THE ERICLE


THE 2024 PARIS OLYMPICS 
Plus ça change?


 


 


Seeing the above headlines in yesterday's Times, Mes Lecteurs Gentils may well have come up with the French idiom, Bien Mal Aquis Ne Profiie Jamais, which cognoscenti of the Lingua Franca will recognise as meaning Ill-gotten Gains Never Prosper.  Indeed these headlines reflect many of the perceived malaises of our times: escalating international tensions, pollution, celebrity, me-too-ism, self-entitlement etc; in short, demises within society and a breaking down of international order. In such a climate, the Olympic motto Citius, Altius, Fortius – Communiter (Faster, Higher, Stronger - Together) rings somewhat hollow. And with Russian & Belarus athletes competing as 'International', and 15 others competing as 'refugee countries'. the particular slogan chosen by France for this Olympics - Ouvrons Grand les Jeux (Games Wide Open) - seems anything but.  Thus it seems valid to question whether holding an Olympics in today's world is appropriate & relevant; in fact whether such competition, in the current climate, is counter-intuitive to its premises i.e. will Olympic sporting rivalry foster xenophobia rather than togetherness?


 

Clearly this Thursday, The Times, was asking the same sorts of questions. The article under the above headline reports: "There were 'fiery contests' in front of 'temperamental audiences' and quarrels that, in two instances, ended in duels for satisfaction." The article carries on to report that: "It was a violent affair in the stands. Frenchmen beat Americans with canes. There was booing and hissing that drowned out The Star Spangled Banner and the US players had a police escort to the changing room as bottles and rocks rained down on the field. There was chaos in fencing and boxing when the Italians did not take the judges' decision kindly and left the hall singing fascist hymns." Hardly surprising then that a 'war of letters rained down' on The Times Correspondence column castigating Lord Cadogan - the UK member of the International Olympic Committee - and forecasting that the Olympics would die. And yet 100 years later the Olympics is still with us.


The Ericle first appeared on 21 June 2012, just before the start of The London Olympics and and one month later I posted the above positing that "The Olympics is palpably no longer an event for the ‘man on the Clapham omnibus’ but one for corporate exploitation of a global media audience. As a result, the inhabitants of the host nation see the event as anything but a ‘peoples Olympics’ and that is why from where I am sitting most of them are displaying an honest apathy towards the event."  And yet a mere fortnight later I posted this



A few days ago, I received an email from my old mucker. The Slogger. who likened The Ericle as being forged from 'milk and honey' compared to his more acerbic style of writing. (See here). This may be a 'reductio an absurdum' but, flying in the face of the zeitgeist, I still do most strongly believe in the power of the human spirit. That is not to deny that the world has been rather dystopian of late, but I feel compelled to seek for whiffs of positive change; such as my hopes for the newly elected Labour government of the UK and the serendipitous Democrat Presidential candidate in the USA. Last night, as in 2012, I began watching the Opening Ceremony with feelings mostly of ennui and yet by the end I felt quite differently. And though on this morning's front page The Times chooses to label the ceremony 'a damp squib', in the sports section its somewhat curmudgeonly headline concedes that 'Parisian perseverance in face of rain was a triumph all of its own'! I agree. It was a tour de force. And the fact that it rained only enhances the metaphor of human victory over natural adversity. I remember the positive atmosphere and excitement that prevailed in London in 2012. In truth it was a temporal oasis but the hope was there. We dust ourselves off and we go again. In the end, what other choice do we have? 

  
  

Keep The Faith

ERICLE


As always, please feel free comment on this or by writing to EricleLondon@gmail.com

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