Occasionally we all get flummoxed by an unexpected question. The question often more revealing than the answer.
This happened to this writer at the recent Olympic Games in Tokyo. Someone whom I had only met a few times previously, but had never sat down and had a long conversation with approached me, tilted their head slightly to one side, raised an inquisitive eyebrow and asked the following question.
“When is Australia going to grow up?”
I had absolutely no idea where this question came from or what he was alluding to, so asked him to elaborate. Which he did.
He asked why Australia could not be like every other nation participating at the Olympic Games and simply have their teams compete as Australia?
Why did the women’s football team have to be called the Matildas – even nauseatingly abbreviated by some media to ’tillies – and the men’s team the Olyroos? Why did the same happen with the two hockey teams the Kookaburras and the Hockeyroos? Why were the basketballers called the Boomers and the Opals and the softballers Aussie Spirit? Then there were the Sevens teams, the men’s referred to as the Thunderbolts and the women as the Pearls. The Water Polo teams are the Sharks and the Stingers.
I will be honest I had not realised before this conversation just how many of our National teams had nicknames and did not play simply as Australia. I had not appreciated that the Athletics team were known as Australian Flame! So maybe that branding is one that has not been as successful as some of the others.
Despite not knowing the answer to my colleague’s question I tried to justify some of the teams carrying these nicknames over into the Olympics as being due to their being known by these names in international competition away from the Olympic Games.
I pointed out that Argentina’s national football team are known as La Albiceleste (The White and Sky Blues), their women’s hockey team as Las Leonas (The Lionesses) and the men occasionally as Los Leones (The Lions); although the men have never been comfortable with this name as they feel it was given to them on the back of the women’s success. Sticking with the same country their rugby team is also known world wide as Los Pumas.
Italy’s football team are known as the Azzuri (The Blues). I pointed out that in Africa all of the national football teams have nicknames, Ghana are the Black Stars, Ivory Coast are Les Éléphants, and Cameroon the Indomitable Lions. Less well known are the Cranes of Uganda, the Leopards of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Squirrels of Benin and the Zebras of Botswana.
My inquisitor was not convinced. While he accepted that in Africa teams had nicknames that were recognised within the continent he felt that to the world they were in the main better known by their national identity and none of these carried over to their Olympic teams.
He agreed that Argentina’s rugby team were known as Los Pumas and also that the women’s hockey team were Las Leonas, but he was unaware of the men’s nickname.
He persisted with his argument that these were a few teams from one nation, but not every team. Why couldn’t Australia compete as Australia? Why did every team have to have a nickname?
I could not answer.
He went on to say that he understood that club teams competing in a national competition may have a nickname but national teams and national teams at an event like the Olympic Games should not. As he said the USA may try and call their Basketball team “the Dream Team,” but there was and will only ever be one “Dream Team,” the 1992 Barcelona Olympics USA Basketball team, when professionals were allowed to play for the first time.
He had a point here as the team was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010, and the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2017. The former labelling the team “the greatest collection of basketball talent on the planet.” With the likes of Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen and other great names on the team it was no surprise that the team was undefeated, with their closest margin of victory being 38 points over Puerto Rico. So there was and will only ever be one “Dream Team.”
I think as the discussion drew to a close my colleague was disappointed that I did not have any answer for him. So with the same quizzical look that he had initiated our conversation with, he looked me in the eye and asked “don’t you find it all a little childish? Don’t you think it ultimately undermines the achievements of the athletes?” This time he did not wait for an answer, he tapped me on my left shoulder and started to walk off behind me, as he did so he said, “You have a think on that.”
I will be honest I have thought about it. I have thought about it long and hard. I still don’t have an answer.
What I have realised is how the use of these nicknames can be perceived by people from other countries. That Australia is being flippant about the event and the competition. I don’t believe that this is ever the case, and if people knew the Australian athlete’s mentality they would know that Australians are extremely competitive and always go out to win; sometimes making them very sore losers.
I will be pondering this one well beyond my 14 days in quarantine. I am not sure that I will find a definitive answer. I do feel that he maybe had a point. They say that we should not allow other people’s perceptions to define us, but if those perceptions are harmful then surely wisdom would say that we should look to try and change those perceptions?
The one thing that my conversation did bring to mind, was the quote by the Romanian-born French playwright Eugene Ionesco, who said “It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.” Never was this more true.
