Jayne: Olympics through a new lens

As a recovering Sports editor, I confess to a lifelong affair with the Olympics. I am compelled by the idea of people spending their lives developing a particular skill and then having to perform their best when the spotlight is the brightest. It always reminds me of a quote from my fifth-grade basketball coach: “Practice. Because when you don’t, somebody else is. And when they play you they will beat you.”

But as an editorial page editor for the past decade or so, I confess to now watching the Olympics through a different lens. I cannot help but see the Games, in part, for their political and sociological implications.

Because many of our public debates and issues are manifested in what we see in Paris.

Immigration, for example. While elected officials on both sides prefer to use immigration as a wedge issue rather than seeking solutions, Team USA reminds us that we are a nation of immigrants.

There’s Naomi Girma, a soccer star for the U.S. Women’s National Team whose parents both emigrated from Ethiopia and met in the Bay Area. And Suni Lee, a gymnastics gold medalist whose mother emigrated from Laos as a child. And Amit Elor, the 20-year-old daughter of Israeli immigrants who won gold in wrestling.

There are other examples, of course. Most of them do not achieve the temporary fame that comes with winning an Olympic medal. And if many of the United States’ best athletes have recent immigrant roots, then it is reasonable to assume that many of our best doctors and teachers and construction workers do as well.

There is a difference, obviously, between legal immigration and illegal immigration. But at the extreme end of the debates over immigrants and immigration policy, there is a disturbing white supremacist faction that willfully ignores the benefits inherent in a diverse culture.

That diversity is highlighted by the Olympics and by the success of Team USA. There are white athletes and Black athletes and Hispanic athletes and immigrants from Africa. There are heterosexual athletes and gay athletes. There are Americans from every corner of the country and nearly every state.

This is a big country; there is room for lots of different types of people. And in that regard, the Olympics provide an informative portrait of our nation.

But it is when the TV cameras turn their attention to the audience that something else becomes notable. Many U.S. athletes, including gold medalists, are the progeny of mixed-race couples. And it doesn’t matter — except maybe to white nationalists.

For those who believe that our nation has moved beyond concerns about interracial marriage or gay marriage or questions about basic human rights, we refer you to Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurrence in the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.

Thomas suggested that the Supreme Court should review numerous rulings decided under the 14th Amendment, writing, “we have a duty to ‘correct the error’ established in those precedents.”

All of which might or might not be relevant to the Olympics. But if Team USA is a microcosm of our nation, then it is worth pondering. Because if our best athletes represent the best of us, then we should think about why.