Throughout the decades, the Olympics have been considered a ray of hope, a unifying force and a time to shed light on injustices in the world on a global scale. While the Olympics act as a platform to raise awareness - we must consider whether they truly practice what they preach. The 2020 Tokyo Olympics are a prime example: in a world suffering through a pandemic, has this age-old institution finally learnt to incorporate empathy and inclusion in the games?
The 2020 Olympics are the first to take place in a city of Asian origin twice despite the vast history of the games. Furthermore, this year, five new sports have been introduced thus, creating opportunities to gain repute at an international level for competing athletes. There have also been occurences of refugee athletes competing at these games: for instance, a 12-year old Syrian table-tennis player was given the chance to participate in the Olympics. History was made and controversy was sparked when the first transgender woman, Laurel Hubbard, from New Zealand was allowed to compete in the weightlifting championship.
However, we must re-evaluate the inclusivity of these actions when they have taken other problematic measures throughout the course of the games. For example, multiple sportswomen, particularly Black women, have been ousted from races due to their naturally occurring higher levels of testosterone (compared to the norm) as it might give them an “unfair advantage” - many people are protesting against this rule primarily using Michael Phelps, who has increased stamina as his body naturally produces less lactic acid thereby making him perfect for swimming and giving him an unfair advantage, as an example.
Moreover, the ban on the “Soul Cap” - which has been designed specifically for Black hair as normal swim caps are unable to contain the volume of it - speaks to people of colour, especially Black people as a clear instruction to stay out of Olympic sport. The 2020 Olympics seem to be subtly perpetuating Anti-Blackness during a time when movements such as BLM, Black Lives Matter are on the rise globally.
Alongside this racially-motivated discrimination, the 2020 Olympics follow the previous games in creating unfair rules and regulations that both sexualise and deem women unfit to compete. Case in point, Paralympian Olivia Breen was criticised for donning briefs that were considered “too short” while she went on to question whether a male athlete would ever be asked such a question. Moreover, nursing mothers were not permitted to bring their babies to the Olympics, forcing them to make a choice between their career and children. While this rule was eventually reversed, the bias and exclusion is evident.
All of this combined, it is apparent that the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, while inclusive on a few accounts, still have a long way to go. The practice of inclusion not only in sport, but in everyday life, starts from you, me and us in order to create organisations with more sensitive, empathetic and understanding people who strive for a world of inclusion.