Measuring Gratitude, Safely

Sport cannot be separated from politics ... and pleasure. Behind the glittering spectacle of global sporting events like the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup, there are darker stories that have nothing to do with sport itself, yet end up determining how these tournaments take place. I am not talking about sporting sanctions caused by war, but about the long, winding, and morally gray process through which a country is selected as host of an international sporting event.

Tom Welch, a lawyer, and David Johnson, an economist, were two public officials at the top of the Salt Lake Bid Committee, an organization formed to handle the city’s bid to host the 2002 Winter Olympics. The committee had been “fighting” for the right to host the Olympics since 1986, but was rejected time and again. Being a major city in a developed country, the United States, turned out to be no guarantee of winning the right to host a major sporting event.

After Salt Lake failed once again to secure the 1998 Winter Olympics, Welch grew bitter when the hosting rights went to Nagano, Japan, a country the United States had defeated in World War II. Unlike the FIFA World Cup, hosting the Olympics does not always translate into major revenue from visiting supporters. Even so, the prestige and pride last for years, remembered as a moment when a city brought together nations from around the world in a single sporting event.

Through his connections, Welch and his network learned that the Nagano Olympic Committee had spent tens of millions of dollars on “welcome events” for 62 members of the International Olympic Committee from various countries. The committee was suspected of spending around 14 million dollars on top‑quality sushi dinners, hot spring baths, and geisha entertainment.

Armed with this information, the Salt Lake Olympic Committee increased its own “pre‑Olympic” budget to 16 million dollars. This money was used to give “gifts” to 20 IOC members in the form of cash, gift packages, airline tickets and accommodation, and even tuition fees for their children.

Salt Lake ultimately won the right to host the 2002 Winter Olympics. However, the financial scandal surfaced several months later through investigations by the IOC and the U.S. Department of Justice. In the end, Welch and his colleagues were cleared of all charges, while the 20 IOC members involved were removed from their positions. No legal sanctions were imposed, as the giving and receiving of gifts was deemed not to violate any existing regulations. 

Preservation begins with reverence

Expressions of gratitude can take many forms, and the most important of them is action. Looking at the example above, it would be naïve to deny the impulse to repay pleasant treatment with an equivalent gesture. It is easy to return a good deed when the recipient is another human being. Whether such actions break the law or not depends on the regulations of each country. 

Illustration: private collection

Offerings, also known as ritual sacrifices, are practiced by followers of Lithuania’s indigenous faith, Romuva, as an expression of gratitude to nature for everything they take from it. This includes air, water, wood, animals, plants, and even natural resources such as oil and gas. From the Romuva perspective, gratitude must take a tangible form, as a way to instill humility, commitment, and an ongoing awareness of the need to protect nature and the environment.

Emerging from a sense of disgust with modern civilization in recent times, Romuva has grown into a regional organization officially recognized by the Lithuanian government. Thanks to the openness of its followers, they have found many similarities with Hinduism, particularly in the reverence shown to ancestors and the natural world. Both traditions also view fire as a medium that completes offerings presented as an expression of gratitude to nature.

Throwing food such as grains or butter into a fire means “discarding” something that has been obtained through hard effort, work, farming, cooking, and returning it to nature. From a modern point of view, this is seen as wasteful, throwing away something that could have been enjoyed with one’s family, especially in difficult economic times when frugality is necessary for survival.

In the past, people did not think this way because their lifestyles were far simpler, as were their needs. They did not worry about sacrificing their possessions for something that seemed like “nothing,” because what they offered as a sacrifice today would grow again and be harvested in the future to meet their needs. Today, however, this mindset is considered irrelevant as the cost of living continues to rise and tighten its grip.

The weight of sacrifice

When the Salt Lake Olympic Committee agreed to draw 16 million dollars from the city’s budget to please IOC members, they were pursuing something they believed was worth the risk of tens of millions of dollars. This means the “sacrifice” was only half‑hearted, as the committee members did not use their own personal funds to achieve the status of becoming an Olympic host city.

In the context of Romuva, expressing gratitude to nature is not a futile act, because its followers are able to reflect on the benefits of the act itself. Offerings usually consist of materials that are easily biodegradable, flowers, leaves, incense, fruits, grains, and the like, once burned in fire. The remains are returned to the soil and gradually transform into humus, helping maintain soil fertility even as humans continue to take from it. The results of sacrifice require time and are never instant.

Yet we hesitate to make such sacrifices because “time is money,” and counting the days it takes for a tree to grow is seen as a pointless exercise… (dswas)