Book Review: Lenskyj, The Best Olympics Ever?

Helen Jefferson Lenskyj
The Best Olympics Ever? Social Impacts of Sydney 2000
State University of New York Press, 2002, 262 pp.
$US 19.95 paper (0-7914-5474-6), $US 59.50 hardcover (0-7914-5473-8)

This is Helen Lenskyj’s second book of critical analysis on the Olympics in the SUNY series on Sport, Culture, and Social Relations. Lenskyj’s work is part of a growing body of literature, primarily in the discipline of sociology, that seeks to not only demystify the mediated complex of Olympic propaganda and promotion but also serves to document grass roots resistance to globalization more broadly. This book, unlike any other to date, documents and describes in a rather comprehensive manner the protests of community-based groups against the onslaught of harassment, censorship, and policies that arbitrarily criminalized ‘problem’ people, perpetrated by corporate-styled, host-city organizers of, in this case, the Sydney Olympics. After ten years of studying newspapers, reports, interviews, and participating as an advocate and an activist during the years leading up to the Sydney games, she concludes that the Olympic games serve the interests of global capital, stating that, “[t]his pattern will not change until the Olympic industry is dismantled, and international sporting practices are transformed” (p. 231). Lenskyj is correct, I believe, but the book is not about dismantling the games or transforming sport.

Lenskyj’s evidence, categorically revealed through police actions, urban sanitization programs, labour strife, attacks on the homeless, race relations, and the overt power of the media, alerts us to the harsh realities of the most vulnerable members of communities who find themselves directly caught in the turmoil when cities bid on or host mega events. Generally, land use and environmental impact, controversial invocations of common national identity through symbols and ceremonies, security, the use of public money to secure private profit, and human rights issues extant in host countries prior to and during the games tend to polarize groups and individuals in Olympic host cities. Most effectively Lenskyj explores the complexities of relations between Australia’s Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal citizens and the historical policies of white rule; the sometimes contradictory meanings engendered by participation and dissent; and the ambiguous symbolism of Aboriginality positioned by Olympic ceremonies and by the success of athlete Kathy Freeman. For the generations of “stolen children” and their descendants, for citizens and politicians who suggested that such atrocities were exaggerated, and for visitors who knew little about Australia’s history, the opening ceremonies were a complicated juxtaposition of sights, sounds, and hundreds of years of selectively positioned histories that could not be explicated in a matter of hours.

Olympic boosters, politicians and games organizers alike, Lenskyj argues, warded off efforts of resistance and protest through a strategic politics of division that effectively marginalized alternative views and actions of some Australians, including Aboriginals, the political left generally, and specific interest groups such as the tenants who suffered from massive rent increases leading up to and during the games. Lenskyj’s assessment of new laws and measures aimed at ‘cleaning up’ Sydney and policing ‘undesirables’ is particularly insightful, even though she concludes that, in the end, there were few examples where police powers were abused and people were treated badly. Lenskyj attributes this, in part, to the efforts of community activists who fought for the rights of the disadvantaged. Unfortunately, from her book it is difficult, if not impossible, to discern the specific or general effectiveness of community-based activism in Sydney. However, to identify such shortcomings as both fundamental and inherently limiting to this sort of research would, indeed, reinforce Lenskyj’s own arguments about the Olympics and the imposition of dominant forms of culture on unwilling participants: that might is not necessarily right and that all efforts of resistance are worth documenting, remembering, and analyzing.

The subtitle of the book is somewhat misleading, in that it does not deal directly with social impacts of the Sydney games; otherwise the analyses would have been completed well after the games to determine such outcomes and, further, it would have included explicit analyses of how some citizens, corporations, and politicians benefited directly. But, too often, broad unsubstantiated assertions are made about the value of hosting the Olympic games, even in the scholarly literature. Undoubtedly, readers will be disappointed with a lack of clarity in such descriptors as: “social service leaders;” “community leaders;” “a number of sources within social services and community activist circles;” and, the unqualified use of “democracy and social justice.” Others may locate it in the genre of critical journalism, informed by current sociological arguments and literature, as opposed to the theoretically interrogative and academically rigorous. This approach, however, makes it accessible but still relevant to a wide range of inquiry and interest.

As duly noted several times in the book, critical scholarship on such popular events and cultural practices is difficult, at times discouraging. This speaks generally to the current power and intrigue of the Olympics in the popular imagination of individuals from average consumer to sport aficionado and university-based scholar. She reserves some of her sharpest criticisms for colleagues and peers who have ostracized her for recent commentaries and publications, and those who have received benefits from strategic alliances with the so-called Olympic industry. What remains unsaid, however, is that, relationally, she too remains trapped by the paradox of the scholar who benefits professionally and personally from research travels, University Press publications, and the symbolic capital offered to even the harshest critics of the Olympics. Even the most seemingly independent scholars may not extricate themselves from fields of cultural exchange.

Research projects such as this continue to challenge the legitimacy of current Olympic social trajectories, forcing the International Olympic Committee, bidding groups, and organizing committees to take stock of human rights issues identified by community-based groups, once representing pockets, and now increasingly, waves of political resistance. Lenskyj’s work puts an honest, public face on some of the human costs of hosting the Olympics.

Kevin B. Wamsley
The University of Western Ontario
kbwamsle@uwo.ac

Kevin Wamsley is a sport historian with research interests in issues related to leisure and masculinity, the organization of gender in the Olympic games, and the politics of hosting mega events. In 2000, he reviewed Varda Burstyn's The Rites of Men: Manhood, Politics, and the Culture of Sport for CJS Online.



		Canadian Journal of Sociology Online March - April 2003 Helen Jefferson Lenskyj The Best Olympics Ever? Social Impacts of Sydney 2000 State University of New York Press, 2002, 262 pp. $US 19.95 paper (0-7914-5474-6), $US 59.50 hardcover (0-7914-5473-8) This is Helen Lenskyj’s second book of critical analysis on the Olympics in the SUNY series on Sport, Culture, and Social Relations. Lenskyj’s work is part of a growing body of literature, primarily in the discipline of sociology, that seeks to not only demystify the mediated complex of Olympic propaganda and promotion but also serves to document grass roots resistance to globalization more broadly. This book, unlike any other to date, documents and describes in a rather comprehensive manner the protests of community-based groups against the onslaught of harassment, censorship, and policies that arbitrarily criminalized ‘problem’ people, perpetrated by corporate-styled, host-city organizers of, in this case, the Sydney Olympics. After ten years of studying newspapers, reports, interviews, and participating as an advocate and an activist during the years leading up to the Sydney games, she concludes that the Olympic games serve the interests of global capital, stating that, “[t]his pattern will not change until the Olympic industry is dismantled, and international sporting practices are transformed” (p. 231). Lenskyj is correct, I believe, but the book is not about dismantling the games or transforming sport. Lenskyj’s evidence, categorically revealed through police actions, urban sanitization programs, labour strife, attacks on the homeless, race relations, and the overt power of the media, alerts us to the harsh realities of the most vulnerable members of communities who find themselves directly caught in the turmoil when cities bid on or host mega events. Generally, land use and environmental impact, controversial invocations of common national identity through symbols and ceremonies, security, the use of public money to secure private profit, and human rights issues extant in host countries prior to and during the games tend to polarize groups and individuals in Olympic host cities. Most effectively Lenskyj explores the complexities of relations between Australia’s Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal citizens and the historical policies of white rule; the sometimes contradictory meanings engendered by participation and dissent; and the ambiguous symbolism of Aboriginality positioned by Olympic ceremonies and by the success of athlete Kathy Freeman. For the generations of “stolen children” and their descendants, for citizens and politicians who suggested that such atrocities were exaggerated, and for visitors who knew little about Australia’s history, the opening ceremonies were a complicated juxtaposition of sights, sounds, and hundreds of years of selectively positioned histories that could not be explicated in a matter of hours. Olympic boosters, politicians and games organizers alike, Lenskyj argues, warded off efforts of resistance and protest through a strategic politics of division that effectively marginalized alternative views and actions of some Australians, including Aboriginals, the political left generally, and specific interest groups such as the tenants who suffered from massive rent increases leading up to and during the games. Lenskyj’s assessment of new laws and measures aimed at ‘cleaning up’ Sydney and policing ‘undesirables’ is particularly insightful, even though she concludes that, in the end, there were few examples where police powers were abused and people were treated badly. Lenskyj attributes this, in part, to the efforts of community activists who fought for the rights of the disadvantaged. Unfortunately, from her book it is difficult, if not impossible, to discern the specific or general effectiveness of community-based activism in Sydney. However, to identify such shortcomings as both fundamental and inherently limiting to this sort of research would, indeed, reinforce Lenskyj’s own arguments about the Olympics and the imposition of dominant forms of culture on unwilling participants: that might is not necessarily right and that all efforts of resistance are worth documenting, remembering, and analyzing. The subtitle of the book is somewhat misleading, in that it does not deal directly with social impacts of the Sydney games; otherwise the analyses would have been completed well after the games to determine such outcomes and, further, it would have included explicit analyses of how some citizens, corporations, and politicians benefited directly. But, too often, broad unsubstantiated assertions are made about the value of hosting the Olympic games, even in the scholarly literature. Undoubtedly, readers will be disappointed with a lack of clarity in such descriptors as: “social service leaders;” “community leaders;” “a number of sources within social services and community activist circles;” and, the unqualified use of “democracy and social justice.” Others may locate it in the genre of critical journalism, informed by current sociological arguments and literature, as opposed to the theoretically interrogative and academically rigorous. This approach, however, makes it accessible but still relevant to a wide range of inquiry and interest. As duly noted several times in the book, critical scholarship on such popular events and cultural practices is difficult, at times discouraging. This speaks generally to the current power and intrigue of the Olympics in the popular imagination of individuals from average consumer to sport aficionado and university-based scholar. She reserves some of her sharpest criticisms for colleagues and peers who have ostracized her for recent commentaries and publications, and those who have received benefits from strategic alliances with the so-called Olympic industry. What remains unsaid, however, is that, relationally, she too remains trapped by the paradox of the scholar who benefits professionally and personally from research travels, University Press publications, and the symbolic capital offered to even the harshest critics of the Olympics. Even the most seemingly independent scholars may not extricate themselves from fields of cultural exchange. Research projects such as this continue to challenge the legitimacy of current Olympic social trajectories, forcing the International Olympic Committee, bidding groups, and organizing committees to take stock of human rights issues identified by community-based groups, once representing pockets, and now increasingly, waves of political resistance. Lenskyj’s work puts an honest, public face on some of the human costs of hosting the Olympics. Kevin B. Wamsley The University of Western Ontario kbwamsle@uwo.ac Kevin Wamsley is a sport historian with research interests in issues related to leisure and masculinity, the organization of gender in the Olympic games, and the politics of hosting mega events. In 2000, he reviewed Varda Burstyn's The Rites of Men: Manhood, Politics, and the Culture of Sport for CJS Online. http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/cjscopy/reviews/sydney.html March 2003 © CJS Online Click here to download PDF file < Back to Current Table of Contents