Page 20 - Issue 64

Vol.1 Issue 64 ÉLITE

Medals and Mayhem: When Nationalism Takes Over

the Olympics

Salma Ahmed- second level- political science

The original vision of the Olympics, as However, over time it has become
articulated by Pierre de Coubertin and increasingly dominated by
the founders of the modern Games, was nationalist narratives, with
to create a competition that transcended countries competing to

borders and brought the world together outperform each other on the
through the unifying power of athletic medal tables to project an image
excellence. The Olympic Charter of national strength and assert

explicitly states that the Olympic their place in the global scene.
Movement is "to place sport at the This has created significant
service of the harmonious development barriers for stateless and refugee
of humankind, with a view to promoting athletes who find themselves
a peaceful society concerned with the excluded from representing any

preservation of human dignity." national team becoming an
unwelcome anomaly in this
nationalistic narrative. The

creation of the Refugee Olympic
Team in 2016 was an important
symbolic gesture to support
refugees and address in a non-

political way the bigger issue of
the refugee crisis in Europe.

July 2024, p.20