Lena Jaffe Politics in the Olympic Games

Interviews
Conal Groom
Conal was an Olympic athlete in the lightweight 2x and then the 1x in 2000 and 2004. He has rowed in internationally in both team boats and the single many times during his life and now coaches elite athletes or those training for the nation team from Lake Union Crew in Seattle, WA.
Between 2000 and 2004 so much had changed for Americans, but it had a much smaller impact on the rest of the country than any of the athletes had imagined. It was far over hyped for the US citizens. Of course, the city of Athens had received extensive coverage of the September eleventh attacks and knew most of the details which we as Americans knew were available in Greece too, but still that climate of fear and tragedy which you mentioned permeated Athens far less than I had expected. The athletes were there to race and compete, no matter what was happening in the world outside of the venue. We were not oblivious to it however, there was an athlete specific newspaper which was basically a summary of world news shortened and translated into multiple languages. As far as tension goes, I never felt a strained relationship between the American athletes and other countries competitors. The feeling of being surrounded by people from all different disciplines and countries each of whom has worked as hard as you for years to be here is too overwhelming. In terms of safety measures we certainly had far more precautions in 2004 than in 2000, which was an example of how the tension you’re talking about was translated into actions. I know the US higher ups did have gas masks for us to be distributed in emergencies, and we were all given cell phones and had to know and practice several emergency evacuation plans. Safety was taken remarkably seriously but throughout it all I think few US athletes ever felt scared. Yes, politics are absolutely irrevocably a part of the Olympics and I was perhaps as removed as I possibly could be from those political statements because I was so strongly against them. I firmly believe that despite the fact that the Olympics are a prime location to make a political or social statement; the Olympics are not about that. To push an agenda when so many people have worked for years to be there is selfish if not downright greedy. I don’t believe it is right in any context.

Lindsay Meyer
Lindsay is the youngest athlete to compete in the sport of rowing at the Olympics ever. At 18, she rowed in the 4x at the 2008 Olympics. Conal Groom has been her coach for 8 years. She now rows in the varsity 8+ at Stanford University.
2008 was a crazy year politically at the Olympics. I’m sure Conal gave you a differing opinion on this but I think politics play a vital role in international athletics. As an athlete it’s a hard thing to accept, but as a global citizen I think there are few other places where the eyes of the whole world will be on you. Louder than the political statements I think are the social statements. The athlete who wears a pink ribbon for breast cancer, or a red ribbon for aids. Those kinds of things were fairly common at the 2008 Olympics. Outside of the competition and racing at the Olympics the protests and politics I remember most vividly are the ones concerning the host city selection. There was so much controversy concerning whether or not Beijing had the human rights and environmental record to be selected as the host city which is considered a huge honor, despite the fact that most cities go hugely into debt and sometimes don’t make enough in profits to make up the difference. What I remember of political tensions between athletes was minimized by the fact that we were encouraged to focus more on what we had in common than what was different between us. It seemed strained in that we tended to avoid discussing political topics because we didn’t want to heighten tension, but mostly because it wasn’t what was foremost in our brains. For the athletes, no matter how political you are, you are there to compete.







Barbara Bender
Barbara was living in Germany at a US military base at the time of the 1972 Munich Olympics. She was a spectator at these games and has since attended the 1994 Oslo winter Olympics. Barbara now lives in Seattle, WA and is the mother of two high school students.
Living in Germany during the Olympics was thrilling! The 72 Olympics were as you said more tragic than thrilling but even so it was a crazy time there. Before the Olympics Germany was trying so hard to present themselves as a nation which had progressed since the last Germany games during which the Nazis were still in control. At the time Germany was still very much a homogenous country, but even so they put so much emphasis on racial diversity and acceptance that it seemed as if they had a wider amount of ethnicities than they really did. Posters of a wide range of colors of people were everywhere as was advertisers claiming the open-mindedness and equality of Germany. The other thing which was publicized was how progressive the Germans were in terms of Women’s athletics. There were still less events for men than women but they tried hard to make it seem like things were equal. The Munich massacre was kept as hush hush as possible. Not that the media or authorities tried to keep quiet that it had happened, but it wasn’t until long after the tragedy that people began to realize that it was preventable. It was portrayed entirely as an act of terrorism and any idea of security failure was entirely contained and not allowed to escape to the general spectator population. Germany’s fear of not putting on a happy face for these games was evident in the amount of propaganda like advertisements which were everywhere. In terms of politics what I noticed most was how the host country used the Olympics as a time to show off how much progress they had made. Whether or not the tragedy overshadowed the competition is debatable, for those who were only casually involved in the Olympics like me it certainly did, but for others I am sure it didn’t and that coaches and players remained focused on the games.