Ski moguls fan Mary Berdoulay of Pasadena, Calif., carried a brand new red, white and blue blanket in her arms and a small American flag in her hand, while her husband, Roger, toted another flag.
“We’ve got it all,” she said.
Nearby, John Haag of Salt Lake City and a friend wore red, white and blue knit hats.
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They were all dressed for American success Saturday as the first full day of competition began at the 2002 Winter Olympics.
The Olympic Games–Summer and Winter–are always a showcase for the host country, and it’s inevitable that patriotism and nationalism play a significant role. But in an event that considers its central theme to be welcoming the world, how much is too much? What is an appropriate display of pride? And when does patriotism tilt to jingoism?
“I think that the expression of patriotism is something that is in fact a prerogative of any nation that hosts the Games,” said Lloyd Ward, secretary general/CEO of the U.S. Olympic Committee.
Yet Ward acknowledged that a critical function of the Olympic movement is making connections, appreciating differences and expressing pride while respecting others and not turning this into the patriot games.
An Opening Ceremony sometimes sets a tone. The 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles were considered heavy on Americanism. The 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer highlighted hundreds of thousands of flag-waving Norwegians at biathlon and cross-country events.
Slight change to IOC protocol
Friday night’s near-four-hour extravaganza at Rice-Eccles Olympic Stadium before 55,000 spectators and an international television audience on the University of Utah campus was conducted in accordance with International Olympic Committee guidelines–with one adjustment. An exception to normal protocol was granted so that the tattered ground zero flag recovered at the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks could be carried into the stadium by eight U.S. Olympians and escorted by five New York policemen and four fire department members.
President George W. Bush, as is warranted by his position as head of state, officially declared the Games open, and then, in an unusual move, mingled with American athletes during the ceremony’s entertainment. Earlier, meeting with the U.S. team, Bush told the athletes, “You represent peace.”
And there were certainly red, white and blue moments from the 1980 gold-medal hockey team wearing “USA” jerseys while lighting the Olympic flame cauldron to singer R. Kelly performing in a red, white and blue robe reminiscent of a boxer’s with the word “Heroes” on the back.
Americans were thrust into mourning by the Sept. 11 attacks that killed about 3,000 people and remain a raw wound. The request to display the World Trade Center flag seemed natural to Americans, but it took some lobbying to persuade the IOC. And it seemed to be a post-ceremony lightning rod for criticism from around the world.
International voices weigh in
A sportswriter from Kuwait said, “This is wrong. This is supposed to be just sports.” A Russian newspaper called it “annoying” to include the ground zero flag because it “doesn’t have anything to do with the Olympics.” And a Swedish newspaper said the ceremony “felt more like the United States’ Olympic Games than the world’s.”
That seemed to depend on which portion of the world was being asked.
Sascha Ruefer, a Swiss TV commentator, attended the ceremony and said only Americans can organize such a grand spectacle. He thought the inclusion of the ground zero flag might have been heavy-handed, but he said Americans have a different relationship with their flag than other countries do.
“The flag is a holy thing for an American,” he said.
During the ceremony, many who marched in behind their own nation’s flag-bearer also waved small American flags. Members of the French delegation displayed a half-French, half-American flag in a gesture of solidarity. Rice-Eccles fans cheered loudest for the 211-member American team, but seemed to cheer for just about everyone during the parade of nations.
All of which led USOC President Sandy Baldwin and other officials to dismiss negative judgments as specious.
“There are people in the world who will criticize anything,” she said. “I have no intention of apologizing for [the ceremony]. I haven’t heard anything but wonderful reviews. I talked to a lot of people around the world today who thought it was a beautiful ceremony.”
Mitt Romney, president and CEO of the Salt Lake Olympic Committee, called the Opening Ceremony “a perfect representation of what we wanted. If you didn’t like it, it was only because we designed a show that you wouldn’t like.”
If the inclusion of the World Trade Center flag caused concern in some quarters, it was equally apparent that Americans consider these Games linked to the events of Sept. 11. It was not publicized, but every member of the American team wore a brass bracelet during the ceremony bearing the name of someone lost in the World Trade Center attacks. USOC officials passed out the bracelets a couple of hours earlier.
Proud, emotional moment
“That was a very proud moment for the Americans, and very emotional as well,” figure skater Michael Weiss said. “That’s just our way of realizing the big picture. Yeah, these are the Olympic Games, everybody’s coming together, it’s athletics and all that, but the big picture is that a lot of innocent people were killed.”
Weiss, 25, of Fairfax, Va., said he slept with his bracelet Friday night and called it “an incredible memento” that he will treasure. Responding to critics who might call American patriotism jingoism, Weiss said, “I saw a lot of people from other countries waving American flags out there, and I thought that was very supportive.”
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Among the group of eight people of “global significance” who carried the Olympic flag in the Opening Ceremony was Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, who won the Nobel Prize for fighting the legal segregation system in his country.
“People asked me if these Games will be an outlet for chauvinism or jingoism,” Tutu said.
“I said, `Well, why not?’ If it is what might help heal America, OK. Then they will discover just as you can’t fight terrorism on your own, you can’t have an Olympic Games on your own.”
Athletes have been saying for months that being a U.S. competitor at a home-soil Olympics took on greater significance and responsibility after Sept. 11, and they have reiterated the feeling here. Biathlete Jay Hakkinen of Kasilof, Alaska, said he believes these Games can contribute “to the healing process of the world.” After Sept. 11, he said, the Olympics “skyrocketed in importance. For myself, the country, and the world.”