While the Olympics has its share of flaws, one of its best characteristics is that it requires merit to get there.
There are problems, sure. It’s not right it won’t let competent athletes who use marijuana compete and that this year, it made accommodations for mothers difficult. But generally speaking, the best athletes in the world in their respective sports made it to Tokyo. They’re people who worked hard for years doing something they are passionate about in hopes of making their home countries proud.
That latter part is what makes the Olympics great. While there are flaws, it closely resembles a meritocracy, which the rest of society should emulate.
It doesn’t matter if Team USA is 100% black, 100% white, 100% Hispanic, 100% Asian, 100% Native American, 100% another group, or some mix of them all. The best athletes typically make it, and that’s a good thing.
There are no diversity hires or race-based affirmative action, and they have generally recognized there are biological differences between men and women. That’s the reason why, for a long time, men and women didn’t compete against one another. A liberal compromise on transgender athletes ruined that in powerlifting this year, but at least men’s soccer teams aren’t playing women’s soccer teams. If they did, Megan Rapinoe wouldn’t fare well.
Track and field is a good example of this. Countries will take the runners with the fastest times. Skin color doesn’t factor into that. If someone is one of the fastest runners from their country, they get a spot on their respective team. If a team wants to win a gold medal, using the best runners they have available is the best way of doing that. If teams were to replace certain runners with slower ones to improve the diversity of their team, that would hurt their chances of winning races — and medals.
To put it another way: The NBA is about 74% black, according to Statista. If there were a quota that said the league had to be 50% white, would the quality of play improve or become worse? It would be much worse because they would kick competent players out of the league and replace them with guys who have no business being there.
Such quotas are unfair to everyone involved. Quotas based on immutable characteristics set people up to fail by putting people in situations they would not face in a meritocratic system. Not to mention it’s racist to discriminate against certain people based on their race.
So, while the Olympics has work to do to improve upon its status as a meritocracy, it offers a decent framework of the concept and shows why it’s worth replicating.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts. He is also a freelance writer who has been published in USA Today, the Boston Globe, Newsday, ESPN, the Detroit Free Press, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Federalist, and a number of other outlets.
