Politicking in Sports in the Beijing Olympics

Left of What’s Right
By Marlan Padayachee
Marlan Padayachee is a freelance journalist and a media communications strategist and he writes in his personal capacity.
Politics is not new to sports.
South Africa is one of the most spectacular examples of politicking in sports.
Chief anti-apartheid sports antagonist Sam Ramsamy, formerly of Magazine Barracks and Asherville, will not be sitting among the VIPs with his East German Olympic athlete wife, Helga, if he had not made a substantial investment to ensure that all South Africans will participate in the Olympic Games and the IOC Congress.
Forced into self-exile in London in the 1960s, having hurriedly quit his physical education teaching job at Springfield College and head coach at Aces United FC at Currie’s Fountain, Ramsamy was persecuted by apartheid agents abroad. His home in Chingford was bombed and his job as headmaster at a school was affected because SA’s Enemy Number One was embarrassing the Afrikaner rulers with his curved ball activities.
Painstakingly and meticulously, with the home base support of Morgan Naidoo, MN Pather, RD Naidu, Hassan Howa, Rama Reddy, Shun David, Cassim Bassa, Lambie Rasool, Reggie Feldman, Reverend Sigamoney, Rathansamy and many other activist-leaders, this pint-sized personality plucked each and every national sporting code, one by one, from the IOC organogram.
Blackballed For Sporting Prowess
The old country drew first blood, with Prime Minister John Vorster banning the English cricket team’s tour of SA. Reason? The MCC featured outcast coloured cricketer Basil d’Oliveira. Others fled with their talents, like weightlifter Ron Eland, who won a bronze medal for the UK, while his compatriots Johnny Geduldt and Precious McKenzie refused to lift for SA at the Olympics. In protest, Shun David refused to throw a dart for the SA team in world tournament. The Olympic flame of tennis aces Jasmit Dhiraj and Herman Abrahams was snuffed out. Golf maestro Papwa Sewgolum was denied a passport during the height of his prowess on the greens from the Dutch Open to St Andrews. He embarrassed apartheid sport by outflanking Gary Player and fetched the Natal Open trophy in driving rain. Player enjoyed an inside track of politics by playing golf with Vorster.
All fired up, Ramsamy, operating from a tiny office in the basement of the Portman Court in London, owned by activist Chris de Broglio, and with the support of Isaiah Stein, whose sons graced British football fields, and exiled intellectual giant Dennis Brutus, plotted SA’s downfall from world sports. Brave stalwart Peter Hain punctured Springbok rugby with his famous “Don’t Scrum with a Racist Bum” protests from Twickenham to Auckland.
Only a thesis can do justice to how SA played politics in sports and how the anti-apartheid lobbies used politics to blackball the vierkleur flag from flying internationally.
Now, they have since kiss and made up. Ramsamy sits in the IOC boardroom. A likely sports minister in the ANC government, he butted heads with hardliners at home during the reshaping of SA’s Olympic preparations.
With the medals drought in Beijing, our athletes could have benefited from his wise counseling, mentorship and coaching expertise, but all we have is a silver lining. Handicapped and high-spirited, swimmer Natalie du Toit has saved the nation’s proud face. Yet our able-bodied athletes are crying foul about a lack of money and administrative infighting and our brand ambassadors are spending millions showcasing 2010 at a five-star uptown hotel?
Jamaica, a poor Third World nation whose economy and gross domestic product is outstripped by a million times by the economy of Sandton Square, puts its best foot forward and scoops gold and silver medals.
Sports and politics go hand in hand, just like the baton-charged relay race. Naturally, the Tiananmen Square student rebellion will haunt China in its glory hour before worldwide TV exposure. The Dalai Lama and the Tibetan monks will not fold their arms and die piously.
High Tea and Spirits But No Free Cuppa
Outside the five rings of action and drama, freelance writer Francisco Little learnt the old adage the new way - there’s no such thing as a free cuppa or lunch in forex-flooded Beijing despite the Olympic spirit. Two young Chinese women volunteers, acting as his de facto tour guide, showed him around from Chairman Mao’s portrait to the cacophony of the side streets until they couldn’t take the heat and lured him into a government teashop.
“Tea is refreshing and good for removing body heat,” they giggled into his foreign ears. Several rounds of home-brewed cuppa in tiny cups and take-home tea jars of the exotic variety, our man received his bill, little over R3 000 or 3 000 yuan. With no bargaining power and the hostess screeching like a Peking duck with two heavies at the door, there was little choice, but to pay his own bill and give his little helpers some just deserts for taking him on a rickshaw ride.
Gold medals to worldwide website search engine Google for glossing its double-O’s with Olympic icons to keep the surfer’s spirits up. A peep into Googleland reveals that staff are feted, fed and fascinated by the best office environment on the planet.
Until next week when I hope to dissect why Indians are becoming chilly under the rainbow, remember what the Chinese say: “Be careful what you wish for.”