Olympic spirit unites rivals in Beijing
Published 19 August, 2008, 04:52
There are those who say nations should move their disputes from the battlefield to track and field events. While official relations between Georgia and Russia are still in turmoil, athletes from both countries are united
Just days after the South Ossetian conflict broke out, Russia’s Natalia Paderina won a silver medal in the air pistol shooting event and embraced Georgia’s Nino Salukvadze on the pedestal. That was seen as the athletes' response to the hostilities back home.
From then on, the Georgian team – which in fact has several ethnic Russians in it – has been having a good run in the Olympics.
“We won two gold medals in one hour – first in wrestling, then in judo. So I think it was one of the best days in Georgia’s sporting history,” said Georgy Tekhanashvili, spokesperson for the Georgian Olympic Team.
But there was a possibility that this might not have happened. Just 24 hours previously reports had come through that the team was to withdraw from Beijing.
In the end the team stayed and faced the Russian rivals several more times in the course of the competition. In judo, Irakli Tsirekidze ousted Russia's Ivan Pershin to take gold.
Tamerlan Tmenov is the Ossetian-born captain of Russia’s judo team, a squad which has athletes of both Georgian and Ossetian origins.
Although Tamerlan regrets not having won a medal, he stresses that it’s only sport after all:
“We really wanted to win a medal to show that our spirit wasn’t broken and to show our support for the people back home. My team has athletes from different ethnic groups, including Georgians and Ossetians, but we have no quarrels. We eat at the same table, we support each other.
We’re like a big family.”
However, the conflict has still had its impact on the athletes. The Russian wrestling team claimed the country’s first two golds, but the vice-chairman of Russia’s wrestling federation – a Georgian native – believes the result should have been better.
“All of our team – Russians, ethnic Georgians, Ossetians, Armenians, Jews – were really shocked and deeply worried about the events back home. It couldn’t have been otherwise. It’s our common tragedy. And the team morale was of course very low,” Viktor Mamiashvili said.
Moreover it’s not only the athletes who had their day spoiled by the military action.
Olesya works in Beijing’s Russian Bosco club. Her mother happened to be in Tskhinvali when the bombing started and that was just when Olesya started to get busy. She says she couldn’t reach her family by phone for a day when the news of clashes broke.
“I was so worried. I had no desire to work and to celebrate a grandiose event like the opening of the Olympics,” she said.
With the fighting over, the games have returned to its original pace and, despite the ongoing diplomatic battle back home, both teams say that at least the bloodshed has ended. Now it’s time to do what they came here to do.
But both Georgian and Ossetian athletes are sending one clear message from Beijing: sport is above politics and is something which can unite everyone – even nations at war.
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