## 42 Sport's place in society

The Olympics are finished and once again, USA won the most medals and behind them, China, Japan, Australia, and... France. But also a small country like Netherlands (18M), or New Zealand (5M habitants). Uzbekistan is the first country which is not in the G20 or in Europe. Kenya is the first African country and Iran the first middle-east country. There are 84 different countries with a medal, for 203 countries … and about 330 countries in the world. All that shows an event made for rich countries and the Olympics are a big business. But behind all that, who is practicing sports? 

To do a sport, you need time and that's not when you are poor and tired of a hard work that you can do sports. Despite all that, there are some sports that almost every one can do with not much money. Football, Running, sometimes combat sports like boxing. But don't expect to see fencing or horse riding champions everywhere. It's sometimes a political will to develop some sports (as Cuba for fencing, boxing, wrestling). It's sometimes linked to the culture (as archery and wrestling in Türkiye). But if you only count the license holders in a discipline, it's always in favor of rich countries because it needs an official structure, a club with coaching and training staff. Officially, football has more than 2 millions people in France with a license, but even more practicing that sport. You can only imagine in the world with more than 250 millions licensees. But the third sport in the world is Cricket, which is not in the Olympics because it's very linked to the ancient british colonial countries like India, P
akistan. Or maybe for other reasons ? It's coming in 2028 ! Baseball or American football are not in the Olympics, as Formula 1 is not, despite their popularity. Tae-Kwondo was unknown before Seoul 1988 and I'm not sure that there are many licensees of BMX racing or Kayak Cross. The rules are very «western countries» centered.

The International Olympic Comity is based in Lausanne and was created by a french (also a racist, colonialist, mysoginist but that's not the point...). It's not easy to organize such an event because it's very expensive and not very profitable. It's also all about politics and there are not many candidates to organize that, except for dictatures and authoritarian regimes, maybe (Russia, China...). It's a way to promote a leadership and that's exactly what Russia and China needed. Now there's India as candidate for 2032 and Africa is waiting also to organize this big event after the football world cup and so many events. The staff of the IOC is still managed by Europeans … with European and capitalist values. We are very far now from the famous sentence of Coubertin : «the important thing is to participate» (which is not historically true..). Now everything is locked by the IOC with special laws made tor the event, public expenses for private interests, powerful sponsors who are making green-washing or sp
ort-washing, etc…

During the last Olympics, there were Coca-cola (remember Atlanta 1996...), Samsung, Toyota, LVMH (owned by the wealthiest man in France and sometimes in the world), Carrefour as premium sponsors. Only 2 sponsors from the host country ! That was not the same in Brazil in 2016 with no Brazilian sponsors...and imagine in Greece in 2000. Business is not a sport....But sport has become a business. Now athletes are not making sports for pleasure but to win money, to live with that if they are lucky… It's not the case with Archery for example, and it's difficult for swimmers too, except if they are a big winner as Leon Marchand or Michael Phelps. They have a staff, they are practicing for dozens of hours a week and their bodies are marked by his efforts. Many athletes will never see an Olympic final because they will be injured with consequences sometimes for the rest of their life. If I was quite good in high jump and 110m hurdles, it was just in the department (winner), or my region (podium). But my joints are 
too fragile and I stopped at 16 years old. I remember one of my model in the 80s in 110m hurdles who had not a big career because of injuries. This year, Kevin Mayer couldn't compete in Decathlon because of injuries. It's a taboo to speak about that. Some athletes are lucky to have the right body for their sport and the right way for training. So it's more easy to do sport for your pleasure, as a leisure...without license.

In France, we are lucky to make many sports but we are far from being a sport nation like Australia, UK or Netherlands. We were in the top 5 of the medals this time and even if we are in the top 10, it's a good result compared to our population. Germany declines compared to their golden years in the 2000s. Olympic games are changing with new competitions as Breaking, BMX, Basketball 3x3, Rugby, … The IOC is trying to keep up with the times, with a new era of sports. New sports are coming each year but it needs time to be more than just a seasonal fashion trend. These trends are always from western countries… And a few sports from other countries are only coming because of the selected country to organize the event. But if Cricket is now listed for the future, what about those sports that you can see only in some BRICS or Asian Dragons ? For example, in Vietnam, a country without many medals and athletes, you can see many young people in the evening playing and doing sports like the Sepak Takraw, coming f
rom Thailand. It's very spectacular and often more interesting than… field hockey. And it's more popular because you only need a kind of ball to play it. Sport is an inherent part of society, and since the 19th century it has affected more than just the bourgeoisie and the nobility. 

My grand father who was not rich when he was young chose to do running, because you only need good shoes and minimal clothing. When he started to work at 13 yo, he could buy a bicycle to do cycle races. His dream was to do horse races but you can imagine it's not easy when you don't have access to horses. It was a dream and more later, when he saw how horses were treated, th found that it could have been a bad idea. He never bet on races. Now sport is professional in many ways and it's not always a good thing. I saw Rugby to be transformed by that in something more brutal with bodybuilding, doping and all you can see in other professional sports. All the world of sport is evolving into that and I just remember how I was happy just to have te feeling to fly during a Fosburry jump....And how it's difficult now with knees and ankles. Another subject is Sport for disabled people...and it's even more depending of politics. Now, we are in the Paralympics period for a few days.

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