The 2008 Summer Olympics in China were held in August just prior to the American presidential national conventions. Back then, the worst global economic crisis since the 1930’s Great Depression was still gathering and had yet to crest. The issue of race was considered a major factor in deciding the direction of the 2008 American election.
By the November election, the financial crisis had hit full force and America voted for the person most likely to address the situation. With that choice, America cracked the global glass ceiling on power in white hands. It made history by electing the western industrialized world’s first non-white leader.
Also by then, as if presaging the monumental change to come, America’s conservative party had unleashed its figurehead in the form of a charismatic frontierswoman. She stood and has continued to stand for a romantic American tradition as out of place in the modern global world as the covered wagon.
As the February 2010 winter Olympics in Canada geared up, the historic step America had achieved since the last Olympic Games was annihilated by discord and discontent with the policies of America’s new leader. Conservatives labeled him as either a socialist or fascist for pushing through a people-friendly agenda complete with regulation of runaway profiteering financial institutions. Liberals labeled him as a sell-out for not achieving more dramatic change.
The 2010 Olympics, however, along with other aspects of the 2010 global sporting schedule, presented opportunities for America to gain objectivity about its domestic turmoil. All that was needed was for Americans to demand that their media step up to bat and cover events in the global context.
An example of the American media’s ability to provide context on the national level was the January NBC feud over the programming of the Jay Leno and Conan O’Brian late night shows. A network decision to increase audience the previous year had gone amiss. An expensive reshuffle met with resistance and the taking of sides by celebrities. The personalities of the two stars eclipsed the issue of corporate bungling and failure to accurately project expected audience reaction. The resulting exchange filtered down to the gist. American people were the driving force behind corporate and political decisions.
That power of the individual American was in position to be projected onto the global level through the world of sport in 2010. In turn, that same field could enable America to know itself in the global context and thereby consolidate the historic gain it had won with the 2008 presidential election.
The 2010 Superbowl on February 7 would be the start. That all-American event was expected to attract 150 million viewers nationwide and millions more in 230 countries and territories worldwide, according to the website TVTechnology and CBS News.
The 2010 Winter Olympics starting February 12 would be next, with the Paralympics held a month later. The projected audience could be inferred from the 2008 Olympics in China. In September 2008, Nielsenwire recorded 4.7 billion viewers of the 2008 Olympic Games between August 8 and 24. That number reflected 70 per cent of the world’s population, with the Games followed by new media including television, computer and cell phone. By contrast, 3.9 billion watched the 2004 Games in Athens and 3.6 billion followed the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia.
That tremendous surge in viewership for global sporting events reflected the power of sport to amalgamate the disparate interests of the world’s societies into a common language of physical competition, including partnerships for the training of athletes, coverage of events and recruitment of volunteers to successfully bring off events. Such partnerships could be fast-tracked for the June World Cup Soccer Tournament to be held for the first time on the African continent by South Africa as host and with America also in competition.
The hosting of the World Cup by Africa presented challenges beyond anything that reality shows such as Survivor brought to America’s attention. The African country of Togo, for example, withdrew from regional competition after its team lost three people during an attack on its sports convoy in Angola.
Such remnants of enmities based on colonial history may be remote and of little interest to impatient and ambitious Americans focused on progress in the present. But they are a part of the modern competitive world that impacts on America and demands its involvement if American values are to be advanced.
America could intensify diplomatic and corporate ties with African countries to ensure a safe World Cup competition and boost global security in wake of the 2010 Olympics. America could also advance its goals by gaining a better perspective on itself in an economically interdependent world during a transitional year in which sports eased the way to interaction.
To do that, Americans had only to e-mail, Twitter and post on social network sites. Their media would take note of their interest in how athletes of the world’s little countries had made it to global attention. In turn, Americans would get to know the world and come to a working relationship with the globally savvy leader it had elected in 2008.
