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Russian President Vladimir Putin couldn't care less that openly gay tennis icon Billie Jean King as well as gay female hockey player Caitlin Cahow will be part of the official US delegation to the Sochi Games. Photo: Reuters
Opinion
Tim Noonan
Tim Noonan

How to put Putin in his place at Sochi Games

Strongman couldn't care less about political posturing; what will grab his attention is if the US steal Russia's thunder on the ice

You've never heard of Janet Napolitano? Well unless you are a political junkie, you are not alone. However, there is one thing you need to know about Napolitano and that is her unabashed willingness to serve her country, the United States of America. And while Napolitano is quite accomplished in her own right (she is the president of the University of California and former governor of Arizona as well as the first female to serve as Secretary of Homeland Security), it's because of who she isn't that her country has conscripted her services.

Last week, President Barack Obama announced that Napolitano would lead the US delegation at the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. This will be the first time since 1988 the US Olympic delegation has not included a current or former president, vice-president or a member of their families and it is all because Obama wants to send an emphatic rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin over his draconian anti-gay laws. Of course, I was not privy to the conversation between Obama and Napolitano and since I don't have access to the NSA's obligatory wiretap I can only assume what was said. Presumably it was something along the lines of, "Listen, Janet, we have to make a statement to Russia and we can't do it by sending anyone of significance to the opening ceremonies. Your country needs your international insignificance".

In other news, Putin shrugged and when it was announced that openly gay tennis icon Billie Jean King as well as gay female hockey player Caitlin Cahow would also be part of the official US delegation, Putin shrugged again. He simply does not care and no amount of diplomatic embarrassment and bullying will change that.

If team Russia underperform in these Games, it will be a national embarrassment of epic proportions

Putin's appointed head of Russia's state media, Dmitri Kiselyov, recently claimed that jailing gays for espousing their beliefs was not enough. "They should be prohibited from donating blood or sperm," Kiseylov said. "And their hearts, in case of a car accident, should be buried or burned as unfit for extending anyone's life."

There is no question that the Sochi Games will become a fulcrum for gay rights. Gay rights activists will no doubt be acting up in mobs hoping to incite official reaction. The expressionless Putin will once again shrug while telling his fellow Russians that, like he had said all along, gays are unhinged and a threat to decency and their behaviour during the Olympics is merely proof of that.

The most important thing about diplomatic posturing is making sure it plays out favourably on the home front, a notion that both Obama and Putin are subscribing to. As a sports fan you might be right in asking when does the first puck drop in the hockey competition, as in the games part of the Olympic Games? Aside from those fleeting moments of actual performance, everything is political about the Olympics. When Putin spends an unprecedented US$50 billion in government money to host these Games, he's not doing it so his countrymen can enjoy a festival of sports. He is doing it to show the world the new Russia, his Russia: an unrepentant international pariah with lots and lots of oil money.

The IOC charter states that any form of discrimination against a person is deemed "incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement" and that the IOC's role is "to act against any form of discrimination affecting the Olympic Movement".

Clearly, Russia's anti-gay laws are in violation of this but, again, Putin merely shrugs and the IOC lets him because he won't to be told how to run his country. There is only one way to shame him and that is on the ice and in the mountains. If team Russia underperform in these Games, it will be a national embarrassment of epic proportions well beyond the government's homophobic dogma.

Perhaps Obama should have been in contact with USA Hockey, seeking updates on the team's health and whether they needed any official help in their medal quest. Come February 15, 2014, when the puck is dropped between the US and Russia in what promises to be a hotly contested game, it won't matter what officials the US sent or did not send. You beat Putin's beloved hockey team and you take a significant chunk out of his seemingly indestructible armour. That's how you make a statement.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: How to put Putin in his place
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