Jesse Owens is revered for his four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics, his dominant performance in Berlin a stunning rebuke to Adolf Hitler’s notion of Aryan superiority. The U.S. men’s hockey team’s upset of the Soviets in 1980 wouldn’t have resonated nearly as deeply without the backdrop of the Cold War. Muhammad Ali was chosen to light the torch at the Atlanta Games as much for his role as an elder stateman as his success in the ring.
The point in saying all this is that, loathe as we are to admit it, sports and politics are inherently intertwined.