Declan Hayes
NATO's crass commercialism will continue to undermine the IOC's brand by shoehorning international sporting competitions into their ugly vista.
France's recent WOKE Olympics was overshadowed in many ways by NATO's International Olympic Committee's (IOC's) war on Russia and on traditional Olympic practices, which are being jettisoned to serve NATO's global WOKE agenda. Although Russia has been one of the powerhouses of the Olympics ever since Avery Brundage finally persuaded the Soviet Union to sign up to his project, because Russia's presence has been particularly prominent both in and out of the ring in boxing, NATO is fixated on ending that influence, even if it means scrubbing boxing from the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics altogether.
One of the major controversies at Paris concerned the gender of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who won gold in the women's welterweight division, but whose gender had been called into question because she failed an earlier test, and because opponents and former boxing champions had all questioned whether she was a male or a female (she seems to have Swyer Syndrome which is concerned with XX-XY chromosone irregularities). Although I tend to the Swyer Syndrome view that she is a female with some very distinct and easily enhanced male advantages, the IOC and NATO's media have blamed this entire fracas on Russia not, it has to be said, to achieve fair play for Khelif or those women she mercilessly battered in the ring, but to drive Russia bag and baggage out of the boxing world. Though the obvious solution would be to subject those like Khelif to rigorous testing, because that might not help NATO achieve its WOKE aims, it is much better for the IOC and its affiliated media to scream about Russia, Putin and all their other cat calls.
Boxing was not the IOC's only casualty. Here is a report on American 200m sprinter Noah Lyles collapsing on the track when COVID got the better of him. The story there is not so much COVID but that the facilities were so bad that athletes like Lyles were K.O'd as a result. Though Lyles I Coulda Been a Contender - On the Waterfront (6/8) Movie CLIP (1954) HD , the same cannot be said of Australian breakdancer Rachel Gunn, whose dismal performance was rightly ridiculed on social media. Although the WOKE Gunn claimed misogyny motivated her critics, the truth is she was totally out of her class and should never have been allowed to compete, not because of the sort of arbitrary rules, which debar all Russians but because she is nowhere near good enough to compete.
Although Gunn did not cheat, nor did the Russians, not least because they were excluded ab ovo. And, though I have previously written about America's serial cheating, it seems, with the Russians (but not yet the Chinese) fully out of the way, the Yanks have given up all pretenses of being fair competitors.
Far from being red faced about any of this, America's swimmers are purple faced because of the side effects of the illicit substances they use to boost their pool performances. Although the Yanks have given some cock and bull explanation for their purple faces, the fact is it was Why Swimmers’ Faces Are Turning Purple at the Paris Olympics , who were affected, even though, as the Chinese helpfully point out, some of those same American swimmers had not previously been so impacted. Still, no ban for them as they are not Russian or even Chinese, whose successful swimmers are getting rightly under America's collar.
Pool-side and ring-side talk aside, the conditions at the Paris Olympics were not fit for the main purpose of allowing the world's elite athletes perform at their best. Not only was the Seine a major health hazard for those who swam in it but so too was the Olympic Village, with athletes electing to sleep rough, rather than put up with its WOKE diets and WOKE-induced stifling conditions "to save the planet." Simply put, the Olympics cannot be considered remotely fair when air conditioning, and the appropriate range of diets are not freely available to everyone from rich and poor countries alike, who competes.
Russia, Israel & Iran
Not only do the WOKE Olympics decree that Algerian men battering Italian women is now one of their elite WOKE sports but, given that Dutch child rapist Steven van de Velde was hailed as a national hero, when he competed in beach volleyball, we can suspect some of the darker reasons Russia is verboten whilst van de Velde, his fellow child sex rapists and the anal rapists of Israel's armed forces are hailed as heroes. Although this excellent academic paper makes plain that Russia is a considerable force in the sport industry, and particularly in sports like gymnastics, wrestling and figure skating Russia, like some others, just does not fit NATO's bill and, so, they are out.
Though we can all agree Iran might not be the most objective observer regarding Israel, we cannot deny that Iran makes a strong case here and here that there are infinitely more reasons to expel Israel from FIFA and the Olympics than there are to expel Belarus and Russia. Iran's protests about Israel's stomach churning war crimes notwithstanding, the fact of the matter is Israel's inclusion in the WOKE Olympics suits NATO's agenda every bit as much as the exclusion of Belarus and Russia does. Say what you like, but all of this makes these WOKE Olympics a very tainted affair.
From Los Angeles 1932 to Los Angeles 2028
Here is Colonel Baron Takeichi Nishi of the Japanese Imperial Army Los Angeles 1932 - Takeichi Nishi & Uranus at the 1932 Olympics, some 13 years before he fell in action with almost 20,000 of his compatriots in their heroic last stand at Iwo Jima. Although much has been written about this fine sportsman over the years, what particularly concerns us is how the Olympics' direction has changed since Letters From Iwo Jima - Baron Nishi and Sam - Scene 1 hobnobbing with his Hollywood contemporaries.
For our purposes, it is important to note that Baron Nishi's 1932 LA Olympics were held in accordance with the wishes of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who actually won a gold medal at the 1912 Olympics for his poem ' Ode to Sport.' And, although the WOKE Olympics no longer awards medals for the arts, Hans Christian Andersen's The Ugly Duckling and Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov are at least as relevant to today's Games as Coubertin's effort was in 1912.
In Rebellion, one of the most important chapters in Dostoevsky's greatest work, just as Ivan asks Alyosha why children have to suffer, so also can we ask why, in our times, Russian children were excluded from cheering on their home grown heroes in Paris. Then we have Ilyusha, a particularly nasty, vindictive and violent 9 year old in need of a good hiding, as well as 13 year old Kolya, who has a nasty streak as wide as the Dnieper River in him.
These two little brats put me in mind of those who vindictively deny the children of Belarus and Russia the sunny side of the street. Read this sneering article by the BBC's sneering Steve Rosenberg, who can barely disguise his glee at Russia's exclusion. Alternatively, you can read this overtly racist attack on North Korea's gymnasts, which is part of a genre the BBC really excels at. Then check out this report of how NATO enabled Artmen Khudolieiev, a Kiev based creep, who "spent months trawling social media for posts by athletes that could be taken as supportive of Russian policies, before reporting them to the IOC". The kindest thing that can be said about that obsessive creep is that none of that is in line with the sentiments expressed in Baron de Coubertin's poem or Baron Nishi's exploits both in Los Angeles and, later, in Iwo Jima, from where we now move to Denmark's ugly duckling fable.
At the risk of being a plot spoiler, the ugly duckling gets kicked about from pillar to post until, on the verge of utter despair, he discovers he is not a duck (no offence to ducks) but a beautiful swan.
The ugly duckling's moral for Russia is quite clear. It can either play the ugly duckling in NATO's IOC games or it can begin to develop its own alternative, where sport and not NATO's Wokism is king.
Stripped to its essentials, the Olympics are about being faster, higher, stronger, something Russia's swans can do at least as well as NATO's WOKE ducklings. As regards the razzmatazz packaging the Yankees in particular excel at, 𝕏 Russia's artistic swimmers, like their 𝕏 Chinese "competitors", can certainly put on the ritz not only as glamorously but much more relevantly than did the obese WOKE ducklings who hijacked Paris' opening ceremony.
Although it is disappointing for the children of Belarus and Russia to have their heroes demeaned by NATO's hired bullies, they should still be of good cheer, as NATO's crass commercialism will continue to undermine the IOC's brand by shoehorning international sporting competitions into their ugly vista. Whatever about Russia's disappointed children, Russia's adults should not fret that NATO will not play ball with them. Because sport is, at day's end, only a game and, as Russia has, at the time of Baron Nishi's last stand, proved herself to be to be much faster, higher and stronger than infinitely more formidable opposition than ever the IOC could muster, she should rest easy, knowing she will easily win at day's end here as well.