The Shadow of the Banner: Political Sensitivities in the Theater of International Competition

The Illusion of the Neutral Arena
It has always been a comforting fiction, perpetuated by those who organize the great spectacles of human physical exertion, that the arena exists outside the mundane and often sordid realities of political life. We are told, with a sincerity that borders on the theatrical, that when the competitors step onto the track or the field, they leave behind the borders, the ideologies, and the historical grievances of their respective nations. …