“History” and other stories from the
shadow of Sugar Loaf Mountain

By Volker Kluge

Rarely have I heard or read the phrase “wrote Olympic history“ so frequently as in the media coverage of the two and a half weeks in which Olympic Games took place in Rio de Janeiro. On closer inspection it was mostly not about history, but about positive stories with the standardised introduction: “For the first time …”

There were cases of doping, bad behaviour from athletes, wrestling coaches undressing to protest against a verdict, or ungracious judokas refusing to shake hands with their opponent, only extremely rarely let the media write “history”.

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