{"id":2574,"date":"2021-02-14T17:41:50","date_gmt":"2021-02-14T17:41:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/?p=2574"},"modified":"2021-02-14T17:41:52","modified_gmt":"2021-02-14T17:41:52","slug":"olympic-spirit-a-mockery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/2021\/02\/14\/olympic-spirit-a-mockery\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympic Spirit \u2013 A Mockery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (August 18th<\/sup>\u00a02020)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Mockery of de Coubertin\u2019s Olympic Ideals <\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For reasons detailed in previous articles St Louis\u2019 Olympic Games of 1904 was a racist disgrace before, during and, in South Africa\u2019s case, afterwards too. London\u2019s Olympic Games \u2013 the next \u2013 bore little comparison in that respect, but it tolerated a shameful exposition of racism that disgraced Olympic ideals.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A larger contingent of white competitors was sent by South Africa than they had four years earlier \u2013 the first since that country\u2019s race ban, which had been imposed by white British colonial racists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what about the Football Tournament? Despite its football history, South Africa did not send a team \u2013 even an all-white one. Perhaps, the fact that South Africa was not a member of FIFA yet told against them as well.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tournament was organised by the host\u2019s FA on behalf of FIFA. This may explain South Africa\u2019s absence from the Football Tournament in 1908. But the FA knew that South Africans had not only played in England but had done so for its (the English) FA. For example, a tour of Germany in 1899 involved a South African, Wilf Waller, playing for the English side.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why then, was it so hard to include South Africa in Olympic Games Football Tournaments, especially in 1912 \u2013 they had joined FIFA by then?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Responsibilities for the Race Question in Sport <\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Racism would rear its head and, in the case of South Africa\u2019s involvement in the Olympic Games before the Great War, the shameful racist doctrine that excluded all non-white competitors, was implemented by British colonial authorities of South Africa. The Boers had been schooled in the dark arts of racism by Britons abroad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even at its inception, racism had no place in the Modern Olympic Games\u2019 ideals \u2013 well that was the theory, but sadly not the practice. Remember the founder of the Modern Olympic Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, demolished the racist attitudes of the organisers of St Louis\u2019 Games.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Racism had no place in Olympic ideals \u2013 sadly, sexism did, and in football too. But the practice was vastly different from the ideals. South Africa\u2019s position in 1905, even if it was made by British colonial administrators, should not have been tolerated by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Disgraceful<\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Early days or not, the British organisers of the Olympic Games should have been instructed to denounce the treatment of Olympic athletes Len Taunyane and Jan Mashiane and insist that all athletes regardless of race are welcome. And the IOC should have supported the Tswana athletes. Neither batted an eyelid, let alone taking a stand, and nor did they support the Tswana Olympic veterans in any way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IOC should also have made it clear to South Africa that a contingent that discriminated on race grounds was not welcome and that an all-white party would result in no South Africans being allowed to compete at London\u2019s first Olympiad. The IOC failed that test miserably. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, the disgraceful race ban in South Africa\u2019s selection for the Olympic Games remained in force until South Africa was suspended from the IOC in 1964 and then expelled. Meanwhile, all-white South African competitors competed at several Olympic Games, utterly flouting the Olympic Spirit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When South Africa was readmitted to the Olympic Games in 1992 Apartheid had been conquered and the racist rule preventing non-white athletes participating for the country at the Olympic Games was consigned to the past. The legacy of that shameful past failure by the IOC and others to defend the Olympic Spirit in practice <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Historic<\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Len Taunyane and Jan Mashiane should be accorded an important place in Olympic Games history. Despite the reasons that they were originally in St Louis, they remain the first African athletes to complete a race in the Modern Olympic Games \u2013 their place in history is secure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the football was also historic but very strange as despite its membership of FIFA, which was not rescinded for almost six decades, South Africa never competed in a recognised international tournament until Apartheid had been overthrown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite that the first African to play in the FA Cup was not as many think, Bill Perry, in the famous Stanley Matthews final. It was nearly a century earlier. In fact, the Cape Town born Briton, William Rawson, won the FA Cup, refereed it and lost the final in the mid-1870s. He also played for England.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were others. Alex Bell came from South Africa and played for Scotland. There was a tour of Basotho players in 1899 organised by the Orange Free State FA. They were black players from what is now Lesotho. And there were more after the turn of the century. Wilf Waller played for Tottenham Hotspur and Southampton among others. He was the first South African to play in England\u2019s football leagues \u2013 for Bolton Wanderers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this context, the failure of South Africa to play in any international tournament is odd \u2013 it was way before football took a stand against racism. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (August 18th\u00a02020)\u00a0 A Mockery of de Coubertin\u2019s Olympic Ideals   For reasons detailed in previous articles St Louis\u2019 Olympic Games of 1904 was a [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2574"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2574"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2575,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2574\/revisions\/2575"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}