A Mediator's View of the Olympics

Did you enjoy the Olympics?

I surprised myself, as someone who is not a big sports fan, that I was relishing the daily dose of short clips, highlights, and whatever the BBC news feed chose to show me from each day’s events. Overall, I thought it was an incredible feat of organisation, a visual feast, with some really fun moments (Snoop Dog is hilarious, by the way), and refreshingly, not just a balanced representation of women’s sporting talent, but also a good deal of mixed-gender events.

So, thinking that I might write something about the Olympics, inevitably shoehorned into some points about business, conflict resolution, or mediation, I firstly did a scan of various Linkedin articles and other business-oriented social media channels. All in all, there was plenty of material about the abstract notion of sporting endeavour, and what professional learning we might glean from the challenges of practising a lot, running or swimming faster, and sometimes winning. Fine, but my own thoughts shifted to some of the individual characters at the Olympics, and some of the ways that the whole spectacle had made me smile (again, as a non-sports fan who often doesn’t mind who wins!)


And keeping that idea in mind, that the individuals and the fun side of the whole thing shouldn’t be forgotten amid the medal count and the number of records that got broken, I picked three little gems that I had especially enjoyed:

The first of these was the Turkish air pistol shooter, Yusuf Dikec, and his female shooting partner, Sevval Ilayda Tarhan. Dikec’s picture was everywhere, as he stood with his hand in his pocket, wearing no range-finding/aiming gadgets, visor, or big ear defenders, and very cooly shot Turkey’s way to silver. His partner, Tarhan, also hand in pocket but with headphones & a visor was equally cool but got far less coverage (See above re. gender balance), but nevertheless what a couple! What I liked about it was their high degree of grounding. Others were tight-lipped and intense, anxiously adjusting their gizmos, trying to focus. The Turkish pair, Dikec in particular, looked no more stressed than if he was stepping up to order at the drive-through.

Thinking about some of my company’s more experienced mediators, I am often taken aback by how skilled, insightful, and inspired they can be. They are great at what they do and sometimes just need the confidence to own that and to relax into it. In their mentoring and supervision sessions I might have to start echoing the words of the French embassy in Turkey, quoted as saying in a post on X last week: “Be cool like Yusuf Dikec".


My next one was breaker, Rachael Gunn: ‘Raygun’. She did her break routine in a very different style to the other competitors: described by some, perhaps unkindly, as ‘…hopping around like a kangaroo and writhing on the floor like a snake, along with a series of unexplainable moves’. Her own word about her performance was that, “I was never going to beat these girls on what they do best, the dynamic and the power moves, so I wanted to move differently, be artistic and creative. It’s what I do best.' Her efforts were unfortunately met with some really unkind reactions.

I already thought she was brilliant for sticking her neck out in the way she did, and I would agree with Australian PM Anthony Albanese on that: ‘She had a crack. Good on her‘. But then what we saw later on mobile phone footage was Raygun making her way to the closing ceremony and being asked by bystanders to run through her routine again. Without the pressure of competition or the glare of the official filming, she danced in the street with double the energy than she had done previously: with real gusto, real enjoyment, a big grin on her face and just letting it rip. You couldn’t help but smile.

Having worked in psychotherapy and mediation for thirty years or so, I have come across so many people who are either unwell, or who come into conflict, just for expressing themselves fully. The problem isn’t about who they are, or how they behave, it is more about a lack of acceptance or tolerance from the people around them or the situation they find themselves in.  So, it is refreshing to see Raygun just doing her thing with such joy and enthusiasm, despite some of the negative reaction that resulted. I’m reminded of that Oscar Wilde quote: 'Be yourself; everyone else is already taken’.


And my third pick was in the beach volleyball, during a very tight back-and-forth contest on the sand at the Eiffel Tower Stadium. There was a misunderstanding that the Canadian players were taunting their Brazilian opponents and Canada's Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson got into a shouting match with Ana Patricia Silva Ramos of Brazil. A coach and an umpire tried to get involved to calm the waters, but the players still had clenched jaws, flared nostrils and pretty angry expressions when they got back into position, glaring through the volleyball net, net ready to re-start.

And before the re-starting serve could be made, the stadium DJ, who had been providing accompaniment throughout, turned up the volume on his perfect choice of tune: John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’. And the way those jaws slackened, the faces relaxed, and everyone’s expressions softened was magical. The crowd even joined in and sang along. It was as though the players remembered what they were all there for: yes, to compete; yes, to try and win. But hey, it’s a game!

It’s funny how people who come into conflict can easily forget that they actually have a common purpose or that their needs are mostly compatible. Warring neighbours sometimes forget that they both want to have a peaceful living environment, to have their property respected, to get a good night’s sleep, and to enjoy where they live; work colleagues can lose sight of their common goal to have an enjoyable and productive working day, to feel that their skills are being utilised, to know that work is being apportioned fairly, and that communication is polite and respectful.


Despite all of our differences, we can so easily forget that we all have a great deal more in common. Perhaps I’ll play ‘Imagine’ the next time I carry out a mediation case!