By all accounts, the Chinese Olympic games were full of excellent performances by many athletes, and the performance venues themselves received generally rave reviews.
But there was much more Olympic drama than usual. There were poignant performance failures, more evidence of performance enhancing drug-based cheating by the Russians, and dozens of foreign-born athletes of Chinese descent abandoning their countries of birth to represent China. The athletes themselves were subdued and intimidated by the oppressive Chinese system that kept them isolated and afraid to speak their minds.
Moreover, the entire Olympic games have played out as Russia has steadily amassed an overwhelming military force at the border of Ukraine, and as soon as the Olympic torch was ceremoniously passed to the Italians in preparation for the next Winter Olympics, the Chinese immediately pledged their support in principle for Russian aggression.
The spirit of the Olympics has been degraded by these Olympics, if not broken.
Although it is still likely that the Olympics scheduled for Paris in 2024, Milan and Cortina in 2026, and Los Angeles in 2028 will be held, it is no longer a certainty. The sports world, and the world in general, is entering into unsettled times.
These Olympics feel too much like a repeat of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, which was intended by the Germans to display the superiority of the white German race. Three years later, Germany invaded Poland and World War II began.
To a significant extent, the Chinese Olympics feels like a display of the supposed superiority of the Chinese totalitarian system and a rejection of the established world order that has allowed the entire world to prosper.
When both Russia and China exhibit nationalistic behavior that includes the stated willingness and intention to invade sovereign nations, how does the spirit of the Olympics survive?
When athletes become an extension of the State instead of an expression of love of sport, how does the spirit of the Olympics survive?
When the competition of sport becomes an extension of the competition of ways of life and thought, how does the spirit of the Olympics survive?