The massive four-yearly international sporting jamboree that is the summer Olympics opens today in London. It is hard to imagine that the 2012 Games will match in spectacle the remarkable Beijing Olympics of 2008. However, despite straitened times, much effort and some $ 13 billion have been invested in the London event.
It must be said though, that so far, there has been an element of classic British muddling through. Just over a week ago, it was discovered that the private security company hired to protect the sites and process visitors through security checks, could only provide a fraction of the 10,000 guards that they had promised. As a result the British Army has had to be called in to help out.
The games actually started on Wednesday with football and the first day was marked by another delightful piece of British bumble. North Korean lady footballers walked off the pitch for an hour, when the South Korean flag was displayed instead of their own.
This is likely to be the least of the stories that will grab the world headlines in the coming weeks. No Olympics is complete without its share of scandals. It could hardy be otherwise these days, given the huge international press and media presences, with thousands of journalists all anxious to file stories from both on and off the field of competition. We have already seen the sending home of a Moroccan athlete, who failed a drugs tests in France last month. The International Olympic Committee has announced that all medal winners, without exception, will be tested for the use of banned performance enhancing drugs. Anyone who come first by cheating, can therefore expect to be found out, though those who manufacture and administer banned substances are apparently becoming ever-more sophisticated at concealing their use.
In the end however, all the scandals and funny stories that emerge from the Games, will not diminish this extraordinary spectacle of sporting excellence, in which the nations of the world come together in amity, to pit their best athletes against each other.
For this Olympics, the Kingdom is fielding a team of 19. Those in the know believe that Saudi Arabia has a good chance of winning a medal in the equestrian events.
Whatever the performance of our athletes, to whom we must wish the greatest good fortune, most of us will spend a large part of the coming days glued to our television sets. We will be joining an audience of billions around the world, who find the Olympic broadcasts compulsive viewing. All of us will share in the drama of the competition, the exaltation of the those who, through skill and guts go on to triumph. along with the despair of those who, despite their very best efforts, do not win the coveted medals.
In a world of sport, which is increasingly dominated by financial considerations, rather the values of sportsmanship and excellence for the sake of excellence, the Olympics is arguably one of the last bastions of sport for sport’s sake. While it is true that gold medal winners can expect honors back home and perhaps lucrative contracts for endorsing sporting goods, money is still not what the Olympics are all about. This is despite the billions of dollars that TV networks have paid to secure broadcasting rights and that leading companies have paid to have their branding all over Olympic venues.
So therefore, in addition to wishing our own team members every good fortune, we must hope that this will be a successful and uplifting games, that will inspire young people around the world to take up healthy sporting activities. While a fortunate few who watch this year’s Olympics may demonstrate the talent and ability to secure a place in their own country’s team four or eight years from now, the majority will have to content themselves with achieving a more modest level of success. Nevertheless, seeking to be as good as they possibly can be in their chosen sport, is of itself a fine ambition which will give them a solid grounding for the more mundane challenges of their future working lives. Let the Games begin!
