I am looking forward to watching this year’s Olympics, in France. I will make a sort of a wish list with the sports I want to watch, if they are available and if I have the time, as I am quite busy for the next 3 weeks. In addition to talking about sports, I will also talk about athletes which I think should be mentioned. As I mentioned here, I boycotted the Olympics in China in 2022, due to their genocide of the Uyghur Muslims. So, having an Olympics in France is fantastic and I am excited about it.
First of all, the sports. I want to watch these sports:
As a Romanian, gymnastics at the Olympics was a big thing when I was a child and I still enjoy watching it. That includes both Artistic gymnastics and Rhythmic gymnastics. Breaking is a new sport and I wouldn’t want to miss it.
I like Archery a lot and I would have played at university if their schedule would have been less crazy, as in 3h starting from 6am! I did Shooting, so I would like to see it at the Olympics very much. Oxford is well know for Rowing, so it is on my list of sports I want to see.
Fencing is another sport I love, the grace, the beauty, it’s wonderful to see. I would have tried this one too at university, but the schedule was not compatible with mine, so I skipped it. To keep up the medieval-vibe of most of my choices, Equestrian, is the last one. I love dressage. It is quite disheartening what happened with Charlotte Dujardin, see here.
Now, for the slight crazy thing, I hate to do any form of Cycling, but I like watching it. So, I will watch some, maybe medal events. The same with Diving. It’s not a sport I would ever try but it looks interesting to watch.
Also, If I have time to watch anything else for a few minutes, I will.
For all these sports there is a caveat. I will boycott any event which has a russian or a belarusian athlete competing. Some of them are permitted in under “neutral” flag even though… No flag means no honour! Besides, there is no neutrality, as some of them are affiliated with the russian military and all are used for propaganda by the russian regime. Even more, some of them are actively supporting russia’s war in Ukraine. Some of these “neutral” athletes, a small selection, as there are many others who did similar things:
– alexei korovashkov (Canoeing) is a russian army officer
– alan ostaev and magomed murtazaliev (Wrestling, both) participated in a pro-war propaganda tournament
– darya chuprys (Shooting) is a member of the Armed Forces of belarus (still was in 2023), and took pics with military personnel
– angela bladtseva (Trampoline) competed with the z-sign on her back and a military slogan. She was at a pro-war event last year.
Furthermore, russia planed to attack France during the games, using a russian who lived in France for ~14 years.
I can’t do much, I can boycott events in which russian athletes are competing. Why? Because through their support of russia they are promoting and whitewashing their country’s crimes. 487 Ukrainian athletes had been killed by russia since February 2022! But the war didn’t start in 2022, it started in 2014. On 23 July 2014 Stepan Chubenko, a 16-year-old goalkeeper of the football youth team of Kramatorsk, was detained in Donetsk because he had a blue & yellow ribbon on his backpack. The young man was tortured for several days, before being killed. You can see his picture below.
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All these are athletes killed by the russians. I only shared these details because I think it is important to know the situation and each can decide if they want to watch a sport or not, depending both on how interesting the sport is and who is competing for the medal.
I can see why you are boycotting the Russian athletic events. I will be watching gymnastics, rowing, maybe track and cycling.
Not that I was planning on watching any of the Olympics (not a fan) but I agree with you 100% on boycotting events featuring Russian and Belarusian competitors. There’s no such thing as a neutral flag and permitting them to attend is whitewashing. I smell bribery of the IOC. Also agree about Charlotte Dujardin, that’s very sad.
I’m very glad that you agree. IOC’s boss, Thomas Bach, had (maybe still has) a close relation with putin. It was reported in 2016 in The Guardian and usatoday. Those articles were about russia’s doping scandal. Bribery can be a strong possibility, considering the FIFA scandal with Qatar and russia, from 2015. It’s unfair for the other countries and competitors.
I don’t normally watch any of the televised Olympic events, but enjoy the highlights they share on the nightly news. I believe the network we normally watch (NBC) is the one televising it in the US.
I like watching because of the diversity of sports. I would never try most of them, but they look fun on TV.
Ours news had an interesting feature last night on two Ukrainian athletes: a female high-jumper and a male martial artist. I hope they follow up with the report letting us know how they do in the games.
I saw a feature on 2 twins who are doing synchronized swimming. I am in awe of that sport, it is so difficult. They went back to Kharkiv to train, where the air alert sirens can go on for days (50h, a 10-15 min break, and back again) because the city is so close to the russian border. The stories are heartbreaking.