{"id":9395,"date":"2026-02-13T08:25:36","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T01:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/?p=9395"},"modified":"2026-02-13T08:25:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T01:25:39","slug":"how-indigenous-athletes-challenge-simple-ideas-of-national-unity-at-the-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/how-indigenous-athletes-challenge-simple-ideas-of-national-unity-at-the-olympics\/","title":{"rendered":"How Indigenous athletes challenge simple ideas of national unity at the\u00a0Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina unfold, the world is once again turning its gaze to the podium. But for most nations, the importance of the Olympics extends well beyond medals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Games are a place where nations tell stories about themselves: who belongs, who represents them and how secure that nation feels in the world. National sporting events offer a way to make abstract ideas like sovereignty and belonging visible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As humanities scholar Homi K. Bhabha argues in his book on nationhood, nations are not fixed entities, but are continually retold, like stories. The Olympics provide one of the most visible stages for nations to shape narratives about themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a time when Canada and other countries are feeling pressure about their sovereignty, the Olympic Games are taking on heightened symbolic meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Indigenous athletes, in particular, reveal the limits of using sport to perform national unity, and show how multiple sovereignties continue to exist within \u201cTeam Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forging a nation through sport<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of the earliest Canadian sports stories ever told was explicitly about forging something new under the weight of empire. In 1867, days after Confederation, a working-class crew from Saint John, New Brunswick, competed in rowing at the Paris Exhibition, a world\u2019s fair held in France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An 1871 photo of the Paris Crew. (National Archives of Canada)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cParis Crew\u201d quickly became a national symbol, not just because they won, but because the victory felt like a young country holding its own against an older imperial world. It became a story of Canadians carving out space on an international stage that was not designed with them in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over time, what it meant to see Canada represented in sport started to change. By the early 2000s, a familiar insecurity lingered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This sentiment did not survive Canada\u2019s exceptional performance at Vancouver 2010 when the country won a historic 14 gold medals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the lead-up to those Olympics, the federal government invested heavily in a high-performance system built to deliver medals. Even the name of the initiative \u2014 Own the Podium \u2014 put it plainly. Excellence was no longer a wish for Canada, but the standard, and the resources followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When sovereignty feels unsettled again<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Today, the ground feels less stable again. Canada\u2019s relationship with its closest ally, the United States, is under intense strain due to ongoing tariff disputes and repeated threats to Canadian sovereignty from the American president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canadians are testing their mettle by discerning whether they have the skills and endurance to publicly defend and perform sovereignty on the national stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sport is an ideal forum for this because it\u2019s already built as a competition among national units, even when lived reality is far more regional and local.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This renewed attention to sovereignty can feel like a throwback to the Paris Crew moment, when defeating bigger powers looked like a form of self-determination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A post shared by Canadian Olympic Team (@teamcanada)<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n