All is not well in US-Russian relations and the Olympics are currently where this is most evident. Moscow suspects that malign US influence lies at the heart of the misfortunes of some of its athletes. It has, for instance, protested that the Russian pairs figure-skating champions were forced to share their gold, after alleged judging irregularities. It is livid that a cross-country skier has been disqualified after a spot test showed the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
In an extraordinary broadcast outburst, Putin accused the US of manipulating the Winter Games to its own advantage, going on to complain that the games had become the victim of heavy commercial pressures. In this, he suggested, but did not actually spell out, that with so much money riding on success, big-money corporate sponsors and backers wanted winners who would have the power to move and influence international consumer markets.
Now, the Russian Federation may one day represent a huge commercial opportunity to the world’s consumer good manufacturers. However, it is currently too poor and too disorganized to attract the big money. What is the point of a charismatic Russian champion appearing in a home market with little disposable income? And would the rest of the world take to a Russian gold medallist who was anything less than a copy of the “clean-cut, all-American” sporting hero, who can amass a fortune on the basis of an Olympic gold medal? The answer is probably “No”.
Of course, Putin’s suggestion that the games have become too commercial to allow sporting prowess alone to count has caused the International Olympic Committee to explode with indignation. From the IOC’s point of view, even to admit the remotest possibility that the vast sums of money which now stick to a modern Olympics could in anyway affect who wins the medals would be unthinkable. Unfortunately, however, not so very long ago, the IOC itself was caught taking bribes over the choice of Olympic venues, something which, 10 or 20 years ago would also have been unthinkable.
Increasingly, international sporting events have become less to do with sporting excellence and achievement, and ever more to do with how much cash TV networks and organizers can wring out of sponsors and the televiewing public. Sport for its own sake does not exist. People may think that they are shown football or cricket matches because that is what they want to watch. They are not. They are shown these programs because some accountant, who probably cares nothing about sport, has decided that there is sufficient profit to be made from broadcasting the events.
On this basis, however paranoid it may seem, Putin’s protest has a logic. Every year, sport has less and less to do with sporting values and more and more to do with money, big money. It is hard to see how the rot can be stopped. The key people, the athletes themselves, increasingly see success as the way to wealth, not simply pride in achievement. And in a sporting environment in which everyone else around them is trying to get rich quick, in the finest American tradition, who can blame them?
