NILS VON KALM argues that the Olympics, at their best, are a reflection of a “renewed creation”, the embodiment of what is possible when we live for something beyond ourselves…
The Olympic Games seem to be the one event in the world where nations come together for a short time to celebrate a common cause – the cause of sport.
For us in Australia, it is that time once every four years when we get blanket media coverage of every event that contains an Aussie, and when many of us turn up to work bleary-eyed having been up in the wee hours watching our heroes do their thing for their country.
Sport is part of the fabric of this country. It has been since Don Bradman and Phar Lap brought such hope into the hopelessness of Australians battling through the Depression years of the 1930s. We have watched through tear-stained eyes as Australia took the America’s Cup off the Americans in 1983 after 132 years, when Cathy Freeman won gold in Sydney in 2000, and we celebrated for days after John Aloisi put Australia into the 2006 soccer World Cup after years of disappointment. We pretty much punch above our weight when it comes to our sporting achievements in this country.
OLYMPIC FIRST: The first ever Refugee Olympic Team, which Nils von Kalm describes as a “simply wonderful addition” to the Games, meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon prior to the Games. PICTURE: UN Photo/Mark Garten
“The idea that participation is open to anyone is a wonderful analogy for the kingdom of God. Jesus talks in Luke’s Gospel of the great banquet to which everyone is invited, regardless of status.”
But we are, of course, not the only nation who loves our sport. In South America, soccer is almost a religion. It is not much different in England, where the mood of supporters is reflected in the weekly fortunes of their favourite club. The seriousness with which they take their football was epitomised by former Liverpool manager, Bill Shankly, who once famously remarked, “Football isn’t a matter of life and death; it’s much more important than that!”
Sport has an amazing capacity to bring the world together, and the Olympics, of all global sporting events, are perhaps the best example of this. For two weeks every four years, most of the world watches as occasionally, nations which have been at war with each other are able to come together in a sporting contest and display a spirit of friendship which puts their political leaders to shame.
And this year in Rio we have the simply wonderful addition of a team made up entirely of refugees. Such a concept moves my heart. It is what the Olympics are all about. I am sure the father of the modern Olympics, Pierre de Coubertin, would be proud.
Unfortunately, the professionalisation of sport has taken some of the soul out of it over the years. But in communities all over the world, children can be seen playing soccer out of a ball made of the most basic materials. In India millions of children play cricket in the laneways and byways of that vast land. And events such as the Paralympics demonstrate that anyone of whatever ability can participate.
The idea that participation is open to anyone is a wonderful analogy for the kingdom of God. Jesus talks in Luke’s Gospel of the great banquet to which everyone is invited, regardless of status.
Similarly, sport should be a celebration. This can be seen in places like Senegal where they celebrate the end of harvest season by having wrestling matches to which the whole community comes along. And on nearby Gorree island, the children play soccer in front of hundreds of people from the local community. When someone scores a goal, everyone runs onto the ground and celebrates. In Senegal they see sport as a God-given gift.
Everyone has certain gifts, and to watch someone with a sporting gift is a sight to behold. We can see the beauty of God’s creation when we watch someone like Roger Federer play tennis, or the sublime technical perfection of a Sachin Tendulkar drive through the covers for four at the MCG. It is poetry-in-motion, beautiful to watch.
This is perhaps most famously seen in the life of Eric Liddell, whose life and achievements are shown in the movie Chariots of Fire. Liddell was a committed Christian and saw his running ability as a chance to glorify God. When asked how his running was being Christian, he replied, “When I run I feel God’s pleasure.”
Whether we’re gifted or not, sport offers a chance to celebrate for poor communities around the world. Just as in Senegal, children in Rwanda play soccer with a ball made out of plastic bags tied together. They see playing soccer as a chance to get out of the shackles of poverty. In indigenous communities in Australia it is the same. Ask any young indigenous boy what they want to do when they grow up and they all say they want to play AFL.
“Whether we’re gifted or not, sport offers a chance to celebrate for poor communities around the world. Just as in Senegal, children in Rwanda play soccer with a ball made out of plastic bags tied together. They see playing soccer as a chance to get out of the shackles of poverty.”
Sport provides hope for millions of children the world over, and when played in the right spirit, everyone walks away a winner. Gordon Preece, of Australia’s Evangelical Alliance, remarks that we can view sport as “a part of God’s good creation and even a glimpse of a new, perfect, playful world”. And Marcus Curnow, from Newmarket Baptist Church, says that sport is “an opportunity to reconcile differences or experience a sense of belonging that some have rarely known”.
Perhaps the most wonderful piece of sportsmanship in Australian history was the gesture of John Landy running a mile race in 1956 and going back to help opponent Ron Clarke who had fallen over. Marcus Curnow goes on to say that, “In an increasingly disconnected…world where we often passively consume highlight packages of the ‘unbelievable’ feats of a sporting elite…such characters and moments bear witness to the value of the ordinary and the believable.”
We see the life of Jesus mimicked in gestures such as John Landy’s. They are gestures which bring out the good in us, the good that we all, deep down, long to be like. Landy’s incredible gesture reflected the Olympic Charter whose goal is to “place sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity”.
This, of course, is exactly along the lines of what Jesus is on about. In fact, when Pierre de Coubertin made his famous statement in 1908 that the importance of the Olympics is not so much to win as to take part, not the triumph but the struggle, and not to have won but to have fought well, he was inspired in his thinking by a sermon at St Paul’s Cathedral by the Bishop of Central Pennsylvania. His words held such significance that they have become part of the Olympic Creed.
The Olympics are a reflection of the renewed creation that we all long for, and the embodiment of what is possible when we live in service to something bigger than ourselves.
