AS I SEE IT COLUMN: Olympic shame, Olympic horror

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/08/2024 (263 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The shining success of Canada’s women’s soccer team has been a huge source of national pride for several years. Their prominence on the international stage culminated in their gold medal-winning performance at the last Olympics in Tokyo.

Now, the direct result of the “spy-gate” scandal in Paris, where a Team Canada official was caught using a drone to record Team New Zealand’s practice, all that pride, all that joy, and all that inspiration is tainted.

Soccer’s governing body, FIFA, determined in short order that Canada has been spying on opponents for years.

That means Canada’s incredible gold medal in Tokyo and their success in recent years now hangs depressingly under massive clouds of suspicion that Canada may have had an unfair advantage – and therefore, unfair success – because of its spying efforts.

Where there once was glory in Canada’s achievements, now there are hard, brutally depressing questions that must be answered.

FIFA came down hard on Team Canada, as it should. Just think how upset we would be if China or the US was caught spying on opponents.

By docking Canada six points, it will take a miracle for Canada to advance to the next round in Paris. (After winning their first two group stage games, Canada needs to also defeat Colombia and cap off a perfect group stage to squeak through on goal difference. The game kicks off after press time July 31.)

And because there are ongoing investigations, this story could get a whole lot worse than it already is (and it’s already really, really bad.)

If it is proven that Canada cheated as far back as the last Olympics, it’s possible they could have their gold medals taken away, as happens when it is found out later that a team or player won gold by taking performance-enhancing drugs.

It is a shameful story for Canada.

The Olympic horror part of this column comes from the fact that Israel’s flag bearer at the opening ceremonies, Peter Paltchik (competing in judo), signed bombs destined to be dropped on Gaza with the inscription “From me to you with pleasure.”

Just think about that.

Think about the depth of hatred he must have to even think such a thing, to take pleasure in the deaths of other people. Then think about the level of racism required to not just think such vile thoughts privately, but then to act on those depraved thoughts and actually take out a pen and sign bombs that will ultimately kill tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians before the war ends.

Then consider the colossal disrespect for human life it takes to brag about signing those bombs and posting a picture of them on your social media posts.

And then finally think about why Israel chose to reward such revolting behaviour by giving Paltchik the honour of carrying Israel’s flag at the opening ceremonies. The bombs he signed have already contributed to the killing of nearly 20,000 children and women, leveling hospitals and schools and shopping malls, turning Gaza into rubble and have resulted in a humanitarian starvation crisis.

Once Paltchik’s post resurfaced, any normal country that cares about the value of every human life would have instantly changed flag-bearers, or even more appropriately, immediately removed him from the Olympics for being such a vile monster.

Keeping Paltchik as a flagbearer and allowing him to compete in the Olympics is just another example that anti-Palestinian hatred doesn’t just exist at the military level, it is deeply rooted in Israeli culture as well.

The depths of hate, racism and moral depravity in this awful story are impossible to comprehend.

And Israel wonders why most of the free world – with the notable exception of Trump’s MAGA cult – recoils in horror at the crimes against humanity committed by Israel in Gaza and the grotesquely disproportionate number of innocent Palestinians killed by the very bombs Paltchik bragged about signing.

The drone scandal is embarrassingly shameful for Canada, but at least no lives were lost.

The horrifying story behind Israel’s Paltchik – where he publicly takes demented glee in the deaths of Palestinians and instead of being punished for his unvarnished hatred, is rewarded by being given the prestigious role of flagbearer – is one of the most morally disturbing stories in modern sports history.