Once again life at
the Olympic games have been totally dominated by events in Sochi's Black Sea
neighbour Ukraine. This should come as no great surprise because the US'
primary objective for these games has been to be seen to ruin Russia's party as
punishment for their support for the Syrian government.
The most obvious
impact of the Ukraine crisis on the games has been the withdrawal of Ukrainian
skier Bogdana Matsotska. As seems to be the standard form much of the western
media have wrongly been describing Ms Matsotska's withdrawal as a protest
against against the violence in her native country. However if you actually
read the statement of the alpine skier who finished 27th in the Super G event
and 47th in the Giant Slalom it's clear that her feelings are much stronger. In
her statement Ms Matsotska speaks of her desire to show "solidarity with
the fighters on the barricades" in order to "protest the criminal
acts of Ukraine's [Russian] lackey government." As such I think the nicest
thing I can say about Ms Matsotska's decision to withdraw from the games is
that is really highlights the fact that no-one who has the vaguest idea of what
is going on in Ukraine is talking in terms of peaceful protesters being
oppressed by an authoritarian government. Instead they are talking about a
country in which ethnic and sectarian divisions are putting the nation on the
brink of civil war and genocide just as we saw in Yugoslavia in
1991 and in Syria back in 2011.
With Ukraine being
the overwhelming issue dominating the games the Russian hosts have been forced
to contribute to the discussion. Last night Kate Hansen - the Team USA Luger
who is famous for warming up by dancing to Beyonce songs - peeked out of her
bedroom door and spotted one of Sochi's infamous 'stray' dogs wandering the
halls of the hotel. Ms Hansen helpfully filmed this incident on her mobile
phone and uploaded the video to the Internet. Now I doubt this dog itself is
exactly sure what breed it is but in the early hours of the morning it could
easily have been mistaken for a Grey Wolf. "The Grey Wolves" was a
nickname given to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UIA) when they were at their
genocidal peak cleansing Ukraine of ethnic Poles at the end of the Second World
War. Such was the problem presented by the UIA that at the conference between
Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt that was held in the resort town of Yalta on
the Black Sea island of Crimea in 1945 it was decided that the only way to
resolve the situation was to move Ukraine and Poland roughly 30 miles (48km) to
the west. As such it seems odd that the current Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk
has been such a vocal supporter of the Ukrainian opposition especially with the
worst of the violence outside of the capital centring on attempts to block the
main Ukraine/Poland highway near the city of Lviv.
This dog trick also
serves to highlight exactly how the US was intending to pile pressure on Russia
by triggering a wave of spontaneous, unilateral protests under the Principle 6/1.2.6
campaign on gay rights. Although out and out cheating is distinctly frowned
upon the Olympics are hugely competitive with many nations employing teams of
psychologists both to help their athletes mentally prepare and to devise ways
to knock competitors off balance psychologically speaking. This dog stunt is
exactly the sort of thing that has been used in the past and while Russia was
careful to choose an athlete who had already finished competing if Ms Hansen
had gone on to screw up in her event you can guarantee that the US and Russia
would be arguing about this actual dog for years to come. Vladimir Luxuria's
gay rights 'protest' outside the women's Ice Hockey event on Monday (17/2/14) could also
have been used as a cover for this type of psychological gamesmanship. As such
if the Russian hosts were being forced to deal with several incidents of this
type each day they would have quickly become overstretched having to deal with
p*ssed off national delegations. That of course was the US' true intention
behind the Principle 6/1.2.6 campaign.
The devestating impact that these type of mind games can have on competitors was perfectly highlighted by the misfortune that befell Russian figure skating prodigy Yulia Lipnitskaya who fell during both of her routines today destroying her medal chances. If you've not heard of Lipnitskaya she has been one of the stories of the Sochi games because despite only being old enough to compete in the games by one week this 15 year old skates with the passion and experience of a much older woman and was widely expected to medal with her routine performing to the theme from the film "Schindler's List." Obviously Lipnitskaya's age and her decision to perform to music so closely associated with the Nazi Holocaust feeds in the that long running Olympic debate about the age of sexual consent and this years debate about how far is too far? Therefore I, and a lot of people, were looking forward to seeing how the International Olympic Committee (IOC) judges would respond to Lipnitskaya's performance.
Mind you the fact that even after the Principle 6/1.2.6 campaign, the nonsense by former members of the band Pussy Riot and now the death toll in Ukraine the fact that Team USA have not been expelled from the games for gross unsportsmanlike behaviour tells you probably all who need to know about the IOC's position on the "How far is too far?" question.
I understand that for traditional sports fans the obvious artistic/political themes of figure skating might be hard to get their heads around but they are actually central to the sport. While I don't want to detract from the immense athleticism and stamina of figure skaters it is an event that is as much about artistic expression and performance then out and out physical fitness. For example skaters are awarded one set of points for the way they perform technical tasks such as jumps and spins and then another set of points for the artistic vision of their routine and how well they express it through their choice of music, costume and manoeuvres. As such I thought this would be the perfect sport for performers like Rihanna to take an interest in. After all while it would have been advisable for Rihanna to keep a low profile during the games the silent treatment always causes her problems. Plus I think there is space within the Olympic movement for Rihanna to have a little natter about sports like figure skating with her 30million+ Internet fans.
Elsewhere at the games it has been women's Ice Hockey finals day. Although I didn't get the opportunity to watch it I gather that in the Bronze medal match Sweden went 2-0 up before being pegged back to 2-2 by Switzerland who went on to win 3-2. In the gold medal match the USA went 2-0 up into the third period before throwing it away with Canada levelling it at 2-2 with just 54 seconds left on the clock. Canada went on to win with a golden goal in Over Time. That means provisionally Canada take gold, the USA take silver and Switzerland take bronze. However I now expect that either Switzerland, Sweden or the IOC themselves will move to have the USA disqualified because not only did they field 7 rather then the regulation 6 players in the final but they've actually been fielding an ineligible player throughout the tournament.
Also today medals were awarded in the women's Curling with Britain taking bronze. However as recent experiments have demonstrated not even the use of mind altering drugs and the added risk of serious bodily harm can make Curling interesting.
20:45 on 20/2/14 (UK date).
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