Olympiad

Just once I would like to see an athlete tell a journalist to fuck off, at these Summer Games of the 31st Olympiad of the Modern Era currently being held in Rio de Janeiro.

Why should they be expected to immediately give a track side interview, even before they have caught their breath after crossing the line. As far as I am concerned their achievements are individual achievements and they don't owe us anything in respect of them.

I want to see an athlete decline the offer of a microphone, saying perhaps "I'll speak to you in half an hour" or "I might have some time tomorrow," all perfectly reasonable responses after having breasted the tape at the culmination of a race that didn't just start with the discharge of a pistol at the blocks under the gaze of the world's cameras, but years earlier in moments of doubt and lonely determination. Their victory answers a question asked by them alone long before we even knew their name. I am content if they should never want to discuss it.

The demand by the media for their immediate attention is just prurient, reducing their achievement to a performance for our entertainment.  

I appreciate that athletes benefit from support from the country they represent. Facilities are funded, coaches and doctors are hired to gain incremental improvements, and fans cheer and wave flags to provide encouragement on the big day. But I do not consider that these athletes owe me a thing in return for that. If they possess what I lack, the talent and the temperament to win, then I am satisfied simply with their success, and it is my privilege, not theirs, when I witness their achievements. I don't need to share in their achievement, it is an honour even to have contributed to it in some tiny way.

An agenda is promoted by the media at these events, a jingoistic narrative in which success indicates superiority. But I say tear down the medal table. Remove the flags. Don't keep scores that teach us nothing of importance. Celebrate the individual human achievement. The urge to excel does not require this gaudy excess.

Competing is about doing the best that we can, while accepting our flaws. It is about testing the limits of what it means to be human, about achieving self-knowledge through struggle and supreme effort, not trophies and accolades and medal tables. Athletes ennoble us all with their accomplishments. When they show us what humans are capable of they elevate everyone. Demanding they offer these accomplishments up at the altar of the media, performing obsequies for the entertainment of the TV audience, only cheapens them and us. We don't need to be told. We saw. We know.

My favourite moment of the Games so far was after Andy Murray's victory in the men's singles tennis. Not the fact of it, or the instant it was in the bag when Del Potro netted his backhand. Not that correction of a journalistic gaffe at the press conference afterwards that garnered so much attention. It was the greeting and consolation of his opponent at the net immediately afterwards that epitomised for me the nature of his, and by extension every other athlete's, achievement.

Two men had tested each other thoroughly over a gruelling four hour period, but in the end only one could win, and when that happened, the victor consoled his defeated opponent and both men were united in a knowledge they had unlocked in each other through their efforts, a revelation reserved for them alone, of which no amount of media scrutiny, no interview, no dutiful standing to attention and clutching of hand on heart as a flag is raised and some national dirge is played once more, can grant even the most meagre share to his compatriots.

Their solitude in that moment was a perfect contrast to the spotlight that tried and failed to intrude upon it.

To be proud of one athlete is to be proud of all, no matter where they are from. We are present and we bear witness. That is enough.