April 10, 2014

We often think of going into a squash court as our opportunity to get away from the world.  The small box is our respite from daily stress and the woes of the world.  But ever since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine so shortly after the international spectacle of the Olympics in Sochi, the intersection of sport and politics have been on my mind.  This connection has been particularly strong given that these events have come so closely on the heels of our sport's valiant campaign for inclusion in the 2016 Olympics.  I have heard and read commentary that has suggested both that Putin had become emboldened to make this incursion on Crimea by the wealth and power inherent in hosting the Olympics.  In fact, I have also heard the comparison between these recent actions and Hitler's annexation of Austria after the 1936 games in Munich.

    Whether or not this comparison is apt, it has given me an opportunity to think of some of the more obvious examples from my own lifetime when the world of international sport has collided with, and even changed, the geopolitical landscape.

 1.    1967: Muhammad Ali refuses to be drafted in to the Vietnam war and is barred from competing between the ages of 25-29, prime competitive years for a boxer.  He instead spends those years traveling around the country speaking out against the war and fighting the U.S. Government’s desertion case against him.

 2.    1968 Olympic Games in Mexico: American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise their black-gloved fists to symbolize “Black Power” on the Olympic podium prior to receiving their gold and bronze medals.  The International Olympic Commission chief felt as though the athletes should be suspended from the American team, believing that politics had no place in international sport.

 3.    1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany: Eight Palestinians break into the Olympic village and take nine Israeli athletes hostage.  The ensuing drama and bungled rescue of the hostages (the “Munich Massacre”) lasted three days.

 4.    1973: “The Battle of the Sexes”: 55 year-old Bobby Riggs challenges 29 year-old Billie Jean King to a tennis match on the grounds that even a considerably older man could beat the best female tennis player at the time.  Riggs lost the broadly-televised match.

 5.    1985: Arthur Ashe is arrested outside the South African Embassy in Washington, D.C., protesting against South Africa’s apartheid regime.

 6.    2013/2014: Jason Collins of the NBA and Michael Sam of the NFL come out publically as gay, the first professional basketball and football players to do so.

These are just a few examples that point to the obvious fact that any action takes place within the context of the political landscape that licenses or prohibits it.  And so, we fight for inclusion into the games not just to have our sport recognized on the world's stage, but because we believe in the Olympic vision that sport is a transformative force of good in the world.   Feminists have taught us that the personal is political, and what Sochi and these other examples reinforce for us is that there is no such thing as an apolitical act.  Something to think about the next time you hear that satisfying click of the squash court door closing behind you. 



Matt Munich: When Matt is not torturing himself over the perfect sentence to craft for his current work of fiction, he is a clinical social worker helping children and adults recover from traumatic stress.  He is also starting a sport psychology consultation service for which he writes a blog, often hosted on The Daily Squash Report, on the cognitive challenges of sport to help athletes of all ages and skill levels achieve their full potential.  Matt has  been involved in competitive squash at all levels since middle school, and has been a teaching pro and coached several high school squash programs.  He is still at it, harboring delusions of grandeur despite what has been generally recognized as a modest degree of natural ability and the wages of cruel time on his already blunted reaction time.  He lives in Jamaica Plain, MA with Melissa, his wife and muse.  His blog can be seen at: http://altiusperformanceworks.blogspot.com/


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