A Winter Without Discontent

Sochi 2014 showcases a fantastic failure of nerve.

Never let it be said that sportsmen and their media counterparts are afraid to imbue sport with politics. On Saturday afternoon the stage was set as two titans of the world stage collided upon the ice rinks of the Bolshoy dome. BBC coverage bathed the television screens of Britain in white and red. Harsh, minimalist font marched before our eyes, with military precision, announcing the clash between the USA and Russia in the Men’s Hockey second round. Presenters reminded us of the lingering tensions between the pair. Athletes were dragged before the cameras, gushing about the animosity between the two camps as the game approached, often with a half-grin and a twinkle in the eye. Like so many proxy wars before it, this latest provided an opportunity for the two arch-foes to, while not exactly open the floodgates and unleash nuclear armageddon, at least punch each other a bit.

“How brave!”, we cried in the streets, after all was done, “How noble! Media outlets and athletic spokesmen truly have no fear. This critique and ridicule of Cold War political power-plays, right in the heart of one of the two superpowers involved, shows the spectacular courage of our sporting heroes!” We would have exclaimed, at any rate. If the Cold War hadn’t ended (Syria notwithstanding) 20 odd years ago. If there weren’t crimes against humanity being perpetrated in the towns and cities across Russia as these Winter Games play out. That seems to be all too much for the athletes and presenters delicate sensibilities, though. Much easier to make jollies about the Cold War, innit? Let’s stick our fingers in our ears and have a laugh.

Perhaps my hopes for these games were too high, my trust naively placed. America, Britain and every other equality-minded nation placing their best foot forward on the LGBT representation front; Germany’s positively fabulous, not-rainbow-flags-but-definitely-maybe-rainbow-flags, outfits; Clare Balding, our Queen, or Majesty, as lead games correspondent. Sochi would be a den of homosexuality before Putin could tear his shirt off and wrestle a bear in frustration. Oh, and then… nothing. No Black Power moment, the winners podium commanded so utterly by such a simple gesture of protest. No rainbow flag raised aloft alongside the flag of their country as a gold medallist streaked home to victory. For all the tsking and solidarity waffled on the airwaves before the beginning of these Olympics, how disgraceful that equal rights campaigners were beaten in the streets of Moscow, how awful that young, vulnerable gay boys and girls (for many are only children) are hunted across the internet by right-wing extremists, duped into the open and kidnapped, assaulted and forced to come out in humiliating videos, the reaction during the games themselves has been a stony silence. A closing of ranks. One athlete, when asked something bordering on an almost difficult question, replied that nobody in Russia wanted to know about their views on equality for gay people, so why bother protesting? An argument that, after several seconds of review, turns out to be as ludicrous as it is pathetic.

I can, on some intellectual level, understand the reluctance of athletes to politicise their sport. The urge to stick with the crowd, to not lift your head above the parapet, is one that we all feel, and in all honesty, speaking out is the difficult path to take. The same arguments of the separation of politics and sport were made during the Arab Spring uprisings, when the FIA decided to go ahead with the Formula 1 race in Bahrain in the 2011/2012 seasons, during and after that country’s brutal and unlawful suppression of a largely peaceful protest movement. I disagreed with the argument then, and I disagree with it now. Protestations of separation are irrelevant. Given the IOC’s decision to continue with the Sochi games after the signing into law of the gay propaganda bill, to paraphrase a future king of Gondor, “politics is upon you, whether you would wish it or not.” I do agree that we should be in Sochi, in our hundreds, in our thousands. The gays and lesbians, transgenders and transexuals of Russia must be shown they are not alone, and by seeing our athletes, gay and straight, side by side, friends and equals, they reaffirm in their minds that there is a different path, a better one: but simply being their is not enough. To go, and then say nothing, do nothing, reinforces a subtle homophobia. “Be gay, but don’t talk about it. Hide your differences behind the gleaming tracksuits of homogeneity. You belong in the shadows, in the dark underbelly of our culture, seen but not heard.” This is how a second-class of citizen is made.

Our athletes are in a unique position. They can make vocal, powerful protests against the Russian state’s homophobia without fear of any kind of reprisals. Putin will not spoil his moment to shine by coming after them. The gay athletes, and their straight friends and colleagues (it will take both for the message to be effective) must make a stand. If the press and government of Russia do not want to listen to them, then they must grab the stadiums and winner’s ceremonies by the collective scuff of the neck and make them listen. Would it be that Sochi 2014 was simply about Olympic flames and gold medals, but it is not. The failure to acknowledge this when they can, and must, is not just one for themselves and the Olympic ideal, but a failure of Russia and all her persecuted sons and daughters.