An Exploration Into Melodrama and Sport: The 'Miracle on Ice' and the Cold war Lens‪.‬

It is well documented that the modern Olympic Games (i.e., since 1896) are a setting for melodramatic hubris. For example, flags flying or rising into the rafters, national anthems playing, and the ceremonial arrival, collection, and announcement of various teams/countries provide the important symbols necessary to prompt the staking of geopolitical positions for the production of melodrama. (1) Amateur athletes who perform and compete on this world stage can easily secure recognition as evil villains, mythical heroes, or fallen victims. This occurs because the level of athleticism and the natural drama of contests (i.e. uncertainty of the outcome) provides for exciting performances and exhilarating competitions, which readily connect and complement the fields of battle for national pride and ideological legitimacy. To deny the Olympics and other major world competitions existence as playgrounds for nation-based ideological wars is foolish; sport has frequently been used as an instrument of foreign policy since the 19th century. (2) Baron Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic movement, promoted the idea of high drama in the Olympics to help build a more unified, rational, and harmonious world. However, events like the Cold War boycotts of 1980 (Moscow) and 1984 (Los Angeles) by the Americans and Soviets, respectively, challenged and undermined the Olympics as a non-political world event. (3) Behind a veil of global unification, the actual Olympics during the Cold War Era were generally celebrated as good versus evil. (4) Furthermore, for the media personnel of participating countries, the Olympics served to "reaffirm either stereotypical images of national others or reconstitute them into new images through a greater range of portrayals." (5) For western countries, like the United States, that meant they promoted themselves as the "good guys" because they represented democracy, freedom, and capitalism. (6) Those in opposition, like the Eastern Bloc communist regimes, were publicized as the "bad guys" because they were militaristic war mongers that sought to restrict the freedoms and social rights of their people and others who they invaded. The Soviet Union was singled-out as the main bad guy by the American media because they emerged as the main superpower in the world which supported communist or socialist governments. (7) Furthermore, the Soviets invaded several countries since the end of World War II to promote and impose socialist/communist regimes. (8) Athletically, the Soviets were also recognized because they constructed a training system which sought to produce physically superior athletes through early age-identification and selection which placed those athletes in special "sport schools." (9)