Afua Hirsch wants to tell us that she knows markets better than the IOC do. This could even be true as well. And yet:
The second scenario of how the Olympics approaches such a person is, I’m afraid, a more cynical one. In this version, the IOC is a corporate giant trying to sell a product.
Like other grandiose sporting conglomerates, it brokers lucrative broadcasting deals, negotiates eye-watering advertising contracts and enjoys a brand that makes others weep with envy.
If this were the case, you might conclude it’s doing pretty well. The IOC’s much lauded “commercial transformation” has seen its sponsorship revenues jump from $500m in 2000 to approaching $3bn today. McDonald’s sponsorship ended in 2017 after 41 years, but Coca-Cola sponsorship continues (are we really still meant to believe elite athletes drink Coke?), and the IOC has added digital companies such as Alibaba and Airbnb to its list of “partners”.
In this context, you would expect the IOC to look at an athlete like Saunders and see, in cold, capitalist terms, her potential to market its product. She was after all one of the most impressive people competing in the Games.
OK, let’s run with the capitalist bastards explanation then.
When the lovable shot putter Raven Saunders, who is a black, gay woman, won a silver medal, she used the occasion to cross her arms in an X – a gesture of solidarity at “the intersection of where all people who are oppressed meet”. There are two ways we might expect the Olympics to approach this.
It’s vaguely possible that that’s an appeal to a fairly specialist market. One that the IOC might not be trying to reach at the expense of the wider one they are.
Rule 34?
Alternatively, the athletes could take the medal, stand for the anthem, wave to the crowd, and fuck off for another four years.
The TV audience for female shot putters is pretty niche too.
She was after all one of the most impressive people competing in the Games.
Yeah, we were all cheering for the fat dyke who came second.
The bbc/sky slogan “Hate won’t win” was proved correct by the bronze medals for Rapinoe & co who clearly hate their own country.
If all medals were awarded at a single ceremony hosted by Ricky Gervais the viewing figures would be off the chart.
Ducky McDuckface
Rule .303, more like.
The same people who believe world class athletes drink Coke believe the polar bears in the Coke commercials are really drinking the stuff. This woman might be insane.
Cyclists refer to full sugar Coke as “The Black Doctor” the cure for ‘Bonking’ on a long ride, when you’ve burnt through all your blood sugar and your body’s conversion of fat to energy has atrophied, it can get you back to the car park.