• Politics, victim mentality and woke culture have ruined sportsmanship
Image: TEAM KENYA /X
I remember a time when the Olympics would bring families together. A long time ago, there was one main TV screen in the home and we were forced to watch what was aired on national channels. We had to sit through several weeks of these foreign games in a foreign land. All we cared about was that our regular programmes were interrupted.
However, something magical happened. That feeling of pride and patriotism watching the Kenyan athletes crush other athletes from other countries during ‘our games’ was magical. Our games have always been the marathons and long distance runs, including steeplechase. Watching the Kenyans take gold and the flag being hoisted to the sound of our national anthem in a faraway land was a wave of pride like no other.
The opening and closing ceremonies were exciting as we waited to see A-list celebrities we knew performing at these events. It was all round fun for the whole family, good-spirited competition and a taste of culture from the host countries. Well… if the 2024 Paris Olympics has taught us anything, it is that the good ol’ days are dead and buried.
The Olympic games are now a hotbed of political infiltration. A podium of woke activists to propagate their agendas and the games themselves are composed of shallow, unspirited, whiny athletes (and their teams) who cry foul or commit fouls and cry innocence. It’s just a mess.
The athletes are vloggers, focusing more on their Internet personas than the games that took them there. The host citizens threaten to take a dump in the river. Insecurity in the host country is at an all-time high, causing athletes to be robbed in broad daylight. Men are competing with women and women are crying foul that other women are stronger and faster.
One would think that the mess that was the opening ceremony with live televised genitalia was bad enough, but every day something new and worse pops up. At this rate, the Olympics are not about the games anymore. Everything but the actual games make news headlines; the athletes who didn't compete, the disgruntled coach, people and what their chromosomes are, bedbugs, bad food and even chocolate muffins are more viral stories than the results of the games.
I haven’t watched a single game, yet I haven't missed a single headliner. Every morning as I open social media, something about the Olympics is trending. I have seen snippets of all worthwhile stories, watched disgruntled athletes rant on social media, act petty when they win, complain when they lose, cameramen picking fights with athletes and people quitting. And I have, of course, had second-hand embarrassment at the Zimbabwe story, where scores of officials reportedly accompanied a meagre seven-athlete Olympics team to Paris.
As I write this, Beatrice Chebet has won Kenya its first gold medal at the 5000 meters. A piece of the old pride and nationalism washes over me. The world has changed and the people along with it. The Olympics are no longer as fun to watch as they were 20 years ago (I can’t believe I sound like a disgruntled older generation), but there is one thing that will always stay the same: the feeling of pride seeing our flag fly higher than the rest.