Author David Goldblatt on how the Olympics offer a voice to those with an untold story

In his latest book, The Games: A Global History of the Olympics, author David Goldblatt looks at the personal stories and the wider issues that have helped to define Olympic history – and explains why Rio marks a line in the sand.

Author David Goldblatt. Courtesy Panmacmillan

Of all the stories from the opening days of the Rio Olympics, the tale of Syrian swimmer Yusra Mardini, who used her training to push a sinking boat full of refugees towards Greece, says everything about the Games’ ability to inspire – despite all the drugs controversies, social inequalities and political issues.

For British author David Goldblatt, the rich stories that emerge from the Games makes the event as exciting to him as the haul of medals the athletes are aiming for.

“There’s always a complete unknown at a Games who’ll come out of nowhere, with a tale you just can’t grasp,” he says. “And that will be amazing to see.”

Goldblatt's new book The Games, revels in some of these quirky tales, such as the story of Wijan Ponlid, a previously unknown Thai ­boxer, who won gold at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

The police officer returned home to Thailand to find he had a new house, THB20 million (Dh2m) and a job promotion – and was paraded at the front of a procession of 49 elephants through Bangkok.

Goldblatt’s favourite story of unexpected Olympic glory, though, is the tale of Abebe ­Bikila, an Ethiopian runner who only made it to the 1960 Rome Olympics after a teammate suffered an injury.

“He was a member of the Imperial Guard to emperor Haile Selassie – who was driven into exile by Mussolini’s Italy when it invaded Ethiopia in 1936,” says Goldblatt. “He decides to run the race barefoot because his new shoes blistered his feet. And as he starts to pull away from the pack, he passes the Alum Obelix in Rome – a 4th-century Ethiopian royal burial marker looted from his country by Mussolini’s army in 1937.

"So he becomes the first black African man to win a gold medal, and he crosses the line under the triumphal Arch Of Constantine. How good, how symbolic, is that?" At the time, World Sports ­magazine called Bikila's victory a "scene to remember – a moment of theatrical drama".

Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera was more specific in its eulogy: "It wasn't a marathon, it was Aida, with the Romans roadside making up the chorus."

The inherent drama in sport – be it winning against the odds, overcoming adversity, or even heartbreaking failure – means we are naturally impelled to use some of the language of fiction to describe it. Perhaps that is also why great sports novels are so rare: we get all the dramatic sporting stories we need from real life.

In fact, the arguments for civil rights in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, women's emancipation in Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook, or the celebration of the struggles of the less able in Herman Melville's Moby Dick are all mirrored in the ­history of the Olympics.

“What I love about the Olympics is that what began as this display of ‘manly virtue’ for 251 white men has become a public theatre in which the previously excluded and marginalised – be they women, people of colour, the colonised, disabled people – are able to insist, through the quality of their performances, that they are part of humanity,” says Goldblatt.

“That’s the platform the Olympics has given them, that’s what universal humanity is. It doesn’t mean upper-class white men from Europe and the United States with big wax ­moustaches.”

The subtitle of Goldblatt's book – A Global History Of The Olympics – is no coincidence, therefore. It is not only that the Olympic rings are intended to represent the union of the five continents that interests him, it is the fact that the Games can offer a chance, through sport, to understand a country's psyche in just the same way as, say, J M Coetzee's novels tell us about South Africa.

“The Olympics is a fascinating kaleidoscopic lens,” says Goldblatt. “I love finding out why Norway comes to a halt when the women’s handball is on or why is it that the Philippines is so obsessed with basketball? It’s a real joy to find out South Korea takes archery really seriously. Inevitably the Games take you somewhere really interesting.”

That said, for Goldblatt in The Games, "interesting" doesn't mean blindly celebrating the Olympics. His last, award-­winning book, The Game Of Our Lives, about football, was a powerful corrective to all-conquering English ­Premier League.

Similarly, here he is not afraid to warn of the continual failings of the Games’ administrators and is damning of the messy politics and unfulfilled legacies.

“The Olympics is a pretty extraordinary event, and the International Olympic Committee sits at the centre of global sporting governance,” he says.

“It’s the most systematic attempt by a sports organisation to say sport means something in this world, ethically and politically. That allows you to explore a different kind of global history.

“Look at the Cold War – from 1952 onwards it becomes the structuring narrative of the Olympic Games, until Seoul 1988.

“The institution, though, is in a state of crisis, and I wanted to look at how, for example, it was a good idea for Greece, a society of 10 million people, to spend $16bn to stage the Games in 2004. How did we get to needing 100,000 security personnel in Rio for these 17 days? These are pretty pressing questions.”

Goldblatt thinks Rio will be something of a line in the sand for an event that many believe has become too big, too in thrall to commerce, and too expensive to stage, while paying little more than lip service to the idea of mass participation or city ­regeneration.

“Of course, one really wants to enjoy the extraordinary things human beings can do with their bodies,” says Goldblatt. “But there’s a price for that – and unfortunately it’s paid by the poorest people in Rio.

“So we cannot allow the Olympics to go on like this because, in the end, the actual sport will be devalued.

“Half the world tunes in at some point to the Olympics, which is why it’s not surprising that China spent $100m on its opening ceremony in Beijing in 2008.

“But we can still enjoy the Games – and I certainly will – while demanding that the ­movement changes.”

• The Games is out now. For details visit www.davidstephengoldblatt.com

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