My Train of Thoughts on the Tokyo Olympics
Excuse the points jumping from one to another, like from the euphoria, mental health to racism.
Olympics. Pandemics. These two together should never been used next to each other although they rhyme. Anyway, this isn’t a recap so look elsewhere, but I do want to share a couple of heartwarming and disheartening stuff. This Olympics experience is somewhat different than the last three and I cannot leave this month without mentioning some of them.
I was only interested in two things: the badminton, and women artistic gymnastics (if you’re counting the winter Olympics, then add figure skating to it). Seeing Simone Biles’ trajectory has just been very inspiring to me and what a once-in-a-lifetime to witness the GOAT’s journey as I watch, tweet, and breathe. To say that she has dominated is an understatement and the world was watching her every move leading up to her sophomore Summer Olympics performance. I think you know where I am going with this. The vault. It was going to be my first Olympic event that I was tuning in this year, the final women’s team event, and was hooked to the screen anticipating Biles’ successful leap, twist, turn, and landing. After she finished her routine, she had this disappointed look in her face, that was just so obvious and heart-breaking, because though she fell from the balance beam during the Olympics trial several weeks prior, this felt more affecting her more than anyone could’ve imagined. Why? She’s the GOAT. But soon the world was talking about something that has not been widely discussed, shining the light on athlete’s mental health. She said so many rightly said comments and we couldn’t be prouder of her for putting her foot a step back, to be able to walk more steps. She is not only the GOAT because of her abilities, but because she can be the leading example. Just before the Olympics, Naomi Osaka, a tennis player who carried the final Olympics torch in the opening ceremony, also spoke out about the reason why she’s pulling out from the press marathon because she doesn’t feel she has to be forced to doing it, being asked demeaning questions, when it doesn’t really benefit her and that she should have time for herself before, during, and after competition instead. I can go on for days talking about my admiration for both of them.
Athletes are seen as commodity and only have value when they do something that appease us so let’s check on ourselves: what happens if they lose? What happens if they don’t perform the way we expect them to be — what do we say to them? Where did all those comments and emotions come from? Are we seeing them as human, or a product for our own satisfaction, or ego for having rooted for a better person or team than the others?
I do also want to mention how Simone is also leading example of “being the light for others”. She invited fellow Olympian, Jordan Chiles to join her gym and train together, so that Jordan could gain confidence and have better training. And her stepping down, cheering from the sideline, wasn’t going to make her the deadweight in the competition. She elevated every one in the team as much as possible. Sunisa Lee, became the first Hmong-American, even Asian-American to ever win an All-around title in the Olympics (with pretty nails, how?!). We were expecting Simone Biles or the U.S team to conquer but we were reminded that there are amazing people who can share the spotlight. MyKayla Skinner stepped in and won Silver on Vault before retiring. Jade Carey, who also had a disappointing day in Vault and won Gold in Floor Exercise the next day — making all competing women U.S. gymnasts having won at least a medal. Brazil female gymnast, Rebeca Andrade, winning multiple medals: Gold in Vault event and Silver in All-around competition, scoring the country’s first gymnastics medal ever. South Korean’s first female gymnast, Yeo Seo-jeong, to earn a medal in the sports (Bronze in Vault event), 25 years after her father’s medal in the same event. Mai Murakami, becoming the first Japanese female gymnast to win a medal (Bronze in Floor Exercise) since the country’s Bronze medal in team event in 1964 Tokyo Olympics. COVID-19 affected everyone and the uncertainty for a year hasn’t been nice to experience.
If we talk about Simone Biles, then we also have to talk about the immense pressure in the sports. Perfection is paramount, so does the cost and unfortunately, the risk of injury even being paralyzed. It kind of reminds me of ballet which probably explains my liking. Imagine being subjected to all that and being expected to have a “tough” mental. Boundaries continue to be broken, and rules are set to be stricter. These “regulations” to prioritize athlete’s safety may sound hypocritical when all sports and athletes bear inherent risks and may seem undervaluing athletes of colors who excel, even Simone’s is not exempted from that after her moves are considered to be too dangerous to follow. There are other regulations that end up reducing the number of people competing for a team medal (representing and being qualified as a national team), and to give ways for individual gymnasts to focus on specialized event. Jade Carey was one of the gymnasts competing for the apparatuses.
But rules are changed also to allow diversity and introducing new sports. Most sports in the Olympics probably started off as recreation. Breakdancing will debut in the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. It is not just a street dance that kids or teens do in their leisure time.
Speaking of recreation, I enjoyed playing badminton after school waiting for bath and dinner time. It is probably a common recreational activities in a country that was (and probably still) dominant in the sport. The love for the sport is just always outpouring because of the pride for winning the first men and women single badminton in the first Badminton event in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics (if we talk about Barcelona, can we also talk about that Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé song, “Barcelona”? It’s not related with the Olympics but, do check them if you haven’t)
Indonesia’s love towards badminton continue to persist as Indonesia made another history to winning not just one, but two medals (the first ever Indonesian’s Gold in Women’s double by Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu, and Anthony Ginting winning Bronze in Men single) after having single medals in the past few Olympics.
And speaking of badminton, there’s this elephant in the room, about the K-drama controversy about portrayal of Indonesia’s badminton athlete and competition organizer. I personally enjoy the show, called Racket Boys, because it is just shows this mundane life on the countryside, silly group of friends, the puppy love. It is nice to see what could happen behind the scenes when we don’t see the athletes’ quick feet and the sound of racket hitting the shuttlecock; the rigorous practice and determination in preparing; the consistency in managing them and preparing them as a team, which are all very refreshing so I didn’t expect it would cause a controversy. I mean, it’s about kids playing badminton. It came under fire for various reasons, although it was used to serve the plot, it still shows how Southeast Asians are portrayed; it may not look like it’s harmful but that’s because it is already so systemic and engrained in the society that it is difficult to let something pass so easily. This is such a Hollywood game; assuming that fiction can’t do harm. Misrepresentation in media is so overlooked. There can be a bit of harsh truth about us in there, like sportsmanship and behaviors, which we should not also neglect, but in the end, casual stereotypes always leave a bad after taste.
Stereotypes are birthed from a set of values and mindset that exists in the community toward other groups, including athletes from other countries, but this is also a legacy that the country and its history have passed down , especially if it benefits the country that perpetuate them — then it is up to us what are we going to do with those? Okay, what could go wrong?
The Chinese sports investment in particular have always been written as “manufacturing” for the country’s pride. Athletes are almost like robots, which is hypocritical, when other countries do them, it’s applaudable when X does this so where do these media or audience draw the line on what’s problematic? It is hypocritical because sports and athletes can be just as commercially used and trained to make the country proud somewhere else, it is not just exclusive to one country. It just so happens that the investment probably works well, and after underestimating the country’s growth that somehow it is okay to be bitter and suspicious of one’s achievement? If they can treat China being the largest Asian country — not saying that it’s so mighty it can do no wrong, but the extend they’re willing to exaggerate and frame our way of thinking, can be evidence of how our ideas of a country, a nation, or people, could very well be constructed. They can be true or false, but what’s seen on the media isn’t everything and that is up to us to not eat that all up. Stereotypes are certainly not helping us to be more objective.
A South Korean athlete called an Iranian athlete winning gold a terrorist. Wonder where did that come from. Iran as a country still a subject of savage, “terrorists” remarks and that a bigger country should “control” them for the “good of the people”. So this is not only humiliating a country, nation, or group of people who get looked down upon, but also put the country (or any country in many different situation) to shame for having raised such ideas on their ground, that could very well be affect how others perceive them — thus the cycle of putting adjectives before anyone still rolls around. Racism isn’t just happening in one big country that the world just happens to be talking about it.
Does one bad apple represent the whole? When is it fair to call out a country’s or a group misdoing? Every country has their own racist, colorist, or misogynist bunch of people, right? For example, our treatment toward people with darker skins. They get misrepresented — scratch that, even if they do get representation, on media. It gets dangerous when it affects something like recruitment because it’s no longer a friendly joke. Who are we to deprive of opportunity just because our memory associates them with what we know, assume, or want them to be? It will require a huge effort to be accountable and change the system, reel ourselves back and ask where do all these come from, are they helpful, and how do we get rid of them? If we want others to be accountable with their actions toward us, so we should do the same. Don’t inflict something that we don’t wish to be inflicted upon.
I have been made aware and decided to try my best to remove myself and others from stereotypes. Maybe they can help, but more often than not, they diminish us. No use in lifting or putting someone below just because of what we assume. Examples of stereotypes around sports are how Russians or Romanians are good in gymnastics, Jamaicans an Kenyans are good runners. But things are changing and sports is one way for us to unlearn these ideas. Badminton used to be dominated by Asian countries, until a Spanish, Danish, and Guatemalan stepped up to the finals in recent years. It is a process in removing bias and there’s no better time to start it than now. Others can be just as capable if only we don’t think of them less because of certain attributes.
It took more than four years, billions of Dollars, and many other uncountable resources, time, and effort, for us to witness these happening in an event (and this is not even scratching the surface). Just goes to show that it really takes a village and it is about time that we move forward as a village to take care of athlete’s mental health issue and addressing harmful stereotypes. If we cannot lift others up, the least we can do is to keep them going and not bring them down.
