Watch: Star Sports seems to have missed the very point of the Olympics with this ad
The Olympics are a celebration of sport, not a competition which has to be won at any cost.
There's less than 100 days to go for the Olympics to start in Rio de Janiero in August, but the official broadcasters in India, Star Sports, seem to have missed the entire premise of the greatest sporting extravaganza on the planet.
A recent promotional video advert (above) plays up the upcoming Games as "Isse Bada Kuch Nahi (Nothing Bigger Than This)". Nothing wrong with that, but at one point in the video, several athletes are shown staring fiercely at the camera as an accompanying voiceover goes, "Yahan khelne nahi aate, yahan aate hai jeetne (We don't come here to play, we come here to win)".
The commercial rubs it in further by saying that, even more than winning, the Games are about defeating (the opponent).
Really? Except that's the one thing which makes the Olympics so special – it stands as a spectacle of sport which not only exults the winners but celebrates the very concept of sport. In fact, one of the key principles in the Olympic charter, as laid down by the creator Pierre de Coubertin goes:
The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.
— Olympic.org
By ignoring this and sorely making it a competition to win, Star Sports ignores the very thing about the Olympics that makes it so special. Yes, there's nothing bigger than the Olympics, but not because it's just another competition to win.
