Jay Doubleyou: team gb... or uk?

We know sport and politics mix:

The liberal-minded New Statesman asks why the British media is so fixated on 'Team GB' at the Olympics:

The media’s fixation on Team GB has reduced the Olympics to a display of parochial nationalism

The BBC – reflecting the priorities of its audience – has reimagined the greatest sporting pageant on Earth as Team GB vs Everyone Else.

By any standard, Kimia Alizadeh’s journey to Tokyo is one of the most remarkable tales of this year’s Olympics. Born in modest circumstances in Karaj, Iran, she was catapulted to national fame in 2016 when she won bronze in the taekwondo 57kg category in Rio de Janeiro, becoming Iran’s first ever female Olympic medallist. She was publicly praised by the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. The president Hassan Rouhani called Alizadeh “my daughter”. On arriving back in Tehran, she was greeted by huge crowds and garlanded with flowers.

But in January 2020, she defected and went into hiding. In a statement she described herself as “one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran”, denouncing the government’s corruption and exploitation of female athletes. She claimed asylum in Germany, where she lives with her husband. Now, officially stateless and competing for the Olympic Refugee Team, she won her first match against – as fate would have it – her friend and former team-mate, Nahid Kiani of Iran. Then, in a thrilling second-round encounter, she took on – and sensationally beat – Jade Jones, the double Olympic champion from Great Britain.

Alas, if you were following the Olympic taekwondo on BBC television, only the last part of this story will have been deemed to be of any relevance to you. Perhaps it was only natural that a British broadcaster would choose to linger on Jones’s shock defeat in pursuit of an unprecedented third taekwondo Olympic gold: the gasping heartbreak, the flowing tears, the glowing studio tributes to a “great champion”. Even so, there was a coldness to the way her conqueror was essentially edited out of the coverage.

Not only was there no mention of Alizadeh’s remarkable story, but there was barely any analysis of how she had won. The rest of the competition was discussed only in terms of what it meant for Jones (Alizadeh was defeated in the semi-finals but had she reached the final, Jones would have been eligible to fight for bronze). For the BBC, one of the most intriguing athletes at these Olympics existed only as a vague, faceless other, briefly illuminated by her proximity to Our Brave, Brilliant Jade.

As the delayed Olympics finally kicks into gear, this is becoming a recurring theme. The message coming out of the Team GB camp at these Games is that the ruthless, unstinting emphasis on medals at all costs is being diluted ever so slightly. After winning a spectacular 27 golds in Rio, finishing second in the medal table, expectations are a little more modest this time around. But based on the early coverage – both on traditional and social media – the cult of Team GB appears as strong as ever.

Early successes for the swimmer Adam Peaty, the diver Tom Daley and the mountain biker Tom Pidcock have generated the sort of familiar wholesale parochialism that now largely defines Britain’s relationship with the Olympics. Over the past decade, the greatest sporting pageant on Earth has been reimagined as Team GB vs Everyone Else.

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So here are just a few of the stories you may have missed over the first few days of the Games: Hend Zaza, the 12-year-old Syrian table tennis player who survived a civil war and made it to Tokyo; France’s stunning 83-76 triumph over the all-star US team in the men’s basketball; the Austrian cyclist Anna Kiesenhofer, who won the women’s road race in one of the sport’s greatest upsets; Momiji Nishiya, the tearful, beaming 13-year-old home gold medallist in the women’s street skateboarding; and the Tunisian swimmer Ahmed Hafnaoui, who won the men’s 400 metres freestyle despite qualifying slowest for the final. So often the Games is folded into a narrative of national virility, national superiority, national glory. The real lesson of the Olympics, surely, is that greatness comes from everywhere.

The media’s fixation on Team GB has reduced the Olympics to a display of parochial nationalism

But it's even more bizarre.

British nationalists are concerned about the 'union' - that is, the 'united' kingdom of all the bits of the UK staying together.

However, as explained in an excellent piece by a foreign (ie, American) media outlet, the "Brits" don't seem to really know who they are or who they want to keep on board:

Why does the United Kingdom compete as Team GB instead of Team UK at the Olympics?

It has a lot to do with geography and branding.

ATLANTA — Many Americans watching the Olympics might catch a glimpse of our friends from across the Atlantic competing as Team GB - as in Great Britain - and wonder why they don't go by the name of their country, the United Kingdom. If the thought has crossed your mind and you're looking for an answer, buckle up for some geography, because the short answer basically boils down to: Northern Ireland is why.

See, the United Kingdom is one country composed of four distinct countries - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (fans of the show "Ted Lasso" might recall Jason Sudeikis' famous quip, "How many countries are in this country?").

Without getting too into the weeds of how the government of the United Kingdom works, think of it as a distant cousin to how territories like Puerto Rico and Guam are part of the United States but self-governing (it's not a great analogy, because Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland have significant involvement in the UK national government in ways Puerto Rico does not, but don't get too stuck on that.)

So while the UK refers to the political union of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Great Britain refers only to the island of Great Britain, which is composed of England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland sits on the island of Ireland, sharing it with the Republic of Ireland, its own country separate from the UK (if you're wondering, yes, there is a whole lot of political history behind that division of Ireland that we won't be getting into).

So, to recap - the UK is England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; Great Britain is just England, Scotland and Wales. The official name of the UK, in fact, is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Here's where the Olympics come back in. The UK's official Olympic team name is the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team - but that's not very catchy. Beginning in 1999, they shortened it to the snappier "Team GB." And, yes, this is a sore spot among some in Northern Ireland. The country's sports minister once said the Team GB name "excludes, and indeed alienates, the people of Northern Ireland."

There is one more layer to it - broadly speaking, athletes from Northern Ireland don't actually automatically have to compete with Team GB. In most cases they can choose, if they want, to compete with Ireland under the Republic of Ireland flag. This year, there are 31 athletes from Northern Ireland at the Olympics, most of them competing with Team Ireland. That distinction probably also plays some of the role in Great Britain taking prominence in the Team GB name at the expense, to a certain extent, of fully including Northern Ireland.

Olympics 2020 weirdest sports | 11alive.com

Here's a quick 'explanation' of the difference between UK and GB:

Jay Doubleyou: explaining how your country works

The 'British' have never really understood Northern Ireland - and even less so today, when it's really important:

The Northern Ireland Protocol was only ever a placeholder to get Brexit over the line - now the real work begins - CityAM : CityAM

In fact, the Brits have never understood Ireland:

'Suddenly everything just exploded' - Bonnie Greer on sticking up for Ireland on the BBC

Here's another quick explanation - of the difference between NI and Ireland:

Jay Doubleyou: brexit and ireland

Actually, the British could learn a thing or two from their neighbours:

Jay Doubleyou: what's the best country?

Jay Doubleyou: the good country party