42: The Ultimate Answer to Sports, The Olympics and Everything. Or is it?

The 2016 Olympic Games kick off this Saturday, the 6^th of August, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. They will showcase 42 different sports with athletes from around the world competing for the ultimate prestige in sport since antiquity. But is it really? For the past couple of decades, the choice of sports which are considered “Olympic” has been a matter of debate, notably characterized in this iteration of the modern games by the inclusion of golf and rugby sevens. Interestingly, there seems to be some debate within the Olympics as to exactly how the sports are categorized. The official Rio website announces 42, but only shows icons for 39, and this article from The Economist states that there will be 28 sports represented.

Spirit of the Olympics

The Olympic Games should represent the height of achievement of athletic performance and sportsmanship. Yet this has been marred by the withdrawal of several high profile athletes, mostly notably from highly commercial sports, such as golf and basketball, who have declined to participate for various reasons. Among these, injuries, health concerns and scheduling conflicts have all been cited.

Regardless of the reason, an athlete not attending, especially at this level, undermines the spirit of the games. For most who spend almost half a decade in preparation for the Olympics, voluntarily withdrawing at the eleventh hour can often spell career suicide. In a career more vulnerable to fluctuations in performance and injuries than most, declining to go to the games at the peak of one’s performance is a hard decision, and one most athletes cannot choose – or afford – to take lightly.

For celebrity-athletes who have little to risk by not going to the games, this is clearly unfair for those who dream of Olympic success. It is unfair both for the athletes and the sports they represent. Yet at the same time, one cannot reasonably expect to force athletes to participate, least of all when they don’t want to or their participation jeopardizes other career commitments.

Olympics for everybody

The question one should ask is: if the Olympic spirit is to be preserved, is it fair to cater to sports where athletes have multiple other platforms on which to showcase their talents? Is it right to include sports where winning an Olympic medal ultimately amounts to little more than another trophy on a shelf?

In the past twenty or thirty years, the Olympics have fought hard, and successfully, to stay relevant. The introduction of sports such as tennis, to appeal to a more mainstream audience, and BMX, in appealing to a growing generation of younger athletes and supporters, were both aimed at helping modernize the games. The 2020 games are set to be the “youngest” games ever, with space being made for sports such as skateboarding, surfing and climbing. At the same time, the games retain their tradition – the initial announcement of the exclusion of wrestling from this year’s games was met with such a backlash that it was quickly reinstated.

Limits of Expansion

The games cannot grow indefinitely, though, and this raises the question of which sports to leave by the wayside. The central pillars of athletics, swimming, gymnastics and the like are all but certain to remain secure, as well as many of the smaller yet popular sports with ardent followings. It is rather the big commercial sports that pose more of a conundrum. They were brought in to appeal to a broader audience and to give the Olympics more traction, but for sports that have multiple other outlets to promote themselves, coupled with a general complacency from their athletes to attend, the question has to be asked if their inclusion doesn’t dilute the impact of the games overall. Golf, whose has seen its reintroduction to the games for the first time in 104 years has already been cited to have its status reviewed for the 2020 games. Tennis, by comparison, with its relatively recent introduction in 1988, has continued to grow in popularity, with the games now being considered a “Fifth major”. When adopted so heartily by fans and players alike, one can only admire the contribution it now makes to the Olympics.

Two weeks ago saw the withdrawal of Mark Cavendish from the Tour de France in order for him to better concentrate on preparing for Rio. An Olympic medal is a feather missing from the world champion’s cap and one he is hoping to earn in 2016, after missing out in both in 2008 and 2012. That’s the kind of sacrifice that strengthens the Olympics’ reputation as a sacred sporting event: one where an athlete abandons one of the most iconic events of the sporting calendar in order to prepare for another, equally iconic event, and one which only rolls around every four years.

The fact remains, almost every modern Olympics has its nay-sayers and detractors leading up to it, and these games are no different. There will still be feats of athleticism to be witnessed, records to be broken, and heroes to be crowned. With an estimated three billion people (that’s billion, with a “B”) tuning in for the opening ceremony, the Olympics brings our focus onto a select group of individuals in ways that few other events do. And as long as there are people to support it and enjoy it, that is what will keep the games alive.

Photo credit : Gabriel Nascimento via www.rio2016.com

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