WEBVTT - Part One: The Popular Olympics: Antifascist Athletes Help Stop a Coup 0:00:01.639 --> 0:00:05.080 Hello, and welcome to String of Turtles, the only podcast 0:00:05.120 --> 0:00:10.080 about Pepperonia prostrata, a tiny, succulent native plant that you 0:00:10.160 --> 0:00:14.280 can be growing yourself. And this podcast is entirely devoted 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:18.799 to that plant. That is the podcast you're listening to. 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:25.319 I'm your host, Margaret Kiljoy, and that's my intro. It 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:29.560 was so good. Why did you Why why did you 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:33.279 lead with that? Macie? Well, I've been thinking about how 0:00:33.280 --> 0:00:34.880 I should just This is how I'm going to start 0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:39.360 pitching podcasts. Is just introduced podcast as if it's those 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:42.640 podcasts I mean, I mean strong first pitch as that 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:48.880 is my favorite plant playing to my audience. I'll send 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:50.560 you I'll send you a picture of what that is 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:53.880 James later. Yeah, please, I'm always excited to learn more 0:00:53.880 --> 0:00:59.279 about plants. Well, or you're listening to Cool People Did 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:03.200 Cool Stuff, a twice weekly podcast about all the greatest 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:08.200 people in history, including a String of Turtles with me 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:14.080 today as my guest is James, who is actually not 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:19.080 the guest but the host. The guest host, James. Everybody, 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:24.399 I just went full late night on us. James. Yeah, yeah, 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:26.200 I feel like I'm walking out. I'm going to sit 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:30.360 on the sofa yeah, I mean that you should feel 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:33.840 like you're comfortable and sitting on a sofa during this podcast. Yeah, 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:36.560 I need to install like a podcasting sofa and that 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:40.039 full support, and it would explain why you're wearing a 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:46.240 three piece suit. I was surprised, I was. Yeah, I'm 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:48.240 an American citizen now, so I don't have to It's 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:53.600 not like it's not like a condition of retaining my passport. Yeah, 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:57.920 I'm just swearing it is how I feel safe and comfortable. Yeah. So, 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:02.080 as we've implied, James is going to be telling me 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:05.760 about stuff, and I actually don't know what we're going 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:11.560 to be talking about for the full proper reverse experience. James. Yeah, good, 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:14.320 I get to surprise you. People who have listened to 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:16.960 the other things that we've done together will be both 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:19.359 both shocked and amazed to hear that that this one 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:25.119 is based in Spain. Yeah, that's what I do. So 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:27.440 I'm going to keep doing it until someone stops me. 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:30.720 What I want to ask you, Margaret, is what do 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:34.320 you think? What do you make of the Olympics. As 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:36.480 a kid, I thought they were cool, and then once 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:39.200 I started understanding politics, I learned that they are not 0:02:39.280 --> 0:02:42.960 cool because there are this massive gentrification force that um 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:47.359 destroys entire neighborhoods and or cities every couple of years. 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:49.600 That's what I know about the Olympics. But I also 0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:54.079 am like even as a like grouchy, I hang out 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:55.799 with the girls in the corner of the gym class 0:02:55.840 --> 0:02:59.240 and get failing grades and paint my nails black um 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:01.880 instead of particip opinion. Even back in my most anti 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:03.840 sports I still kind of thought it was cool when 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:06.840 people like spin around six times in the air on 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:09.840 ice skates and ship. Yeah that is cool. That the 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:11.760 ship that people do is cool. Like you said, the 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:13.760 structure that that brings them best to do it is 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:17.160 deeply uncool. And I think, yeah, your ark is very 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:20.080 much like mine, except that my PhD was procerally funded 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:23.000 by the IOC, so it was a little more acrimonious. 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:26.840 My break up with your Olympic gates that the International 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:30.800 Olympic Committee, the est it is the very same, based 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:33.000 in a nice little town by Lake Juneva in Switzerland, 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:36.720 where all the good stuff happened. Yeah, no bad stuff happened, 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:40.600 and famously that this is because they entirely took the 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:45.680 right side in the Second World war and just a 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:48.280 little bit of what we're going to talk about today, right, 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:50.720 So this is they were talking about the Olympics and 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:53.440 why they're great, yeah, and where they're magnifficent and where 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:56.520 there are no problems with them. These are actually a 0:03:56.600 --> 0:04:00.680 different Olympics from the Olympics you're probably thinking of. People 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:02.640 are probably familiar with different Olympics. We have been different 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:06.160 Olympics through time. So we're going to talk today. I think, well, 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:08.320 I want to start actually explaining a little bit about 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:11.920 the modern Olympics or the ioc Olympics, or the Olympics 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:14.240 you probably saw when you're a kid on television, and 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:17.000 those are like I think I want to defer to 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:19.000 my friend David Goldblack, who has written a really good 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:21.200 book on the history of the Olympic Games. It's called 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:24.320 The Games. People should buy it. He calls them the 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:27.479 gathering of the transnational bourgeoisie, which I think is pretty 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:31.640 right on. They so the Olympics have this claim right 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:34.560 that they're like handed down from a classical tradition. M 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:37.480 that did the idea that it comes directly from ancient Greece. 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:40.480 To where where are they doing it next? Paris or 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:44.479 wherever l A hopefully not so. This is kind of 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:46.880 baked into one Olympic law. But it's not really true, right, 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:48.800 Like a lot of them, the stuff they talk about 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:51.039 in ancient Greece isn't really true. A lot of it 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:53.279 actually draws from much more recent events, one of which 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:56.240 is a Cotsworld Olympics, which takes place in a place 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:59.880 where I grew up. Okay what no, I I had 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:08.680 don't even understand cards swallow Okay, yes, yeah British. Is 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:12.680 this a sex thing? Yeah, the older the old cock 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:15.760 Sword Olympic. No, it's the con sort of place where 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:19.039 I lived. Nice place that's a sheet. This is like 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:23.520 cock Fosters. When I was a subway in London, I 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:25.839 had a hard time. Everyone knew I was the American 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:28.960 because I would giggle every time the nice British lady 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:34.200 the robot would say, next up is cock Fosters anyway. Yeah, 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:38.719 this is like Lord Hereford's Knob. Where about like a 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:45.400 real place you know, who's the tourist, just like well 0:05:45.400 --> 0:05:47.760 worn path to take a picture with the sign Lord 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:51.200 Hereford's Knob, and like two very tired people who just 0:05:51.240 --> 0:05:53.039 have to deal with that ship every time they get 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:54.920 have to give their address to someone on the phone. 0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:58.040 The other thing I found out was my publisher tour 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:01.799 t o R. I didn't know that that was a word. 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:05.320 Went I went to Yeah, yeah, darn more like you 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:08.640 do the ten tours and you go and go around him. Yeah, 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:11.159 I went to one of them. I think Mr Avalon 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:15.320 was maybe based on one we were in I don't know, Devon, 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:21.080 England somewhere now. It's like the witchy town in West Center, England, 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:27.320 the witchy town in west at Stratford, No, West Center England. 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:32.600 It's like, y'all Salem oh um, it's like where all 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:36.400 the touristy witchy ship is. You know, Well that's not 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:42.880 what yeah anyway, Yeah, so yeah. Codswort Olympics, which predate 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:45.760 the modern Olympics, take place where I grew up, and people, 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:47.680 if you've heard of them, you'll heard of him because 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:53.240 one of the events you shin kicking, which is that 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:55.840 means something completely different. No, No, you put your hands 0:06:55.839 --> 0:06:57.920 on the other person's shoulders and kick the ship out 0:06:57.920 --> 0:07:01.360 of each other's shins and give up. Yeah, yields it 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:04.919 falls over here. That's the most classic drunk game in 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:08.839 the world. Much of English culture can be understood, is like, 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:12.600 that's the most classic drunk game in the world. I 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:14.480 don't know if people if you want to know exactly 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:17.720 where I'm from and how I used to speak before 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:20.560 I went to university. If you watch that that that 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:25.080 documentary about cheese rolling on Netflix, you're familiar with cheese rolling. No, 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:31.360 the fact that there's a documentary on Netflix. So they 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:33.680 roll the cheese down the hill? Do they make the 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:37.679 cheese wheels by rolling them? Then you chase? It's quite 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:41.760 literally literal Cooper's Hill. You just it's I mean, it's 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:47.480 not fucking about. It's a proper hill. Okay, you're gonna 0:07:47.520 --> 0:07:49.800 lose your footing at some point, but the key it's 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:51.680 just to kind of let it roll and go kind 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:53.960 of come down the hill just flailing and aim for 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:58.680 the cheese when you get there. Fantastic. I mean a 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:01.000 lot of people get very grievously injured, like people have 0:08:01.120 --> 0:08:04.080 life altering injuries. All right. I've been listening to the 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:09.000 Terry Pratchett books again, and I swear to God all 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:12.640 of the weird fantasy made up just England. I remember 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:15.320 one time I interviewed Alan Moore about this thing, and 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:17.840 I was asking him how he felt about v for Vendetta, 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:20.400 and he was like, look, it's an American parable, the 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:22.800 movie version, so they should have said it in America, 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:25.400 and so setting in England because you Americans think we 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:28.520 probably still have giants or whatever here. And I couldn't 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:31.320 tell him he was wrong. And the fact that you 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:38.920 have a cheese rolling hill in cock swallow codswallow, cops 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:44.280 fold Cotswold. Yeah, okay, so that's that's on me. That 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:47.960 one's on me. I'm sorry, Okay. Yeah, this is a 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:49.880 very twee version of English. And it's like the cops 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:51.480 was are full of people who like have a ship 0:08:51.559 --> 0:08:53.439 tone of money and I want to pretend that it's 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:57.800 the eighteenth century, okay, and and people who have lived 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:00.800 there and are in agriculture or whatever. But yeah, it 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:03.079 presents a very tweet version of Englishness, which it packages 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:04.760 for foreigners, you know, like there were bust tours of 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:08.040 Americans all the time coming through villages near where I 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:09.680 grew up. And it's not it's not all of what 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:13.199 Englishness is anyway. The Olympics have always claimed that they 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:15.920 unite the youth of the world right and promote peace 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:18.840 through mutual understanding, acceptance of the rules and fair play. 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:21.079 But in reality they really celebrate the shared interests of 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:23.320 global elite with enough time and money to travel around 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:26.880 the world before commercial airlines existed, and then they take 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:29.360 part in events like modern pentathlon, which, if you're not 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:32.560 a fan of marger, includes fencing, horse riding, and shooting 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:35.360 in addition to running and swimming. I see that rules 0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:37.960 I have known. I know those are all bougie things, 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:42.320 but they also are rule. So yeah, I did a 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:46.440 trial for Olympic Modern pentathlon when I was younger, and 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:49.720 it's fun. There's lots of things you can't do in fencing, 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:52.920 which makes it kind of cucked in my opinion. Yeah, 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:56.040 but yeah it was fun. Not not for me, not 0:09:56.080 --> 0:09:57.920 the way when it's fen my life. But there was 0:09:57.920 --> 0:09:59.760 a while there where if you were good at exercising, 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:03.080 they were just trying to find people who could who could, 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:05.040 Like Britain had this weird thing for a while where 0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:07.360 they talk to the Olympic medals by just being like, hey, 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:11.000 you're good exercising, can you go on a horse right bucket? 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:20.720 Like now? Yeah, okay, so by the it makes shin kicking, 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:23.160 you know. I never really got a shin kicking you 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:26.200 want to try shooting off a horse, But yeah, that 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:29.800 sounds better. If they bought the shin kicking back, I 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:32.480 think I'd be more in favor of the IOC, just 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:37.200 like recruit people who have abnormally bony shins. Yeah. So, 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:40.559 by the early nineteen thirties, Olympics have become an international institution, 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:44.760 but they continue to enforce a rule about amateurism. So 0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:47.800 the amateurism rule holds the Olympians can't be professional athletes 0:10:47.960 --> 0:10:51.120 and they must not receive a financial reward for practicing 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:54.960 their sport. So this rule has its has its roots 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:57.800 really in the invention of sport. So, like we were 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:01.360 talking about cheese rolling, Right, what's sport does is it 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:05.520 takes play and then it contains it like both physically 0:11:05.559 --> 0:11:08.520 and within a set of rules. Right, if people want 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:09.880 to read about this, that the kind of the classic 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:14.360 Texas Homo Ludin's And this happens in nineteenth century England, right, 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:18.280 and very quickly after sports like football and redby first 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:20.840 football and rugby have to deviate from each other. Right, 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:25.320 they started the same sport. Okay, there's a there's like 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:27.480 a myth about the guy who invented rugby. It's not true. 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:30.400 It became possible for teams around the country to compete 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:33.440 against each other before this, Like one town or school 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:34.959 might have its own set of rules and they play 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:36.840 against the town next door or something. You can see 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:42.040 this in like folk football matches, where yeah, they're cool, 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:43.960 Like there's a football in between two towns and they 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:46.040 have to kick it into other town basically, and like that, 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:48.800 there are very basic rules. Go ahead. The sport that 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:52.200 I play, it's called bella garth, and then bella garth 0:11:52.280 --> 0:11:54.760 you get foam swords and you get each other with 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:57.560 the swords, but not in the head. And there's all 0:11:57.640 --> 0:12:01.959 kinds of really elaborate rules, and the the sports split 0:12:02.040 --> 0:12:04.080 and I don't remember which direction I when someone's gonna 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:07.959 be really upset about this. Dagger here is a very 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:11.600 similar sport. Dagger here is where you get foam swords 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:12.960 and then you hit each other with the swords, but 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:16.200 not in the head. It's the same sport, but there's 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:20.000 different rules, and it's called cross gaming. When a dagger 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:22.720 here field goes to a dagger to bella garth field, 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:26.400 and vice versa. So I'm very familiar with the difficulties 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:31.839 presented in learning. You know exactly how why the foam 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:36.520 tip of the sword has to be um, whether or 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:42.920 not there's resurrection spells like I'm I feel the rugby 0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:47.240 football problem that writing into. Previous to that, see like 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:49.280 folk football had a very simile set of rules like 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:51.520 this's that's one. I forget where it is somewhere in 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:53.920 the West Country. Whether the only rules you were allowed 0:12:53.920 --> 0:13:00.160 to stab your opponent again, And that's a problem them 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:04.080 and dagger here. I don't think these people were dealing 0:13:04.120 --> 0:13:08.760 in foam daggers that would see you. Okay, okay, So 0:13:09.360 --> 0:13:11.440 but once their rules, who agreed to right, you can 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:14.600 play anyone, You can play anyone from anywhere, so very quickly, 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:16.559 this allows people of different classes to play each other, 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:20.320 and so very quickly people who are in a upper 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:24.120 class pedition start to fence off from playing sports against 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:27.760 people who are not right. So this distinction emerges between 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:33.080 what are called gentlemen and what are called players gender police. 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:36.000 For the most part, right it's men. The Olympics with 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:38.959 a gentleman and amateurs. People wealthy enough to take time 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:41.280 off work for travel and training work because you could 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:44.920 afford the time and travel weren't welcome at the Olympics, 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:48.320 and you can see these rules being used to police 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:52.160 not just class, but also race. You're probably familiar with 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:56.240 Jim's Thorpe. That's the name I've heard before, and I'll 0:13:56.280 --> 0:13:59.360 remember once to tell me. He's an Indigenous man and 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:02.679 role member of the Second Fox Nation and he's probably 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:07.880 the greatest athlete America has produced. Okay, so his first time, 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:09.679 he went to one of these residential schools, right he 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:14.280 went to Carlisle Indian School. He was allegedly walking past 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:17.200 where some kids were training high jump one day. I 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:19.200 wanted to try it, and still in his school clothes, 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:26.200 he beat all of them. Twelve. He dominated the pentathlon 0:14:26.400 --> 0:14:29.960 and decathlon at the Olympics. He however, had his medal 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:35.280 removed because he played semi pro baseball in college. So 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:41.000 he's doing this is his sixteen sport, rightly five But 0:14:41.040 --> 0:14:43.280 before that he got some money for playing semi for 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:47.440 a baseball So no one wanted to compete against this guy. No, 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:51.400 he is he is like a gigger chad, to put 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:54.960 in modern parlance, like he's it's really sad. Actually, Jim 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:58.320 thought wrote a book about the Olympics. This guy loved 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:01.880 what the Olympics were supposed to be and like wanted 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:04.400 this chance to show himself to the world and improve 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:08.160 him every bit. They're equal and their superior in fifteen 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:10.840 different sports, right, And he did that and then they 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:13.200 were like, now, fuck you dude, you can't you can't 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:15.440 have your medal. So he went on to play pro 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:18.720 baseball and then also pro football because he hadn't played 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:23.160 enough sports. So like, yeah, there's there's not that he 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:27.200 was like before Bo Jackson and without a shoe contract sadly, 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:30.480 but his medals were reinstated, like not that long ago. 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:33.160 The IOC gave his family his meles back, but he 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:36.760 died not having had his medals taken away, right. And 0:15:36.800 --> 0:15:39.720 you can see this in other instances with other especially 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:43.280 with indigenous athletes. Actually the them always falling foul of 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:47.520 little professionals professionalism rules because it wasn't there was one 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:50.520 acceptance and professionalism rule, and it was for fencing coaches. 0:15:51.880 --> 0:15:57.200 Fencing coaches could compete, okay, because it's a class thing, right, 0:15:57.240 --> 0:16:01.000 Like the fencing is that that's what it was about. 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:02.520 It is about people that they didn't want to play 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:06.240 with and people who they wanted to play with, so well, 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:09.160 that sucks. Yeah, it was shipped actually, which is why, 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:11.120 as we're going to find out, there were some other 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:15.280 Olympics which were considerably better. The Olympics didn't want athletes 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:17.640 like Jim Thorpe because it dispproved a lot of what 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:19.240 the Olympics were supposed to be about, which is kind 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:23.040 of leugenic. But Workers Sport did a welcome athletes from 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:25.640 slams and sworkshops around the world, and retally they would 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:28.760 run faster, jump, higher, lift heavier than their boys counterparts. 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:31.400 Like everything else on the left, it broke up very 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:37.000 quickly into multiple factions. And yeah, it's shocking, isn't it. 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:39.840 When is when? And where is this? This is the 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:43.720 first couple of decades of the twentieth century. Okay, so 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:49.080 you'll see them mostly like like post Russian Revolution and 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:52.320 you have like a you have a sports International, you 0:16:52.360 --> 0:16:56.080 have like it's Workers Sport was huge. It's hard for 0:16:56.120 --> 0:16:59.640 me to convey to people like how big this was. 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:02.560 You'll get like, so for instance, um, if we look 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:07.000 at the Workers Olympics, you had a hundred thousand people 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:10.800 competing in a quarter of a million watching. Jesus, these 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:15.000 are vast events at one of the Spartaki Ads. I 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:17.160 think it was a Sparkay. So you have the workers 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:19.760 Olympics with the Socialist of Spartaki adds, a communist right 0:17:20.880 --> 0:17:24.480 like Spartacus. Yeah, the Spartaki adds. I think it was 0:17:24.520 --> 0:17:28.000 at the Spartaki yad. They they had this for the 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:32.040 closing ceremony. They constructed a giant tower like look at 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:37.000 several stories high, like paper and cardboard. Tower collapsed it 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:40.159 because they had written global Finance Capital on it. So 0:17:40.240 --> 0:17:45.800 the closing ceremony was collapsing it and setting it on fire. Rules. Yeah, 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:48.119 it was pretty cool stuff. Actually, it's it's said, we 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:51.040 don't have this anymore. And so one of the primary 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:53.359 defenders of this amateurism, right, it's class police and a 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:57.560 sports this dude called Avery Brandage. Every brandage first headed 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:00.000 up the United States Olympic Committee and then the International 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:04.840 Olympic Committee. And it's around this particularly odious bureaucrat that 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:08.160 I'm going to sort of start our story today because 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:12.119 you see in nineteen thirty one, the same year, acquarter 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:14.520 of a million socialists in Germany watched that fake tower 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:17.520 get pulled to the ground and burned in the closing 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:21.160 ceremony of the Workers Olympics. The International Olympic Committee met 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:23.439 in Barcelona to see who was going to hold the 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:28.000 nineteen thirty six Olympic Games. Okay, ten days before they met, 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:31.239 Spain had declared a republic. When they decided to meet there, 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:36.679 it was a monarchy, soas military regime had collapsed, they 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:40.120 step down and a left liberal republic had been constituted. 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:43.200 Crowds of working class people had welcomed in the streets, 0:18:43.200 --> 0:18:48.000 and Francesque Massier had taken the opportunity presented to declare Catalonia, 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:52.359 the nation of which Bathlona is the capital. Independent. In 0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:54.639 the weeks that follow Catalonia haven't quite left Spain, but 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:59.240 gained significant autonomy and its assembly. The estapp Catalet joined 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:02.400 the Republican Arty of Luish Compounds and the Lopping Your 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:05.200 Group to form a new party called the Republican Left 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:10.240 of Catalonia catal initials e r C. It basically became 0:19:10.280 --> 0:19:13.280 a popular front combining a really broad range of liberals 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:17.399 and leftists within Catalonia. Within Catalonia, Yeah, but the popular 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:19.960 front policy doesn't come about a little later with the 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:22.440 comm in turn, but this was for the most part, 0:19:22.600 --> 0:19:25.760 most of the popular front. So obviously the International Olympic 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:29.040 Committee looks at this and it's a giant disaster for them. Right, 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:31.320 for the working people of Catalonia is a huge win. 0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:34.679 But uh, because they're like, no, but we want to 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:37.439 like run around and ride horses with rich people, and 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:39.639 these people want to run around and ride horses on 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:42.560 rich people, and so it's like they're not really Yeah, 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:46.320 it's actually like your your dagger here. Yeah, it doesn't 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:48.639 much like that. Yeah, it's a small difference, just just 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:56.680 one't work. Yeah, prepositions whatever, Yeah, yeah, don't start. So 0:19:56.880 --> 0:20:00.239 there were five counts to one marquee at this meeting, right, 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:02.520 a marquee. I don't quite know where they say it 0:20:02.560 --> 0:20:06.560 on the hierarchy, but it's as yeah, I always forget. 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:10.680 It's someone whose job is being born. That's the most 0:20:10.680 --> 0:20:16.040 distinguishing element of their life. Those people shouldn't been making 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:19.000 decisions for us anyway. They were supposed to vote on 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:23.800 whether games will be held, right, and they probably did vote, 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:26.640 but the International Olympic Committee took the very strange step 0:20:26.640 --> 0:20:29.800 of deciding there wasn't a quorum, which they hadn't done before, 0:20:30.000 --> 0:20:34.680 even when there were fewer attendees. Okay, this this specific ship, 0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:37.360 like this vote is months of my life in an 0:20:37.440 --> 0:20:43.040 archive in Switzerland, which you know, whatever. Wait, but but 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:46.600 then who decides because the democracy failed? And then one 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:51.920 person was like no, never mind, there wasn't quorum, Like well, yeah, 0:20:52.000 --> 0:20:56.080 so that's what I would love to tell you. That 0:20:57.160 --> 0:20:59.720 what I have been looking for. So you have the 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:03.040 airs and you have the various like international Olympic committees reporting, 0:21:03.520 --> 0:21:07.520 So it's someone in the structure of the International Olympic Committee, right, 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:10.600 I decided we need to vote by telegram. It's dead 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:16.560 And I've looked at these telegrams extensively, and I don't 0:21:16.600 --> 0:21:19.000 want to say it's I can't prove it true or 0:21:19.320 --> 0:21:21.920 they would have written a boo about it, but I'm 0:21:21.920 --> 0:21:23.439 pretty sure they were like, now we can't have the 0:21:23.440 --> 0:21:26.879 Olympics here, like we need to, like we need to 0:21:26.920 --> 0:21:29.240 do another vote because they've they've voted the wrong way 0:21:29.280 --> 0:21:32.280 this time. Yeah, because all these parts people didn't come. 0:21:32.320 --> 0:21:34.600 But they were like, no, we're not coming, like these 0:21:34.600 --> 0:21:37.160 people are like having a revolution, Like I'm not going there. 0:21:38.040 --> 0:21:41.840 I mean, it was a it turned out to be 0:21:41.880 --> 0:21:45.440 a rough time to be I mean a nice time 0:21:45.440 --> 0:21:48.720 in some ways. But nineteen thirty six pain Catalonian Barcelona 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:51.760 was like also a rough place, you know, yeah, well 0:21:51.880 --> 0:21:53.320 there was a good place for sports. We're going to 0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:56.440 find out, Okay. So whatever the process, they decided to 0:21:56.480 --> 0:22:00.400 pick a more stable democracy instead, and so they gave 0:22:00.400 --> 0:22:07.560 the nine six Olympics to Vimar, Germany. Yeah, which actually maybe, uh, 0:22:08.080 --> 0:22:10.679 do you know what what won't collapse into a genocidal 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:16.959 fascist regime A pile of turtles, that's right, turtles all 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:24.960 the way down. Yeah, here's an advert for turtles. We're back. 0:22:25.359 --> 0:22:29.040 Have you enjoyed those turtles? So in the years that 0:22:29.080 --> 0:22:33.280 followed ninety one, Margaret, some some stuff happened in Vimar Germany. 0:22:33.600 --> 0:22:37.840 Some things occurred. It's stopped being Vimar Germany. I feel like, yeah, 0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:43.000 that was the main That was the main thing that happened. 0:22:43.040 --> 0:22:46.080 Was it stopping via my Germany? They went from interesting 0:22:46.160 --> 0:22:51.560 and good into interesting and bad. Yeah. Yeah, that's a 0:22:51.960 --> 0:22:54.880 that's one of the most distinct sumations of German history 0:22:54.880 --> 0:22:57.919 in the nineties. X. Yeah, yeah, that's all you need 0:22:57.960 --> 0:23:02.400 to know about it. Everyone, we've done now, Okay, So 0:23:03.080 --> 0:23:06.399 Catalonia actually remained pretty stable under the earc relations in 0:23:06.440 --> 0:23:09.320 Madrid got much worse than nineteen thirty three when the Data, 0:23:09.440 --> 0:23:13.600 which is a Catholic right wing party took power in 0:23:13.640 --> 0:23:16.280 Madrid and began to crack down on Catalan autonomy and 0:23:16.359 --> 0:23:20.199 social progress. And they were extremely progressive. Right, we're going 0:23:20.240 --> 0:23:22.800 to talk about what the sports, but like the legalized abortion, 0:23:24.119 --> 0:23:26.960 you could divorce with no particular preconditions if you wanted to. 0:23:28.040 --> 0:23:31.120