authorities, media giants and corporate sponsors. The International Olympic Committee has even added a fourth word to its ‘Citius, Altius, Fortius’ motto – ‘Communis’, meaning ‘together’, in an apparent bid to capture the ‘we’re all-huddling-in-the-bunker’ spirit of the Covid age. As I noted on spiked previously, ‘A worthy sentiment for PR purposes no doubt, but it wasn’t a community spirit that drove past Olympic heroes to set new standards of human athleticism through cut-throat competition on the track’.

Olympic bosses also changed their own rules pre-Tokyo to allow taking-the-knee type political gestures for the first time. They insisted that political stunts would still be banned from the medal podiums, but US shot-putter Raven Saunders was met with instant praise rather than punishment when she crossed her arms above her head while receiving her silver medal. The sentiment behind her protest seems unlikely to have ruffled many feathers in high places. ‘It’s the intersection of where all people who are oppressed meet’, Saunders said when asked what the crossed-arms thing was all about.

The safe, conformist form of woke political gestures in Tokyo was inadvertently confirmed by silver medallist Emily Campbell who, after taking Britain’s first-ever medal in women’s weightlifting, declared that she would ‘like to thank the NHS’ for helping her get there.

Oh well. Let us just hope that the final few days of the Games bring some more spectacular athletic achievements to put all of the nonsense back in its place. As Baron de Coubertin said of his original Olympic motto, Faster, Higher, Stronger, ‘These three words represent a programme of moral beauty. The aesthetics of sport are intangible.’ The moral beauty and intangible aesthetics of sporting excellence are always our best hope of blowing away the clouds of politico-cultural crap that hang over the Olympics.

The fighting Olympic Spirit was perfectly captured by Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands who, after falling and being left trailing late in her 1,500 metres heat, got up and came back to win the race – and then went on to win gold in the 5,000 metres, with the chance of two more to come. That is my kind of Olympic ‘history-maker’.

Join: 👉  https://t.me/acnewspatriots

The opinions expressed by contributors and/or content partners are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of AC.NEWS

Disclaimer: This article may contain statements that reflect the opinion of the author. The contents of this article are of sole responsibility of the author(s). AC.News will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect statement in this article www.ac.news websites contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of “fair use” in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, health, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner. Reprinting this article: Non-commercial use OK. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner.

Disclaimer: The information and opinions shared are for informational purposes only including, but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material are not intended as medical advice or instruction. Nothing mentioned is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Source: spiked-online
Next Post
White House Ready To Lift Ban On Foreign Travel But Only For The Vaccinated

White House Ready To Lift Ban On Foreign Travel But Only For The Vaccinated

Comments and discussions are also open in our Telegram @acnewspatriots where all articles are automatically displayed

Discussion about this post

Latest Videos

Untold Reality of Russia’s Wagner Group In Bakhmut Ukraine, First Hand Account, What the Media Won’t Tell You

Untold Reality of Russia’s Wagner Group In Bakhmut Ukraine, First Hand Account, What the Media Won’t Tell You

02/02/2023
The Cult Agenda – Control Everything – David Icke   (VIDEO 42 min)

The Cult Agenda – Control Everything – David Icke (VIDEO 42 min)

02/02/2023
I thought it was a joke   (VIDEO 3 min)

I thought it was a joke (VIDEO 3 min)

02/02/2023
Mike Adams on Coming Dollar and Banking Collapse   (VIDEO 28 min)

Mike Adams on Coming Dollar and Banking Collapse (VIDEO 28 min)

02/01/2023
The Puppet Tyrant – Armed For A War Of The World – David Icke Dot Connector Videocast   (VIDEO 20 min)

The Puppet Tyrant – Armed For A War Of The World – David Icke Dot Connector Videocast (VIDEO 20 min)

01/29/2023
EXPOSED: THEY WANT TO ROB YOUR PENSION! – Massive Move By Treasury! – Money Is Debt!   (VIDEO 20 min)

EXPOSED: THEY WANT TO ROB YOUR PENSION! – Massive Move By Treasury! – Money Is Debt! (VIDEO 20 min)

01/29/2023
Situation Update – Germany and USA push Russia toward nuclear escalation with BATTLE TANK armaments of Ukraine   (VIDEO 141 min)

Situation Update – Germany and USA push Russia toward nuclear escalation with BATTLE TANK armaments of Ukraine (VIDEO 141 min)

01/27/2023
WW3 WATCH – Breaking! Did Joe Biden Announce World War 3?   (VIDEO 133 min)

WW3 WATCH – Breaking! Did Joe Biden Announce World War 3? (VIDEO 133 min)

01/27/2023
They buried it   (VIDEO 3 min)

They buried it (VIDEO 3 min)

01/27/2023
Davos: Foreign Minister Of Slovenia Demands That Nations “Respect The Rules Of The World Order”

Davos: Foreign Minister Of Slovenia Demands That Nations “Respect The Rules Of The World Order”

01/22/2023
They’re trying to build a prison   (VIDEO 4 min)

They’re trying to build a prison (VIDEO 4 min)

01/22/2023
.@TuckerCarlson: ‘Undeniable Thrill’ To Watch Biden Get Euthanized By His Party   (VIDEO 2 min)

.@TuckerCarlson: ‘Undeniable Thrill’ To Watch Biden Get Euthanized By His Party (VIDEO 2 min)

01/20/2023
CAUGHT HIM! Rebel News pummels Pfizer CEO with questions at World Economic Forum   (VIDEO 6 min)

CAUGHT HIM! Rebel News pummels Pfizer CEO with questions at World Economic Forum (VIDEO 6 min)

01/19/2023
DAVOS CONFRONTS A NEW WORLD ORDER   (VIDEO 4 min)

DAVOS CONFRONTS A NEW WORLD ORDER (VIDEO 4 min)

01/16/2023
Top Merck Scientist Admits That Polio Vaccines Contained Leukemia, SV40, And Cancer Viruses.   (VIDEO 11 min)

Top Merck Scientist Admits That Polio Vaccines Contained Leukemia, SV40, And Cancer Viruses. (VIDEO 11 min)

01/15/2023
ON THE FRONTLINES: “GLOBAL FAMINE IS COMING”

ON THE FRONTLINES: “GLOBAL FAMINE IS COMING”

01/14/2023
WORLD BANK: GLOBAL RECESSION! – Globalists Plot Economic COLLAPSE! – What You Need To Know!

WORLD BANK: GLOBAL RECESSION! – Globalists Plot Economic COLLAPSE! – What You Need To Know!

01/14/2023
The ‘Covid’ Fake-Vaccines – The Truth Is Emerging – David Icke   (VIDEO 29 min)

The ‘Covid’ Fake-Vaccines – The Truth Is Emerging – David Icke (VIDEO 29 min)

01/14/2023
7 Facts Fauci Knew But Hid From the Public

7 Facts Fauci Knew But Hid From the Public

01/14/2023
Dr. Mike Yeadon: Latest Evidence of Premeditated Mass Murder by Lethal Injection   (VIDEO 74 min)

Dr. Mike Yeadon: Latest Evidence of Premeditated Mass Murder by Lethal Injection (VIDEO 74 min)

01/13/2023
Load More

Top Stories

3.5 BILLION could be injured or killed by the jab. Are YOU ready? —Dr. David Martin interview   (VIDEO 67 min)

3.5 BILLION could be injured or killed by the jab. Are YOU ready? —Dr. David Martin interview (VIDEO 67 min)

11/25/2022
The “Great Zero Carbon” Conspiracy and the WEF’s “Great Reset”

The “Great Zero Carbon” Conspiracy and the WEF’s “Great Reset”

11/23/2022
FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Lists Bahamas Penthouse For $40 Million

FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Lists Bahamas Penthouse For $40 Million

11/16/2022
Ryan Cole: What a Lot of People Don’t Know Is That the Actual Peak of Death Is Around Five Months Out

Ryan Cole: What a Lot of People Don’t Know Is That the Actual Peak of Death Is Around Five Months Out

11/16/2022
UPDATE: Toxic Vaccine Ingredient SM-102 Has Connection To Epstein Genome Project   (VIDEO 24 min)

UPDATE: Toxic Vaccine Ingredient SM-102 Has Connection To Epstein Genome Project (VIDEO 24 min)

11/16/2022
We have been taught to believe they never existed but the evidence is there    (VIDEO 18 min)

We have been taught to believe they never existed but the evidence is there (VIDEO 18 min)

11/15/2022
Robert Faurisson against the Kazharian Mafia to his last breath

Robert Faurisson against the Kazharian Mafia to his last breath

11/04/2022
Global Digital IDs Are Coming to America and Nobody Is Allowed to Talk About It

Global Digital IDs Are Coming to America and Nobody Is Allowed to Talk About It

11/04/2022
Scientists worldwide claim all Covid-19 Vaccines contain Nanotechnology & Graphene Oxide

Scientists worldwide claim all Covid-19 Vaccines contain Nanotechnology & Graphene Oxide

11/03/2022
“They Are Going To Frame Me”: 29-Year-Old Stablecoin Innovator Found Dead After Tweeting About “CIA And Mossad Pedo Elite”

“They Are Going To Frame Me”: 29-Year-Old Stablecoin Innovator Found Dead After Tweeting About “CIA And Mossad Pedo Elite”

11/02/2022
Doctors find Graphene is shedding from the COVID Vaccinated to the Unvaccinated, forming Blood Clots & decimating Blood Cells

Doctors find Graphene is shedding from the COVID Vaccinated to the Unvaccinated, forming Blood Clots & decimating Blood Cells

10/27/2022
Extremely important Russian warning to the UN Security Council (MUST SEE)

Extremely important Russian warning to the UN Security Council (MUST SEE)

10/27/2022
Many People Fully Vaccinated for COVID Are Now Going Blind

Many People Fully Vaccinated for COVID Are Now Going Blind

10/26/2022
Is New World Order Losing War Against Russia?

Is New World Order Losing War Against Russia?

10/19/2022
Biden Signs Executive Order Designed to Unleash “Transhumanist Hell” on America and the World

Biden Signs Executive Order Designed to Unleash “Transhumanist Hell” on America and the World

10/18/2022
New Data Proves Everything We’ve Been Saying About Vaccines   (VIDEO 13 min)

New Data Proves Everything We’ve Been Saying About Vaccines (VIDEO 13 min)

10/18/2022
Why The Globalist Elite Had To Destroy the Georgia Guidestones in 2022

Why The Globalist Elite Had To Destroy the Georgia Guidestones in 2022

10/18/2022
How to Destroy Russia. 2019 Rand Corporation Report: “Overextending and Unbalancing Russia”

How to Destroy Russia. 2019 Rand Corporation Report: “Overextending and Unbalancing Russia”

10/17/2022
UN food chief warns of “chaos,” “hell,” “devastation” from FAMINE … expect price controls, rationing and criminalization of preppers … HIDE YOUR FOOD

UN food chief warns of “chaos,” “hell,” “devastation” from FAMINE … expect price controls, rationing and criminalization of preppers … HIDE YOUR FOOD

10/10/2022
MORE EVIL THAN HITLER: American Medical Association endorses horrific medical MUTILATIONS of children, demands police state DOJ arrest anyone who disagrees

MORE EVIL THAN HITLER: American Medical Association endorses horrific medical MUTILATIONS of children, demands police state DOJ arrest anyone who disagrees

10/07/2022

Archives

<
February 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
▼
>
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
  12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728     
       
      1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031     
   1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031 
       
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
282930    
       
     12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31      
   1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
2627282930  
       
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031    
       
    123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
       
  12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930   
       
      1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031     
    123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930 
       
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031   
       
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28      
       
     12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31      
  12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
       
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930     
       
    123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
       
  12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930   
       
      1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031     
   1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031 
       
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
282930    
       
     12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31      

Contact Us

    © AC.news  | Notice On Rasism | Privacy Policy | Terms and Conditions

    No Result
    View All Result
    • Main
    • Opinion
    • Politics & Government
    • Crime – Terrorism – Corruption
    • Health – Medicine – Big Pharma
    • Freedom – Resistance – Censorship
    • Science & Tech
    • Army – Wars – Military
    • Economy – Business – Finance
    • Society – Family – Education
    • Media – Curiosities – Entertainment
    • Ecology – Climate – Ecoterrorism
    • NWO – Deep State – Tyrrany
    • Disasters – Survival – Prepping
    • History & Religions
    • Depopulation – Genocide
    • Immigration – Islam – Jihad
    • Racism – Gender – LGBTI
    • Mysteries – Paranormal – UFO
    • Spiritual
    • Videos

    © 2022 AC.news