Futurist Says Olympics Needs Its Soul Back
BY JANET RAE BROOKS THE
SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

Ask futurist Barry Minkin how to fix the recently scandalized Olympic movement and he doesn't hesitate to recommend a purge at the top.

"I can't wait for Samaranch to go," says Minkin, who recently addressed a national gathering of sports scientists in Salt Lake City.

The International Olympic Committee, headed by Juan Antonio Samaranch, is the wrong model for the new world order, says Minkin, author of Future in Sight, 100 of the Most Important Trends, Implications and Predictions for the New Millennium.

"It needs to be more participatory, flatter, softer, not directed from the top," he says.

The IOC missed its own future because it thought it could keep playing its "dirty old games." Now the world must hope that the IOC will be able to repair itself enough to reclaim its "soul," he says.

There are very few things that have soul," says Minkin, "the Olympic movement had it, but it had a bit of a heart attack with the scandal. Now they have to get they have to get their heart and soul back. It's not only for them, it's for us."

The world needs the Olympics because they represent the perfect balance between globalization and nationalism, says Minkin.

The Games are the largest, regularly scheduled international gathering in the world. Yet with athletes running and jumping for their countries, they retain an element of old-fashioned nationalism.

As we hurdle toward a global culture Minkin says nothing like it has happened since the Industrial Revolution the Olympics can provide a much-needed forum to focus attention on the world's problems.

Minkin says those problems overpopulation and pollution, among others keep him awake at night.

 

And, yes, he thinks Olympic athletes have a role to play in trying to deal with these global problems that have eluded governments and other groups.

That's because Olympic watchers, who see the Games as a celebration of humanity, would likely be receptive to a social message offered by athletes who share a borderless interest in sport while representing their fellow citizens at the Games.

As shown by the recent demonstrations at the world Trade Organizations meetings in Seattle, global organizations don't often enjoy that level of acceptance.

"People didn't trust that," says Minkin. "They saw that as too much globalism and not enough nationalism. But people sort of don't put up their guard against the Olympics."

So why not have Olympic role models speak out, Minkin asks. "Why couldn't there be a parade on saving the environment?" he says, "Why can't there be a coming together over some global issue?"

The Chinese, for example, could depict what is being done to save the Giant Panda or to prevent the next flood on the Yangzte River.

But speedy action is essential.

"By2050, two-thirds of the rain forests will be gone," he warns, "If we don't so something to raise that kind of consciousness, the Olympics aren't going to mean anything anyway."

As the old world order withers, we will need new role models,, says Minkin, who has served as a global management consultant for more than a quarter of a century.

"We need people who aren't saying `hey, look at my lifestyle_ that I'm a good sport, do volunteer work and serve and protect the environment."

The alternatives, if these positive role models don't step forward, alarm him.

"I see a world," says Minkin, "where the new president is Jesse Ventura and all the Grammys went to gangster rappers and three of them were killed before they could pick up their awards.

"And you wonder why I'm up late," he added.