Written by For too long now governments and some of sport’s international governing bodies have been using elite athletes for their own purposes rather than supporting, protecting, and paying them their dues. I imagine, therefore, Pierre de Coubertin will be smiling down on aquatics after hearing that the world’s best swimmers are establishing an independent swimmer’s alliance. The formal launch of this not-for-profit organisation was the 8th June 2021 with its declared main objectives stated as: promoting all swimmers and the sport, improving relations with governing bodies and event organisers and improving the economic conditions of all swimmers. The need for athletes to hold governing bodies and sports institutions, as well as governments, to account is long overdue.
In September 2016, directly after the Rio Olympic Games, Olympic Committee President Carlos Nuzman was remanded in custody and held on suspicion of being involved in a vote-buying scheme. They are not, however, the only major regulatory body to be accused of internal corruption. The governing body for football, FIFA, are under investigation for financial irregularities. Likewise, FINA, the international governing body for swimming have been accused of developing ‘a preference for spending millions on the lavish lifestyles of their ageing executives instead of competitors struggling to make ends meet’ (The Australian, 2021).
Governments also have a very poor track record in protecting sport, its coaches and its athletes from immoral acts. In recent history, whilst Germany was hosting the 1936 Olympic Games, Jewish people were being herded into concentration camps. Adolf Hitler was infamous for using this sporting event to prove the superiority of the Aryan race. He must have been horrified when the American, Jesse Owens, won no less than four gold medals. Hitler, like many other distorted minds that still pervade society, hated black people as much as he hated Jewish people. However, he only fooled the world for a time and the rest is history – human decency triumphed.
It wasn’t long, however, before a new tyrannical band of politicians followed in Hitler’s tracks. In the 1960s the East German totalitarian government, renowned for putting state above people, used illegal drugs on its unwitting athletes in pursuit of gold and glory. This systematic state sponsored doping used by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) wrecked the lives of numerous athletes when they used testosterone and anabolic steroids to fake their national superiority. Unfortunately for them they documented their crimes in great detail and the truth finally emerged. The East German ski-jumper Hans Aschenbach reported that drugs were being used on children as young as 14 and that every Olympic Gold Medal created 350 invalids.
In addition to the physical damage the GDR inflicted on its own athletes, numerous Olympians from other nations were cheated out of their dreams. The mental stress on athletes, caused by this corrupt government, reached far and wide. A second totalitarian communist government, the People’s Republic of China, apparently carried on where the GDR left off. The former Chinese Olympic team doctor, Xue Yinxian, alleged that China was involved in the state-sponsored doping of 10,000 athletes from the late 1980s onwards. With Russia now one of the latest governments to be found guilty of state sponsored doping it is evident that the problem is far from over.
It would be dangerous to assume that only totalitarian governments are the ones to use major sporting events for political purposes. A recent example was the boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games by the US government when they decided to stop their athletes from attending the event. This was alleged to be over Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan. Serious attempts by the British Government to support the USA, and convince their athletes not to take part, failed – but it was not for the want of trying. The Russian Government, of course, retaliated and implemented a boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games to even the score.
When national sports organisations are directly funded and, therefore, controlled by their government there is always the chance of sport being used for political purposes. Where governing bodies are closed to democratic elections there is always the possibility of its officers using membership funds for gaining power or enjoying millionaires’ lifestyles. In essence their illicit gains are at the expense of the elite athletes who, not only attract the paying customers but also complete the work necessary to create the spectacles they enjoy watching – a unique customer-supplier relationship.
When governments fund bureaucratic sporting institutions in an attempt to gain success in elite sport the potential for cheating is ever present. As soon as money is linked to gold medals and bureaucrats are held accountable for them then cheating or bending of the rules becomes inevitable. A doctor might encourage an unwitting athlete to take stronger prescribed Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) drugs to enhance performance. Sports coaches may be tempted to experiment with illegal substances and so on. It takes little thought to see the dangers. Any government with a moral sense of duty would see this and confine its financial support to grass roots sport and provide the facilities needed to benefit all athletes – not just the elite performers. In the true spirit of the Olympic movement elite sport should be about individual athletes and not nations.
If athletes can insist on fair and democratic elections for officers within their governing bodies and hold them accountable for their stewardship, sport may be the ultimate winner. Governments should focus on the health benefits and not those associated with marketing. It was Pierre de Coubertin who witnessed how sport enhanced the life for the individual when he visited Rugby School and the Much Wenlock Games in 1883. His vision of the Olympic Games was to have the best athletes competing for medals and not nations trying to outdo each other on the world stage.
It is time for a rethink on sports administration and disconnect governments from any control, at least from the elite level. The focus of spectators should be on elite athletes and not elite nations trying to prove their system is superior. Elite athletes should be in a position to hold governing bodies to account and be represented by people they select. The bulk of money accrued from major sporting events should go the athletes that have earned it and not to corrupt officers. Let us hope that the world’s elite athletes can restore the image of sport for the benefit of all.