Sports diplomacy issues (6): power and humility

Sports diplomacy issues (6): power and humility

Dr. Gilles Klein, 05 May 2017

 

  

Pathway

Within a context of recurring economic crisis, raising funds for access to sport for world-wide Youth, notably through the construction of sports infrastructures, can be qualified as an illusion of power. Nevertheless, making the young people of developing countries understand the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through sports education assumes some humility. Between risk of power and admission of humility, everyone makes their pathway and tries to leave some mark.

Day

As an introduction to this Friday's diplomacy issues, I would like to mention a day in which someone attempted to convince me of the appeal of the first pathway before that the reality led me harshly back to the second. A day in Benin, in which my friend Pierre Dansou and colleagues of the national institute of Youth, physical education, sports introduced to me the city of Ouidah, a coastal city forty kilometers from Cotonou.

Ouidah

Ouidah has two characteristics which were the reason of our excursion. On the one side, the city has been one of the main selling and embarkation centers for slaves in the framework of the trade realized by the Occident. On the other, in January, it is the meeting area of voodoo followers to celebrate the voodoo national festival set up in 1993. The day of our visit, slavery and voodoo allow me to understand that the power illusions do not weigh in face of the humility that everyone needs to show.

Voodoo

Let us start with the voodoo power. The institute’s colleagues explain: in Benin, the voodoo community represents around 60 to 70% of the whole population and festivities were introduced due to the lack of worship by the ancestors. Ever since, in Ouidah, it is the voodoo festival every January 10th. The city dignitaries lead the festivities, in which several delegations from the country, neighboring countries, and the diaspora take part. In the street, on the beach, they celebrate gods and goddesses of water, thunder, iron, night guards or ghosts. That day, there are ceremonies, processions and animal sacrifices.

Ceremony

The day of our visit, through a kind of cultural hazing, the colleagues decided to induct me to that tradition: “would you acquire the power for you and your endeavours. If the king recognizes you, you can yourself become a king”. A challenge highlighted beneath the question. That is why I declared myself ready to respond to what I suspected to be the local ceremony of cultural induction. Among the voodoo traditions, the cult of Royal Python is among the most exotic, if not impressive.

Python

In 1717, Benin was the object of a local war by two opposing kingdoms. At stake was the control of the river and its marshy area comprised of multiple streams. The waterways above were all the entry points of trading European merchants. The defeated king of Ouidah took refuge in the forest to escape the warriors who pursued him. He was protected by the pythons which attacked his opponents and was then saved. In honor of his protectors, he erected three huts in the forest and one totem. We visited the temple inhabited by pythons of all sizes.

Royal

A curious neighbor was, in fact, awaiting me in the damp darkness of the temple. Entering the main hut, once the eyes became accustomed, the ground seemed to be moving. When the torch lit up, it was an “Indiana Jones effect”. On the ground crawled more than a hundred Royal pythons. At that time, you have trouble forgetting that a man is not prey for these carnivores. However, you really are facing a collection of these small-sized snakes – one meter eighty – with a massive and muscular body, and with a brown appearance marked with beige spots.

King

The guide repeated the questions posed by my colleagues. I said then that I was ready to take on the challenge. He seized the Royal python considered to be the most beautiful specimen of the colony. He placed the snake around my neck and gave me this instruction: “wait until the king accustoms to you. If it considers you, it will straighten and fix you in the eyes. If you keep the look, then you also you will become a king, successful in your endeavors." At the fatal moment, I clearly remember its tongue movements and its eyes covered by a transparent scale. Furthermore, I didn’t become a king of anything.

Humility

The power illusion was substituted by work in humility – from Ouidah downtown to the Non-return door, on the slaves' road. The tourists discover another patrimonial element, the deportation history. Ouidah was one of the main hubs of the slave trade during the XVIIIth century. Your steps follow those of chained African deported crowds. The former Portuguese Fort São-Jão-Batista-de-Ajuda, transformed into a museum, where one discovers the objects of the slave’s everyday life – chains, firearms, canons. The auction square in Ouidah, where the slaves were selected and branded with a red-hot iron. The Zomaï huts where they were kept in pens before embarkation. Place Zoungbodji, they turn around the “Non-return tree” for the return of their souls after death. The memorial, built above the captives’ mass graves, for those who died before deportation.

Door

And then, the end of the slaves' road, after five arduous kilometers, this long beach, both sumptuous and sad, where the waves slam against the dunes. It is dominated by the Non-return door erected in 1995 by UNESCO, where the slaves embarked to the Americas. To complete the humility work the guide punctuates: « You shall imagine the pain of these chained people by feet and neck, on this swampy road, full of cactus, Scorpios and snakes. Half died in transit”. But where is the sports diplomacy?

Coup

Returning to sports! The Sotchi Olympic Games are the theater of our alternative, opposing the power diplomacy to that of humility. The diplomacy through power is illustrated by Vladimir Putin. Organizing this event, he realizes a triple diplomatic coup: enhance Russia through sport on the international stage, affirm his personal charisma then attempt to make everybody forget the difficulties of the country, at the risk of losing his bet.

Enhance

The word shop window is a recurring theme in this blog. Sotchi was a shop window coming at the right time for Vladimir Putin. In 2007, when the international Olympic Committee (IOC) awards Sotchi the organization of the Winter Olympic Games, the Kremlin’s strong man declared: “Finally, Russia is back in the global arena as a strong state, a country to which the others must pay attention”. The one who described the disappearance of the Soviet Union as the worst geopolitical catastrophe of the XXth century, shows that his Russia, that he leads, is back. Sport can help him achieve it. In 2014, in power for 14 years, Vladimir Putin made sports events one of his strategic priorities. It is the same willingness to celebrate the power of a system in which the Games in Moscow in 1980 were boycotted. It is the largest event in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. According to the analyst Maria Lipman, for Putin it is “to show that Russia is able to impress the whole world organizing a great sports festival, building infrastructures, welcoming guests” from the whole world.

Affirm

Sotchi, is also the affirmation of a personal power: “I personally chose that area” insists Putin. Through Sotchi, the latter maintains a strong man’s image at the diplomatic level, sitting on a strong man in the first meaning of the term. He appears as sporty and reckless. He is not concerned by suffering in hockey. He fishes with a bare torso in Siberia. It is a cult of force and physical skill through sport. A cult that extends to a strong sports system. Sotchi, has a delegation of 226 Russian attendees, 2 less than USA, but comes top of the ranking with 13 gold medals. Giving back power to his country, he is looking at maintaining his own legend in history. The political scientist Dimitri Orlov wrote then: Sotchi is “a Putin’s personal project, who thinks of history and what one will write about him”.

Forget

But Sotchi, it is also the shop window that would hide the shop and back shop. In 2007, Vladimir Putin’s popularity is nearly 80% positive opinions and the growth of Russian economy reached almost 8%. However, in 2014, the situation changed. Economic growth is just over 1%. The Rouble collapses against the dollar and euro. The increasing human rights violations are denounced by the Pussy Riots and NGOs. The sports performances are suffering from doping accusations.

Risk

The strong comeback is not without risks. Admittedly, the shop window shines with all its lights. But, the criticisms are multiplied due to the cost of these Olympic Games. To this day, with 50 billion US dollars, the Sotchi Games remain the most expensive shop window for a country. Otherwise, the gloss fails to hide the back-shop dealings. Critics also suspect the corruption relating to the Pharaonic expenses in the area which is only a few hundred km away from the unstable North Caucasus Republics. An area that is without sports infrastructures. These criticisms got Putin a little bit nervous. The analyst Dimitri Orechkine described the Sotchi’s stake thus: « In the best case, the Olympic Games will show Russia as a country such as the others. But there is more chances to face a failure than harvest benefits”.

Cannibal

Like Vladimir Putin, Ole Einar Bjoerndalen also has a winner’s temperament. In Sotchi, the Norwegian biathlete is 40 years old. There he becomes the most decorated of the Winter Games. A success that does not alter his legendary humility. Let us start with the successes. He counts so many, that the press refers to him even as a cannibal. He is the one who devours the trophies. Let us judge! 93 successes in World Cup, 19 world titles, 6 Crystal Globes, 13 Olympic medals. He breaks the record of his compatriot, Björn Daehlie, the greatest cross-country skier of all times who says about him: “the others did not think that the “old” was able to do that”. He was always able due to two major qualities: his great professionalism and a great humility.

Humility

It is to his extreme professionalism that the best biathlete in history owes his longevity. He was the first to impose on himself incredible workloads during training, at the rhythm of 900 to 1000 hours per year since he was 15 years old. He has been the first to innovate: shooting coach, mental coach, exclusivity contracts to use special waxes. The competition is a spur that allows him to constantly renew himself. He achieves his tasks of a professional with a great humility, very much appreciated by his peers and the sports institutions. A quality that is of great use in representing his country in IOC, once the Sotchi Games are finished. A great humility for not taking a long time to announce his retirement in 2016.

Submarine

Vladimir and Ole have doing diplomacy through sport in common. The first, through the power he demonstrates, is looking to have Russia recognized as a strong country on the world stage. The second, through his longevity, his work, his humility asks us to look to the construction of lifestyles and their transmission to young people. After all it is only sport! Between Russia and Norway, at the diplomatic level, the problem lies elsewhere. In February 2017, Norway is concerned about the increase in the sophistication of the Russian military equipment. The Norwegian military has difficulties in detecting the modern Russian submarines, which for them, could threaten this Scandinavian country. There is hard power more than the soft one through sport.

Next: 12 May 2017 – The stadium's diplomacy.

  

  

Sports diplomacy issues (5): a shop window at all costs!

Sports diplomacy issues (5): a shop window at all costs!

Dr. Gilles Klein, 28 April 2017

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Coubertin

When it comes to sports diplomacy, we are still revising the classics. Everyone remembers the famous toast on 24th July 1904 by Pierre de Coubertin to the British government. He repeated a sentence of the bishop of Pennsylvania which remains attributed to the founder of the new Olympic Games: “it is more important in these Olympiads to take part than to win. Remember, Gentlemen, these strong words, the most important in life is not the triumph but the combat. The essential is not to have vanquished but to have fought well”.

Boycott

As we observed last week concerning boycotts, for some states, the essential is mainly to try not to fight. By canceling their visibility on the sporting stage, they increased it considerably on the diplomatic stage. However, participation in the great events remains the major objective in most cases. We also saw that for the developing countries, there is a risk of forgetting the long-term objectives for education, training, and employment. They also risk forgetting the budgetary constraints and limitations.

Shop window

Break the shop window! The faithful reader may remember that the African Cup of Nations (ACN) mobilizes all the attention and often a major part of the budget of an African minister of Youth and sports. The national soccer team is the shop window of the national sport. A shop window that does focus all the attention of the public, amateur, spectator and consumer of the major international sports events, in Africa or elsewhere. Even when the national team doesn’t take part in the competition, the latter remains a major event and is a shop window attracting numerous clients.

Syli

Conakry, Guinean capital, February 2017. This year, the national team has not qualified for the CAN final phase in Gabon. Usually, when the national Syli plays a match at the Biennale of African soccer, the country comes alive. Some musical groups play at the major crossroads junctions. Public transport taxis fly the national flag. Supporters are rushing to the Madina market to purchase jerseys of the Guinean eleven.

Neighbour

Compared to when Guinea has played in this competition, Conakry, from the high suburbs to downtown, is less vibrant. The fans are meeting, either amongst family or at a neighbors’ house, either in offices or in video clubs, to follow the progress of their respective favorite teams. The Guinean supporters are split between the teams of neighboring countries in contention: Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast. This year, they ended up accepting not seeing their team play in Gabon, with all looking ahead to the future.

Addis

The Guinean spectators were filled with joy some two years before in Ethiopia. A hope that has helped them into the saddle of our second diplomatic strategy: to organize a major event. Let us remember. Addis Abeba. 20 September 2014. The candidate States of the 2019 and 2021 ACN organization are waiting impatiently for the verdict. Cameroon is selected in 2019, Ivory Coast for 2021. Against all expectations, Guinea is also chosen to house the African Cup in 2023. That time, the country succeeded. Guinea will welcome the continental tournament. For the first time in its history, it will organize a major event.

Chinese

The politician's act. It must proceed quickly now and it will not be easy. All remember. The Nongo stadium’s construction with the support of the Chinese lasted four years. On 30 September 2016, the Guinean minister of sports signs a partnership with a Chinese company. It covers the study, the search for financing and the realization of three major stadiums meeting international standards in the Guinean regions. The feasibility studies should start next November, before the beginning of the works on the grounds in Labbé, Kankan, and N’Zeérékoré which are the selected cities.

Alpha

In January 2017, President Alpha Condé appoints the members of the Organization Committee of the African Cup of Nations (COCAN). CAN transforms it into a political affair: strategic orientations, infrastructural and festival preparations, budgetary allocation of the planned investments, the realization of the related infrastructures, coordination of administrations and private partners, etc. In sum, a whole country mobilizes at major budget reinforcements. A country whose national budget is 15 thousand billion of Guinean francs. Which is equivalent to 1,5 billion euros, that's to say almost the amount for the organization of two ACNs in Gabon.

Not sure!

The arrival of President Ahmad Ahmad at the head of CAN risks a reshuffling of the cards. Indeed, the new African soccer management team attacked the allocation of this competition to Guinea in September 2014. The President of the Council of soccer associations in Austral Africa (Cosafa), Phillip Chiyangwa has called into question the allocation of the African Cups of Nations 2019, 2021 and 2023, to Cameroon, Ivory Coast and to Guinea. One who has been the main supporter of the new president of the African soccer confederation wants to review the designation of hosting countries for the three next ACNs.

Too expensive

The organization of a major event shakes not only the world of sport and its institutions. The budgets involved often lead to turmoil in the national political spheres. The organization of the 2017 CAN was used as a political argument during and after the last presidential campaign. The press has reported it. Jean Ping, former President of the Commission of the African Union and Ali Bongo Ondimba, Gabonese president, confronted each other during the last Gabonese presidential election. Following the elections, Mr. Ping refused to recognize the re-election of Mr. Bongo, validated by the Constitutional Court. The first has fed the polemic with the government using the argument of the cost of the African Cup of Nations (CAN 2017). According to his team, the organization in 2012 and 2017 of the CAN would have cost the Gabonese taxpayer the sum of 863 billion CFA francs (1,3 billion euros).

Expenses

Beyond these political polemics, do the developing or the developed countries really have an interest in organizing the major international sports events? The expenditure records advocate a negative answer. Since the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992, the budgets have exploded. When Catalonia and Spain spent 1,6 billion Euros, the budgets of Beijing and London are Pharaonic. In 2008, the Chinese budget for the Beijing Games was 42 billion US dollars, inter alia, 2,5 billion for the sports infrastructures and 26,5 billion for transport infrastructures. In 2012, for the London Games, the United Kingdom originally planned a far lower budget than that of Beijing but that amounted all the same to 7,8 billion for the transports and 1,2 billion for the Olympic stadium.

Benefits

Instead, it appears that these huge expenditures have been beneficial for the two countries’ economic activity. In Beijing, the construction of infrastructures created more than 1,8 millions jobs, increased the GDP by 12,8% for the city of Beijing and 1% of the Chinese GDP. The London Games created 300,000 jobs and an increase of the London GDP by 1%. Thus, the organization of the Olympic games costs money for the cities and organizing countries but can also bring in a lot.

Business

The benefits are considered on three shortcomings. The new infrastructures, notably the transport ones, cause other collateral benefits. For example, the increase in tourism. The Beijing Games attracted 500,000 tourists and 1 million Chinese. The London Games attracted 30,000 tourists and 800,000 British. Otherwise, the whole country economy benefits from the Games organization. The heads of states of the organizing country build on the event to negotiate some contracts with other heads of states. It is estimated that during the 2012 London Games, David Cameron would have held 17 international summits trying to obtain 1 billion pounds of contracts.

Tool

Of course, there is no comparison between the organization of the London games and of 2023 CAN in Guinea. The budgets are very different, the challenges as well. But all these countries, either developed or developing, are looking to increase their international influence through sport. The organization budgets are in fact the first tool of sports diplomacy.

BRICS

Between developed and developing countries, the case of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) is interesting to highlight. Except for India, these countries, so-called emerging, are those which have or will organize the largest number of major sports events on a global dimension: Beijing 2008, South Africa 2010, Sotchi 2014, Brazil 2014, Rio de Janeiro 2016, Russia 2018. Who benefits from these events? Undoubtedly not the population?

Sums

Such as for ACN in Gabon and the London Games, the sums have been unreasonable: 32 billion US dollars for the Beijing Games, 50 billion for Sotchi 2014, 13 billion for the World Cup in Brazil, 16, 5 billion for the Rio Games. These numbers are estimated without counting the over expenditures. Then, more than 100 billion US dollars have been expended for the organization of four sports mega-events in the BRICS countries.

Run

What makes the BRICS rush to organize such events and devote to them such budgets? It is obvious. Sport allows them to be visible at all costs on the international stage and to guarantee them good publicity. It is a way to attract investors, often foreigners, who in reality are the biggest receivers of the organization of major events. To benefit from economic spin-offs, the governing class wishes to show to the economic world that it is able to organize these great events. That it is also able to guarantee some social stability to enable investors to be at ease in establishing them in the organizer country.

Right

Ensuring social stability to attract investors? It is not that simple! One remembers this Wednesday 6 July 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, where hundreds of thousands of demonstrators call for the boycott of the Olympic Games and ask for more investment in the public services. A professor then declared: “this government says that there is no money for health, education, but he has money for the OG. It is absurd! That is why, as public servants, we are in the streets to fight for our rights”.

Next: 5 May 2017 – Sport diplomacy issues (6): power and superpower.

  

Sports diplomacy issues (4): Boycott? In and out

Sport diplomacy issues (4): Boycott? In and out

Dr. Gilles Klein, 21 April 2017

 

Guinness

What sportsman doesn’t appreciate a good beer following a competition or an intense training session? I remember those refreshing moments that punctuate the ascension of Ventoux or the mountain passes of the Alps on a bike. But the beer which I remember the most is a Guinness shared with one of the icons of my generation of athletes. Kaloum, the business neighborhood in Conakry, close to the Grand Hotel of Independence. My friend, Dr. Pivi takes us to the far end of the spit of land, near the Port of Boulbinet. In one of the modest bars of the Guinean capital city, colleagues from the national institute of sports introduced me to Ron Freeman, representative of a non-governmental organization promoting sports. He was also a great American athlete.

4x400

With Ron, the contact is easy. We are from the same generation. The ice is quickly broken. In professional terms, we share the same mission. Devoting our retirement to trying to raise funds, we act to encourage access to sport for young people. We exchange our experiences in Guinea and consider cooperating. In personal terms, I tell him I watched his performance with the American 4x400 meters team. He was the second runner of the team winning the title establishing a new world record during the Mexico Olympic games. Ron was also on the podium of the 400 meters with the bronze medal.

1968

At that time, I was a physical education student and had experienced the May 1968 events in France at close hand. Events were initiated by a part of the student Youth, this spontaneous anti-authoritarian revolt, at the same time cultural, social and political was directed against capitalism, American imperialism and more directly in France against the power of the General de Gaulle who personified authority. We took part in a revolt that tried pointing out all kinds of discriminations. May 1968 was a fantastic boycott of the then society by Youth itself.

Tommie

With Ron, we also talked about Tommie Smith and his militant boycotting act. “Tommie jet”, another athlete of the American team, was one of the best athletes of all times in the 200 meters. But the young rebels that we were, amateur boycotters of State authoritarianism, were struck by his protest with his compatriot John Carlos and the Australian Peter Norman against the discrimination against black people in the United States, on the 200 meters podium in Mexico.

Glove

Ron told what everyone already knows. But hearing the story live was very moving. Tommie had been unable to take part in the Olympic 400 meters, due to his performance at the American selections, a kind of justice of the peace before the Games. He brought back to life the famous podium of the 400 meters. Tommie climbed on the podium in socks and raised a black-gloved fist, head down during his country's anthem. His compatriot, John Carlos raised the left black-gloved fist. A pair of gloves shared to support the boycott movement of the Olympic games by the Afro-American athletes due to the non-respect of their civil rights.

Boycott

In a general sense, a boycott is the refusal to consume the products and services by a nation. A refusal that can be extended to elections and events. Charles Cunningham Boycott was the first victim of this opposition. An Irish intendant who treated his farmers so badly, they opposed a blockade. Over the course of its history, sport, particularly given the chance of the Olympic Games, has frequently been subject to this kind of blockade or ostracism through numerous scandals and controversies between States. Some of them boycotted the Games several times as an outward expression towards the Olympic International Committee.

1936

One remembers the 1936 Games, organized in Berlin by the Nazi regime, that had been the subject of numerous controversies. The Jesse Owens’ story is often reported as emblematic of the Nazi boycott towards the United States. The latter, who broke or equalized six world records at the Big Ten conference, won four gold medals in front of Adolf Hitler. Some days before the Owens’ victory, Hitler salutes the German winners and left the stadium before saluting the high jump winner, the Afro-American Cornelius Johnson. The competition officials advise him to congratulate all the champions, so Hitler decides to congratulate nobody henceforth.

Snub

Owens had not been the specific target of a boycott from the Nazi dictator. In his memories, relating to the boycott, Owens targets more his country than the Nazi regime: “Hitler didn’t snub me, it is our President who snubbed me”. The President didn’t even send me a telegram”… “Following these stories that Hitler snubbed me, when I returned to the United States I was not able to seat at the front of the buses, I was obliged to sit at the back, I was not able to live as I wanted. In other words, as Tommie Smith made it 34 years later, it is his own country that Owens boycotted. A country that was not able to break from racial segregation. Smith and Owens expressed what I could qualify a “boycott in” towards their own authorities.

Front

The Smith and Owen’s “boycott in » acts are individual acts that are not crystallized in diplomacy through sport. These two behaviors didn’t particularly manifest an opposition towards other countries. In Berlin, one shall look at Spain to understand what is a State boycott towards another nation, what I may qualify as “boycott out”. The Spanish government decides to boycott the Games and organizes the popular Olympiads, inviting worldwide workers’ groups to attend competitions. The Popular Front opposes itself explicitly to Nazism. This time, sport is indeed a tool of foreign policy.

1980

Indeed, the United States and the URSS provide the best examples of boycott as means of foreign policy. To understand the tension between the two States, the year 1980 is, without a doubt, the period that allows a good understanding of the boycott strategy. A year that sees the Winter Olympic Games in the United States and then the Summer Games in Moscow.

Miracle

In the context of « Cold War », the tension between the two states is an old story. But on the stadiums, the war is far from being cold. The event called “miracle on ice” is one of the best illustrations. This expression summarizes the victory, as improbable as it was unexpected, of the American team against the Soviet Union during the last round of the Ice hockey Olympic tournament of the Winter XIII Olympic Games. On 22 February 1980, the hockey players accomplished the feat of beating the Soviet team, previously considered invincible and won the gold medal.

Goal-keeper

We observed it, sports diplomacy initially crystallizes on duos or duels that constitute the promise of a relaxation or the creation of a tension. This time, the two gate-keepers defending the goals are the focus. A distance duel between Jim Craig, the American gate-keeper, and Vladislas Tretiak, Russian and best gate-keeper in the world. The first played a series of crucial blocks, preventing the Russians widening the difference. The second had been sidelined by the Russian coach Tikhonov at the beginning of the second period.

Resist

The Soviet team, which won its matches by often significant gaps was not able to escape. The succession of equalizations by the American team triggered the enthusiasm of a supportive American public. At the end of the match, the American team was a single goal ahead. Sidelined, Tretiak could only look on. His counterpart Craig vigorously resisted the Soviet offensive assaults until the end in a fantastic atmosphere. The United States then won an improbable victory, qualified as a miracle. The American Youth triumphed that day against the Soviet experience. The sports tension was revealing of the diplomatic tension between the two countries.

Tension

Indeed, the miracle on ice happens only two months following the Afghanistan invasion by the Soviet army. From December 1979 to February 1989, the Afghanistan war opposed the MOU Jahi dins supported by the United States and predominantly Muslim countries against the communist Afghan regime supported by USSR. It is then within a climate of international diplomatic tension that the Winter games took place, then the Summer Games in 1980.

Moscow

The XXII Summer Olympic Games take place in Moscow in July and August 1980. For the first time, the capital welcomes this major international sports event. They remain characterized by the boycott of around fifty nations, including the United States to signify their opposition to the Afghanistan invasion by the Soviet Union. They were considered as the Games of the East. In the stadium, the value of the competitions was questioned by the boycotters, even if 36 world records were improved.

Finger

In the stadium, one remembers the gesture that symbolized the boycott. Like in Lake Placid, it starts by a duel. At the pole vault competition, the Polish Wladyslaw Kozakiewicz and the Soviet Konstantin Volkov carry out a fierce battle under the public boos. The second failed his three attempts. The Pole secures the Olympic title by crossing a bar at 5,75 meters, then breaks the record held by the French Philippe Houvion. After the contest, he addresses a two-fingered gesture to the public of the Loujniki stadium. Through this gesture, does the pole vaulter address the public? Or is this an act of resistance, against a boycott background, towards the Soviet control of his country.

Insult

Nevertheless, the gesture triggers a diplomatic process. The USSR Ambassador in Poland requests the international Olympic Committee to withdraw Kozakiewicz’s gold medal for “insult to the Soviet people”. The Polish government states that the athlete’s gesture was only the consequence of a muscle spasm. Finally, Kozakiewicz is not sanctioned. The ambassador’s request is in fact only one consequence of the American decision to boycott the Moscow Games.

Carter

Let us come back to the boycott that in December 1979 the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union. In their diplomacy through sport, the Americans used boycott as a means of pressure on their opponent in the Cold War. On 20 January 1980, one month before the “miracle on ice”, the President Jimmy Carter addresses an ultimatum to the Kremlin leaders: “if in one month at the latest, your troops have not left Afghanistan, the American team will not go to Moscow and we will ask other countries to abstain as well”.

Brejnev

The Olympic Committee conducted the negotiations and obtain only some concessions from Leonid Brejnev, notably the parade of the Russian delegation behind the Olympic banner. Some minor concessions to which Washington didn’t surrender. Countries such as Canada, Japan, South Korea and West Germany align with the American positions. 29 Muslim countries associate themselves with the boycott considering the attack against Afghanistan as an attack against Islam.

Return match

As in sport, diplomacy is organized in the alternation of first and return matches. The Los Angeles Olympic Games are for Leonid Brejnev a kind of return match, after the first match in Moscow. On 8 May 1984, the USSR announces its decision to not send a delegation to the 1984 Summer Olympic Games. The Democratic Republic of Germany and Cuba follow the step, followed by the majority of the Soviet bloc. Such as in Moscow, the IOC played the role of negotiator. But this boycott happened and involved around fifteen countries. Such as in 1936, such as in 1980, the boycotting countries have organized alternative games open to the delegations of the boycotters. The boycott thus ensures the triumph of the political and diplomatic challenges against the sports challenges. However, to advance their capacity for international influence, the organization of major events, with big expenses and magnificence, remains for some countries the best means to display their power.

Next: 28 April 2017 – Sport diplomacy issues (5): the most beautiful shop window

Sports diplomacy issues (3): on the side of classics

Sports diplomacy issues (3): on the side of classics

Dr. Gilles Klein, 14 April 2017

Truce

For the sportsmen of my generation, Dick Fosbury remains the person who seduced viewers of the Mexico Olympic games, with his reinvention of the high jump. For many, Mao Zedong and Nixon remain those who, three years later, reinvented diplomacy through sport. Let us say, reinvent only. Indeed, as we have seen before, the Greeks used physical activity to strengthen the connections between the communities of the Pan-Hellenic world. To get to Olympia, the delegations crossed areas at war, benefiting from a negotiated truce. However, nowadays, the idea that sport can be a tool of foreign policy only truly takes shape with so called tennis table diplomacy.

Friendship

In 1971, visiting Japan, the American team attends the table tennis World championships. The delegation is invited by their Chinese counterparts to visit China. In that country, sport is already considered as an integral part of diplomacy according to the following maxim: “friendship first, competition after”. Six days after this invitation and for the first time since 1949, the American team, joined by journalists, dropped their sports bags and rackets on Chinese ground. Before, the meeting had been approved and facilitated by the national Committee of relations between United States – China.

Story

Between friendship and competition, the story is nice, because once more everything starts on the field. Policy and diplomacy are sometimes only simple posterior formalizations of human adventures. This allows us to understand several strategies of sports diplomacy, which we will call classics and moderns. But let us start with the story of the two Zedong's who have mattered in the link between China and the United States of America. Discover the sportsman? Discover the diplomat?

Zedong 1

According to the members of the American delegation, everything starts through a simple gesture of solidarity between two athletes, the triple world Chinese champion Zhuang Zedong and the American player Glenn Cowan. The American who was running late during a training session missed his delegation's bus. The Chinese suggested he take the bus of the Chinese team. As a courtesy, he wants to break the ice. What to say? He who was educated to resist imperialism. What to do? He who was trained to advocate the values of the cultural revolution.

Zedong 2

One year before, in 1970, Zedong heard his namesake Mao Zedong, founder and leader of the People’s Republic of China, say to an American journalist and writer that China had big expectations of the American people. The Great Helmsman met, in fact, Edgar Snow on the Tiananmen Square, on the national day in 1970. Snow was the first occidental journalist to speak with the Chinese leader. His history of Chinese communism since 1930 had brought together the leaders of the Middle Kingdom. With the Black Panthers, the Afro-American supremacist movement, he was one of the rare American citizens to be recognized as a diplomat, ambassador of his country.

Silk

The gesture of sports solidarity then becomes a diplomatic gesture. He gives to Cowan the most prized thing in his sports bag: a silk stole. As for him, Cowan has nothing to give but his comb. Too anonymous a gift to be given in exchange. Later, he will also offer a gift with a diplomatic value: a t-shirt with red, white and blue colors, symbolizing peace. The relationship between the two sportsmen is in the news. Interviewed by a journalist, the American declares a strong desire to visit China. The diplomatic affair is launched.

Diplomat

Since his time at the ministry of foreign affairs, Zhou Enlai, Prime Minister, advocated a peaceful coexistence with the Occident, following the impasse of the Korean war and the Geneva agreements. But with Mao Zedong, they refuse the request of the American team to visit China. Then, Mao reverses that decision and decides to invite the American team. He would have been seduced by this mix between sport and diplomacy. One attributes to him these words: “This Zhuang Zedong does not simply play table tennis, but he has a talent for foreign affairs and a fine political spirit”. The story can then be written.

Officialization

The sportsmen open the game. On 10th April 1971, nine American players cross the bridge between Hong Kong and China and give exhibition matches during one week. They visit the Great Wall and the Summer Palace and attend the ballet. The politicians conclude the affair. On 19th February, the American president travels to China. Two months following this visit, Zhuang Zedong travels to the United States as chief of the table tennis delegation. He will carry out his visit in North America and Latin America.

Baseball

Forty-five years after Nixon, the American President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro rely on diplomacy through sport. On 22nd March 2016, they are spectators at a match in Havana. It is, of course, a baseball match, a sport charged with symbolism between the two countries. We know that the United States and Cuba share a common passion for baseball. The two presidents didn’t fail to highlight it during this official visit during which the American president expressed his willingness to reach a final point in the cold war.

Sugar Kings

The Estadio Latinoamericano, venue of the match isn't just any old stadium. A stadium that becomes again the bringer of reconciliation, when it had become sixty-two years before a place symbolizing the breaking down of relations. The stadium was associated with a forgotten moment in the history of Cuban and American baseball. It hosted the Sugar Kings, the first and only Cuban club to reach the major American baseball league. In 1954, the Sugar Kings encountered the Toronto Maple Leafs, in the opening match of the season of the International League. There was a promising time for baseball, for Cuban-American relations and for the perspective of seeing Havana welcoming a Major League club, thanks to the Sugar Kings.

Embargo

But politics took priority over sports. The Sugar Kings became a major political issue, one of the last broken threads in increasingly strained relations between Cuba and the United States. The team has been forced to relocate in New Jersey in 1960. Two years later, the United States decreed an embargo on exchanges with Cuba, thus freezing relations between the two countries. In view of the symbolism of baseball in the two countries, the departure of the Sugar Kings is amongst the high points, despite being unknown, of the annihilation of the relations between the two countries.

Classic

In Washington, Beijing or Havana, sport is well and truly a tool of diplomacy, indeed a geopolitical one. We are not at the stage of intuition mentioned in the previous article. We are well and truly in the framework of an explained and organized diplomacy, that's to say, procedures which can be clearly identified. Earlier, Zhuang Zedong taught us that diplomacy through sport was a combination of friendliness and competition. However, the latter is nowadays still the best asset of States to promote their image on the international stage. The organization of major international competitions remains a great classic in terms of diplomacy through sport. Let us review our classics. Today, I offer the first of these.

Definition

The minimum of a sports diplomacy is to start to define it. Following the rejection of the Paris 2012 candidature and for the purpose of the 2024 Olympic Games, France defines in 2015, we could finally say, a sports diplomacy. The homeland of De Coubertin has probably understood that such diplomacy assumes defining an efficient strategy. It must be said that in 2005, the slap had been severe. The country of the creation of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was deprived of the 2012 Olympic Games. It must be said that lobbying has been there. During the XXth century, an efficient sports diplomacy didn’t necessarily need efficient means, but only a willingness to convince. Let us remember!

Chirac

On 12 September 2005, Henry Kissinger commented thus on the rejection of Paris for the organization of the 2012 Olympic Games: “the French didn’t understand what the IOC is. Many of its members are coming from the poor countries”. Maybe the then French president didn’t know that the IOC is sensitive to the lobbying practices. The key to success is there. A member of the Olympic institution commented on the French President’s attitude thus: “Jacques Chirac spent eight hours in Singapore, of which three were unnecessary ones for the opening night. The remaining time, he shook hands, drank cocktails in public with voters”.

Blair

Tony Blair, as for him, was locked in his suite for two full days. There he met forty members and nobody will ever know what was said there”. Definitely, Blair’s lobbying was far from corresponding to the ethics argued by IOC. But, its president, the Belgian Jacques Rogge, let that go. It is there that Paris best demonstrated the accuracy of Henry Kissinger’s verdict: “the French did not understand what the IOC is”.

2024

February 2017, Paris, France do give a sense of hope. Budapest just withdrew its candidature, the French capital remains in competition for 2024 with Los Angeles. This time, there is even a double reason for hope. The IOC could appoint at the same time the organizers of the 2024 and 2028 Games. Thomas Bach, IOC president, announced a probable double attribution, declaring in December 2016 that the current designation process “produced too many losers”. It could then lead to having two winners. It would guarantee that Paris would finally welcome the Games, not necessarily at the coveted date (2024), but welcoming it in spite of everything. Since 1924, it could be the end of a long wait.

Norman

Normandy, a French region is renowned for the hesitation of its people in making decisions. An uncertainty formulated thus: “Maybe so! Maybe no!”. The change of rules suits some and annoys others. For some, the option of a double vote could satisfy all involved parties, the two combatting cities as well as the IOC. An attribution of the Games in 2028 could be “always better than nothing” for Paris in outsider position, or for Los Angeles, that appears to be in the lead. But the change does not satisfy the French candidature managers. These exclude the set of trade-offs of an appointment in 2028: “We are exclusively looking to 2024 because it is the unique mandate received by our team and our project is only possible for 2024”.

Next: 21 April 2017 – Sport diplomacy issues (4): Boycott? In and out.