Thinking global, living local: Voices in a globalized world

Read all posts from ‘The olympics – a tale of two worlds’

  • Are Sports an Unfair Game for Women in India?

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    “As an Indian woman of the 21st century, what I find disillusioning is the humiliating manner in which I was set up as bait in a ploy to try and pacify one of the disgruntled stalwarts of Indian tennis.” Sania Mirza The two times Grand Slam champion and India’s number one […]

  • Wild Things: Amateurs and Wild Cards at the Olympics

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      The mirage of unexpected excellence is something that has been animating the Olympic Games ever since their inception in the 1890s. As the chances of an amateur surpassing the reliable performance of a professionally groomed athlete grow slimmer and slimmer, this mirage becomes more potent than ever. But is […]

  • Sexism at the Olympics: A primer

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    The 2012 London Olympic Games will be remembered as a turning point for female athletes. For the first time all 204 participating nations sent women, moreover, these are the first games in which medals were to women awarded in all sports, including boxing. However, the Games still reveal an inherent […]

  • Africa and the Great Olympic Myth

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    The International Olympic Committee is certainly not bashful about proclaiming its lofty ideals. The Olympics, it says, is about placing sport – silver platter style – at the “service of humanity and to thereby promote peace”. The iconic Olympic rings themselves signify a kind of brotherhood or “union between men”. […]