‘Tourist’ competitors spoil Olympic Games for real underdogs

IOC must take action to halt growing number of international mercenaries and well-funded hobbyists

Thailand's Vanessa Vanakorn reacts after crossing the finish line in the women's Alpine skiing giant slalom at the Sochi Winter Olympics on February 18, 2014. Alexander Klein / AFP

Today, Dachhiri Sherpa will return to his day job of bricklayer in Switzerland. Vanessa-Mae will return to being a world-famous violinist. And Bruno Banani will return to being the son of a coconut farmer.

For the last two weeks at the Sochi Winter Olympics, the Nepali, Singaporean-Brit and Tongan were Olympian athletes. Although, not necessarily very good ones.

The Olympics, summer or winter, always throw up tales of unknown athletes rubbing shoulders with the world’s best. Who doesn’t love an underdog?

Except that not all underdogs are born equal.

Some, like Sherpa, struggle for years, with little resources, for the privilege of representing their country at the Games. Others, with endless resources, will buy their way into the Games and represent any country that will have them.

When it comes to these “tourist” athletes, the Sochi Olympic Games might just have jumped the shark.

The Winter Olympics, with its inherently smaller pool of athletes, is in danger of becoming a destination event for anyone with a bit of cash and a country willing to pass on its citizenship.

For every hard-working Sherpa, there is a celebrity working hard to find a loophole.

None more so than Vanessa-Mae, the internationally famous musician who was born in Singapore to a Chinese mother and a Thai father. The 35-year-old British citizen chose to represent Thailand in Sochi while competing as Vanessa Vanakorn, using her Thai father’s family name, in the women’s giant slalom skiing.

Not surprisingly, her vanity project ended with her finishing last, 50 seconds slower than the winner, Tina Maze of Slovenia, and 12 seconds behind 66th place.

“The Olympics is like the greatest show on earth and to just share the same snow, to be able to slide down the same snow that the elite skiers carve down is just an honour and a privilege,” she told the Associated Press.

That is all very well for Vanessa-Mae, or Vanakorn, but wouldn’t her spot have been better filled by someone who had dedicated a lifetime trying to get to these Games?

Then there was Yohan Goncalves Goutt, born in Paris to a French father and a Timorese mother. The 19 year old began competing only last year, and having founded East Timor’s ski federation, spent US$75,000 (Dh275,480) of his own money. His Olympic dream came true when he managed to lower his score enough to qualify for Sochi.

Like Vanessa-Mae, he was last, 43rd out of 43, almost 50 seconds behind gold medallist Mario Matt of Austria. Still, the crowd roared.

Perhaps most ludicrous of all is the case of Bruno Banani.

Born Fuahea Semi, the Tongan luger in 2010 changed his name to that of the German underwear company in the hope of attracting sponsorship. It worked. Since he had legally changed his name to Banani, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) could not stop him from competing under that name. He made it to Sochi, where he finished 32nd out of 39.

Other Olympic chancers almost made it. Paul Bragiel, a 35-year-old American and former Internet entrepreneur, also dreamed of making Sochi. Problem was, he wasn’t proficient at any sport. More importantly, representing a strong US team was out of the question.

No bother. Cross-country skiing for Colombia would do. But even as that country’s sole Winter Olympian, he failed to make the Games, proving that sometimes even blinding ambition and a bottomless pit of money are not enough.

As things are, the Olympics seems to be increasingly attainable for individuals who, with the best will in the world, have no right to be rubbing shoulders with champions, or even underdogs.

Of course, some stories, such as 44-year-old Sherpa’s, are so heartwarming it is impossible to begrudge him his moment in the spotlight. The man from the Himalayas, who began cross-county skiing in 2003, has now taken part in three Winter Olympics, finishing 96th in 2006 in Turin, 94th in 2010 in Vancouver and 86th in Sochi.

For Vanessa-Mae and Goncalves Goutt, however, it was less about competition and more about misplaced entitlement. It mattered little to them that they came last.

In any competition, someone naturally has to finish last. Nor should the Olympic ideal of inclusiveness be abandoned. All those athletes, for the record, were given huge ovations by very generous crowds. Simply for being there.

However, there is a danger that this lauding of what is still, ultimately, failure, borders on the patronising. Forget the bland cliches; taking part is important, but not more than winning.

The tourist athletes are devaluing the competition, and indeed the achievements of the real underdogs, like Sherpa.

For now, it seems some underdogs are more equal than others. The IOC better start closing those loopholes.