National “pride” is pointless at worlds
Go to the Puerto Rico world meet Web site today and you see, under Latest News: “United States retakes the lead: United States has retaken the lead in the gold medal race of the XV World Masters Championships. Close by, and leading the competition in total medals, is Germany. Puerto Rico, the host country, got its first two gold medals.” All very interesting. All very irrelevant.
Unlike the IAAF World Championships and the Olympic Games, where 99 percent of the best athletes compete (often with government subsidies), the WMA World Masters Athletics Championships amounts to a world all-comers meet (with many of the best age-groupers staying at home) — with the spoils going mainly to victors from rich and adjacent nations. Who travel from afar on their own dime.
And unlike the Summer Games and IAAF worlds, where medal counts have some meaning, the WMA meet hardware tally is telling for its cluelessness.
Wow! The United States, Germany and Britain are bringing home the most gold, silver and bronze! What a coincidence! Those nations have the biggest contingents.
This hypernationalism is the latest evidence of the masters movement straying from its roots — which entailed encouraging athletes worldwide to compete for the pleasure of the sport, and not for political self-indulgence.
In 2001, Al Sheahen noted this disturbing trend in his critique of the Brisbane world meet:
Here, again, the delegates voted that all competitors in future World Championships must wear national uniforms that are approved by their national governing bodies. This is a 180-degree turn from the early days when WAVA deliberately tried to stay away from the nationalism that has long permeated open athletics.
The Puerto Rico organizers of the 15th World Masters meet deserve credit for the comprehensive and timely results and the lists of entrants (with results and dates of births for each athlete!). These are long-overdue firsts in WMA history — and serve as models for all future meets.
It’s fine to wear your nation’s colors with pride. It’s not fine to boast your country is the best. That’s not what masters track is about.
So let’s lose the medal charts. They are misleading and wrongheaded and give the public the wrong idea about our niche.
2 Responses
Give me a break. “The United States has taken the lead.” Indeed! I’m not sure what we’re leading. This is the disgusting end zone result of recent legislation that would require us to wear national uniforms and compete for a country. It’s bad enough at the Olympic Games; it’s worse at the World Masters Championships. This is a good excuse to find another competitive organization for our international efforts. The spirit of David H. R. Pain has been thoroughly trashed!
Well said, Ken. I recall that at the championships in Turku the athletes paraded in by country at the opening ceremony, but at the closing they paraded by age group. This is the spirit we should be striving to reignite.
Quick Silver
Hong Kong
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