But during the last decade, the Games have been used by Russia deliberately as a tactical tool – at times as an attempted distraction for Russian aggression. In 2008, Russia invaded Georgia on the first day of the summer Olympics in Beijing. During the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia invaded Crimea.
Participation in international competitions drives athletes to honing their competitive prowess to perfection, to perform record-breaking feats of physical skill – thus inspiring people in their home countries. They say it’s this single-minded dedication that should be duly recognized.
For Russia, international dominance in sports is of sacred importance, just as it was for the Soviet Union. Athletic victory for them was evidence for the world of the superiority of the Soviet/Russian system. It was also domestic fodder for extolling the greatness of their civilization for Russians.
A most telling example of this is probably the Russian-produced film of the Canada/Soviet hockey series of 1972 in Moscow. Russia depicted the matches as one of the Cold War’s major confrontations with the West. The Soviets won the first game and it’s portrayed as a glorious victory over “scary and evil” Canadians. Uninformed viewers of the film would never know that Canada actually won the series.
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