Olympic nationalism

[Exit Stage Left]

Ah, but chimneys are here today gone tomorrow, whereas a properly built wall...

The chimneys that have survived are now worth quite a lot as mobile phone masts. There's one round the corner from us.
It's one of the things that inspired my letter to the Guardian. At some point Boyle should have had riggers shinning up those chimneys to equip them for 4G, so we can update Facebook on the move.

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Tardy+Gate&hl=en&ll=53.726121,-2.695734&spn=0.004786,0.007735&sll=51.096623,3.735352&sspn=20.866388,31.68457&t=h&hnear=Tardy+Gate,+Lancashire,+United+Kingdom&z=17&layer=c&cbll=53.726121,-2.695734&panoid=udNWGRGEpR8VdnUk26hSgg&cbp=12,5.93,,1,-14.48

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

On that basis , ESL  ,I cheer on anyone with the shared  affliction of ginger hair.

My colleague's mother-in-law's cat has had four kittens and she's been able to find homes for 3 of them. The one left over is a ginger tabby. Would you like it? Poor ginger kitty, rejected by everyone. 

[Exit Stage Left]

On that basis , ESL  ,I cheer on anyone with the shared  affliction of ginger hair.

My colleague's mother-in-law's cat has had four kittens and she's been able to find homes for 3 of them. The one left over is a ginger tabby. Would you like it? Poor ginger kitty, rejected by everyone. 

My Dad had a Ginger Tom which was prone to bringing weasels home to 'play' with. Approach with caution.

[Paul]

A Woodcraft Folk Olympics would surely include spoon whittling, which would probably give YACF a couple of medallists.

I'd be up for the boundary management triathlon; fencing,walling and hedging.

I'd be up for the follow-up event: tearing down the boundaries.

I'd hope to medal in seizing the means of production too.

 

[mcshroom]

A Woodcraft Folk Olympics would surely include spoon whittling, which would probably give YACF a couple of medallists.

I'd be up for the boundary management triathlon; fencing,walling and hedging.

I thought the Woodcraft folk didn't like sword fighting

[Cudzoziemiec]

Makes more sense to me to support those from similar class backgrounds.

Why? What has class got to do with athletic ability or achievement? Surely the beauty of (most) sport is that it is class neutral; it depends mainly upon the ability, determination and application of the individual. We could no doubt go off on one about access, opportunity, international imbalances in funding etc, but those are not the fault or the responsibility of the competitors we're enjoying here and now. I acknowledge and celebrate the achievements and abilities of all the athletes - but I celebrate the British ones just a tad more!

For all the reasons you cite - access, opportunity etc - it actually has something to do with athletic achievement, whereas that other accident of birth (nationality) has none whatsoever.  So I hope your last clause came with a self-aware wink.

Doesn't matter, anyway.  While I may laugh at the surfeit of surnames in the equestrian events, the majority of athletes are likely to be proletarian anyway, and so my natural internationalism comes into play.

I've just heard that half of all GB's medal winners in 2008 were privately educated. So that might be true worldwide, but not in every case. Kind of ties in with your points of access, opportunity and support; and contradicts my thought that rich-country athletes were more likely to be working class and poor-country competitors rich!

[mcshroom]

Did they pay for that education though? Millfield School for example offer sports scholarships if you are good enough.

[geraldc]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19109724

No surprise that all of the equestrian team were privately educated, but with the exception of bussing horses into the inner cities what can you do about it?

[Bledlow]

... the whole concept of nation states in this postmodern blah instead. 

I'm looking forward to Microsoft v Apple in the Greco-Roman Wrestling...

Not the Pankration? 

[Bledlow]

competitors compete in national teams (can anyone take part as an individual?),

AFAIK only if they come from a country which isn't participating in the Olympics, or they're stateless. There are four unaffiliated athletes in the current Olympics, IIRC. It's a channel for letting athletes who meet the qualifying standards compete if there's no national organisation to enter via, not for athletes who wish to disassociate themselves from their national organisation. Though I suppose if you really want to disassociate yourself from nationalism you can renounce your citizenship.

[geraldc]

The Olympics can invite people. I think when Seb Coe didn't qualify in the latter stages of his career, the head of the IOC was planning on just inviting him to compete*

*this is from my recollection, I may have just dreamt it

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I'm no more proud of being British than I am of being female, straight, 5'6" or a Scorpio. I didn't achieve any of those things by my own efforts, it's just an accident of birth. I'm very proud of some things that Britain has achieved, I'm ashamed and disgusted by other things Britain has done, before my lifetime and during. But when it comes to international competition, why wouldn't I support my home country's competitors?

I don't understand this need to be so negative about supporting Britain. I bet other countries would laugh themselves sick at the angst some people seem to have about supporting our own competitors.

[Cudzoziemiec]

competitors compete in national teams (can anyone take part as an individual?),

AFAIK only if they come from a country which isn't participating in the Olympics, or they're stateless. There are four unaffiliated athletes in the current Olympics, IIRC. It's a channel for letting athletes who meet the qualifying standards compete if there's no national organisation to enter via, not for athletes who wish to disassociate themselves from their national organisation. Though I suppose if you really want to disassociate yourself from nationalism you can renounce your citizenship.

I'm fairly sure some countries don't permit anyone to renounce citizenship. Once in, you can't check out even if you leave. Like Hotel Ainrofilac.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

I believe Greece is one.

[RJ]

I'm no more proud of being British than I am of being female, straight, 5'6" or a Scorpio. I didn't achieve any of those things by my own efforts, it's just an accident of birth. I'm very proud of some things that Britain has achieved, I'm ashamed and disgusted by other things Britain has done, before my lifetime and during. But when it comes to international competition, why wouldn't I support my home country's competitors?

I don't understand this need to be so negative about supporting Britain. I bet other countries would laugh themselves sick at the angst some people seem to have about supporting our own competitors.

Spot on. 
(Even the Germans, after decades of post-war soul-searching and a reluctance to appear over-enthusiastic in support for their team(s), would find this odd).

[mattc]

You can always rely on Mozza for some positivity:
http://news.sky.com/story/969426/morrissey-olympic-spirit-like-nazi-germany

"I am unable to watch the Olympics due to the blustering jingoism that drenches the event. Has England ever been quite so foul with patriotism?"

Great stuff 

[Peter]

Interesting and (as far as I know) inaccurate use of the word "empirical"!  (Gareth may be able to shed light on this.)  Can this be the same fey youth who used to throw innocent daffodils to be trampled under the feet of an indiscriminate baying mob?!

He does have some points, though, especially about the branding thing and the fascistic power of the corporations over products and the very use of the words olympic, 2012 and London.

[AndyK]

I think Morrissey has seriously misjudged what the Olympics have achieved. The face of the olympics is a mixed-race woman, last Saturday the nation's heroes were (and still are) that mixed-race woman and a black ex-asylum-seeker migrant muslim man. The BNP/EDL/UKIP/Aidan Burleys etc. have been driven back into their holes by this celebration of a united multi-cultural Britain. I don't see any of that as 'nationalism' as Morrissey paints it. In fact it has been gratifying that politicians have been unable to 'claim' the London Olympics for themselves because the British people have claimed them first.

 Sadly in a couple of weeks the football season starts, and much of this will be forgotten.

[Peter]

Good points, Andy.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Morrissey's a knobber. He's always been a knobber and he probably always will be a knobber.

*not a Morrissey fan*

[nicknack]

Morrissey's a knobber. He's always been a knobber and he probably always will be a knobber.

*not a Morrissey fan*

Yup.

[spesh]

I think Morrissey has seriously misjudged what the Olympics have achieved. The face of the olympics is a mixed-race woman, last Saturday the nation's heroes were (and still are) that mixed-race woman and a black ex-asylum-seeker migrant muslim man. The BNP/EDL/UKIP/Aidan Burleys etc. have been driven back into their holes by this celebration of a united multi-cultural Britain. I don't see any of that as 'nationalism' as Morrissey paints it. In fact it has been gratifying that politicians have been unable to 'claim' the London Olympics for themselves because the British people have claimed them first.

 Sadly in a couple of weeks the football season starts, and much of this will be forgotten.

^ This. 

Morrissey's a knobber. He's always been a knobber and he probably always will be a knobber.

*not a Morrissey fan*

^ And this. 

[CAMRAMan]

I am pleased that we have done so well in so many different sports and proud that we have won so many medals. I'm afraid that rapidly diminishes as soon as the national anthem starts playing and "God Save the Queen" belts out. We desperately need a more inclusive anthem.

[David Martin]

I am quite happy that I can now fly a union flag without people thinking I am a BNP member or a football hooligan. Great to reclaim the flag.

[andrewc]

I think Morrissey has seriously misjudged what the Olympics have achieved. The face of the olympics is a mixed-race woman, last Saturday the nation's heroes were (and still are) that mixed-race woman and a black ex-asylum-seeker migrant muslim man. The BNP/EDL/UKIP/Aidan Burleys etc. have been driven back into their holes by this celebration of a united multi-cultural Britain. I don't see any of that as 'nationalism' as Morrissey paints it. In fact it has been gratifying that politicians have been unable to 'claim' the London Olympics for themselves because the British people have claimed them first.

 Sadly in a couple of weeks the football season starts, and much of this will be forgotten.

+1