Unprecedented Minority Representation in the Olympics Shows that Sports can Still be a Social Equalizer

If there is one keyword that describes the athletes that competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, it could be "diversity." Perhaps an unprecedented number of minorities among minorities found themselves on the biggest stage of their athletic career, making news not just because of their performance, but also for their very identities. The examples are numerous. From a Haitian-Japanese lighting the cauldron at the opening ceremony, to a transgender competing in women's weightlifting, to the very first ethnic Hmong competing for US Gymnastics, there are many competing, who, many just a couple of Olympics ago, that would not be present.

But perhaps what is more admirable was that beyond the few who grabbed global headlines for their unique ethnic and cultural backgrounds, there were many more who the general public did not even really think about as "different." That normalization of ethnic minorities representing their home nations in the general public's eyes is all the more admirable considering that identity politics have become prominent even in what people consider to be mature democracies, and the Olympics itself became politicized by its growing correlation with nationalism and foreign policy.

That normalization is particularly noteworthy for the Japanese team. Aside from Naomi Osaka's outsized presence in tennis and Beninese-Japanese Rui Hachimura's stature in basketball, Team Japan featured many naturalized citizens and partially non-ethnic Japanese competitors. Some received news coverage while glossing over their ethnic background, like judo gold medalist Aaron Wolf, some only briefly mentioned in passing, like tennis's Ben McLachlan, while some practically did not even enter the news cycle, like basketball's Stephanie Mawuli. 

Yet behind the news media's (perhaps) deliberate ignoring of their presence, or at least their racial background, is a growing acceptance of the fact that, at least when it comes to the world of sports, Japanese athletes no longer have to ethnically Japanese. The mainstream psyche's growing acceptance of ethnic minorities representing Team Japan has, in turn, relegated the questions of "who is Japanese" to online forums frequented only by the ultra-nationalists on the political hard right. The fact that the Japanese mainstream starts to display apathy, as it does with so many other social issues, toward minority representation in Japanese athletics, is a positive sign of social progress.

For Japan and all other countries seeing an uptick in minority sports representation in the Olympics, the question that remains is whether that nonchalance toward diversity in athletics can translate to a similar attitude in everyday life. After all, the vast majority among the minorities will just be normal people with normal lives in any country. They will not be athletic enough to represent their home countries in the Olympics, and perhaps not successful enough in any field to be ever newsworthy in any way. It will be up to their personal acquaintances to treat them as normal members of the local community even if they have no unique feats worthy of special celebrations.

On this point, it is worthy for us the common people to learn from athletes upholding the spirit of sportsmanship. Competitors are rivals seeing to best each other on their way to the podium, representing their respective countries. But they have much in common with one another once they strip away the national flags. All have devoted, from a young age and spending countless hours, training in one sport that they found a passion for. And they respect one another for it, talking only about sports and none about national, cultural, or political affiliations. It might be more suitable to see them as citizens of sports rather than countries.

That sportsmanship can be reinterpreted for the common people living in one community. All share the neighborhood and all its idiosyncrasies. They deal with the same public services, childrearing, safety, among other truly local issues. Many of these local issues do not differ for people of different ethnic or cultural backgrounds. In the end, all want to earn enough money and provide the best environment to live for their families. Like athletes with their sports, local residents, no matter their background, seek to perfect their local lives. It might be more suitable to see them as citizens of their local communities rather than countries.

Often, people see the Olympics as a sheer display of inequality. Richer countries succeed and the poor are severely underrepresented. But the presence of so many minorities socially and economically disadvantaged whichever country they happen to come from, shows that sports can still be an equalizer that competes solely on athletic merit. And increasingly, people around the world are taking that equalizing effect of global sports as matter of fact. It would be great if people can gradually take the same attitude they have toward diverse representation in sports to their daily lives in interacting with minorities.