There
have been a lot of things said about the upcoming Olympics scheduled for Sochi,
Russia next year.
Because
of the current stance that the Russian government has been taking on the rights
of members of the LGBT communities there are a growing number of voices calling
for the Sochi Olympics to be moved or boycotted.
I
agree a message needs to be sent to the Russians about this.
But
can we send a message and how should it be sent is where the difficulty
arises. Many are calling for the
Olympics to be moved to another location, Vancouver being mentioned a lot of
the time, but there is a problem here.
Even though much of the infrastructure for the Olympics still exists in
Vancouver, I don’t know if there would be enough time available to make it
happen.
Hosting
an Olympic Games is a huge undertaking and takes years to set up and there are only
6 months until the scheduled start of the next Games. And then there would be the incredible
amount of jumping through hoops to get the Olympic Committee on side as
well. I just can’t see it happening.
The
other alternative is to boycott the Games.
I can’t support that.
We’ve
already seen Olympic boycotts and they really didn’t do a thing anyhow. The only ones who really lose in a boycott
are the athletes. Imagine training all
your life and at the peak of your career being told you can’t compete…
Then
a thought occurred to me, a simple thing, a simple message that we could send
to the people of Russia and their government.
A
visual protest.
One
of the images that has lasted from Olympics past is that of two athletes with
their heads bowed and a fist raised in a Black Power salute. Although these two had competed for the US
and had medalled, they still made their silent protest over the treatment of
Blacks in the US.
My
thought for the upcoming Games in Sochi is to provide any and all athletes who
want to wear them with rainbow coloured
mittens.
The
Rainbow Flag is well known throughout the world, there is little chance that
the message would not be understood.
Think
about it, what would the message of thousands of athletes, waving rainbow
mittened hands at the crowd as they enter the Olympic Stadium be? A very polite finger for Mr. Putin, I think.
Or
maybe three medalists, standing on the podium, waving their Rainbow Mitts at
the world?
Look,
I don’t want to step on any toes as I know there is a great deal of effort
being put into protesting the Sochi Olympics by some rather important
people. I’m just putting out an idea
that if their plans don’t work out, here’s a simple option.
It
would simply be a sign of support to our friends around the world who are part
of the LGBT community, especially those in Russia who probably could use it.
Now
if some enterprising athletes manage to sneak in a huge Rainbow Flag for the
Closing Ceremonies that would be something!
The
Olympics of Mexico City are remembered for those two raised fists, wouldn’t it
be ironic if the Sochi Olympics were remembered for open hands with rainbows on
them?
Cheers!
BC
