Seventeen days, two hundred and five nations, more than eleven thousand athletes, fifty disciplines, and one event: The Olympics. Tokyo Olympics 2020, which got postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, started on 23rd July and was wrapped up on 8th August with great pomp and show. Olympics have always been the most important stage for athletes all across the world. With thousands of athletes participating and only a handful of them winning, it is pretty obvious that many athletes just pass into oblivion. But those who are able to seize the spotlight by winning medals also face the dilemma of being trapped in celebrations and still not being able to tell the world about their struggles.
" The celebrations are sumptuous, the victors are idealized, newspapers get filled with pictures of great welcomes and somewhere exists a tiny article which mentions the actual story of that hero."
Most of the athletes face a huge financial crisis throughout their lives. Sometimes, the promises of financial rewards for these winners remain unfulfilled. Those which are fulfilled are subjected to high amounts of taxes. We have heard about players such as Ronda Rousey who even after winning a bronze was unable to pay her rent and was forced to live in her car. Another issue which usually gets shadowed by felicitation ceremonies is the lack of sports facilities. Not only the poor countries but also the rich countries are not able to provide adequate facilities in each and every sport for which they send their contingents. Victories do highlight the issue but the discussions are just superficial and momentary. After a few days players are again thrown into a vicious cycles of mismanagement, medical negligence and ignorance by the system. We all praised how Simone Biles came out and spoke about her mental health publicly. But there are still many athletes who are in the same state but don’t ever get a platform to share their traumas. Even in today’s time the world is not ready to accept that achievers can also face mental traumas.
With the expectations soaring high, accompanied with cut-throat competitions, pressure builds up on the athletes only to be denied by many people. What’s more astonishing is that no one actually cares about the struggle of these winners. They serve as good stories to attract spectators or readers. But little changes at the ground level. Gender inequality still remains an unanswered aspect. Whenever a woman wins, several other identities are associated with her. But her identity as a woman is always viewed by her femininity. Clearly the challenges which women face while practicing be it hygiene, accommodation, abuse, unequal wages are not even taken into consideration. But yes, if you want a discussion on what she wears at her award ceremony half of the world is ready. The celebrations are sumptuous, the victors are idealized, newspapers get filled with pictures of great welcomes and somewhere exists a tiny article which mentions the actual story of that hero. And then what happens to those newspapers? Well they get lost in any corner of big mansions just as the article gets lost in that big newspaper.
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