I watched this live (or whatever counts as live with the 16 hour time difference) on NBC. Several years ago, I spent two weeks in Tunisia, traveling around the entire country. Whenever I see Tunisia represented in international sports competition, I cheer for them. The trip itself is just okay, but it was several years after the Tunisian Revolution where the people overthrew president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, and made Tunisia a freer and more democratic place. Most of the local people I met were very nice and gracious, but it was just too hot for me.
Anyway, watching the Olympics, you realize that a lot of the winners are either state sponsored, like with China and Russia, or come from rich countries where middle-class people have time and money to pursue sports, like the United States and most western countries. Rarely do you see smaller poorer countries win medals, especially gold, and it’s pretty awesome when they do. If you watch the NBC broadcast, it was all about the rivalry between Australia and the United States. They didn’t even mentioned Hafnaoui’s name until the half-way point of the race.
This is the true spirit of the Olympics and sports competition, not the over-commercialized and corporate-sponsored spectacle we have now.
Here are some photos I took in Tunisia:
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