One interpretation of the Olympic spirit / MIGUEL RIOPA/AFP/Getty Images
It turns out the Spanish Olympic basketball team isn’t the only athletic team from Spain to be photographed making a racially charged slant-eyed gesture. Today the Telegraph reports on this picture of Spain’s Tennis Federation Cup women’s team members and support staff making the same gesture. The picture was taken in February, before the team faced off with China in April. The caption reads, “We are prepared for China.” And what a way to show it! Several of the tennis players in the picture are now competing in the Beijing Olympics. (To the web master of the Spanish Tennis Federation web site: it’s probably time to take the photo down.)
Since the basketball team’s photo–which was a full-page advertisement for a Spanish courier company–was published in a Spanish newspaper, the fallout has been relatively muted. There have been no fines or suspensions, even for the Spanish players who also play in the NBA. On Thursday, an IOC spokesperson called the photo “inappropriate,” but said that the team didn’t mean any offense, and that the IOC considered the matter closed, something Team U.S.A.’s Jason Kidd sees as a double-standard. If the U.S. team had made the gesture, “We would’ve already been thrown out of the Olympics,” he told Yahoo! Sports.
Spain’s center, Pau Gasol, who is also a member of the LA Lakers, told Yahoo! “It was supposed to be a picture that inspired the Olympic spirit.” Whoops! Spanish teammate Jose Calderon, who also plays for the Toronto Raptors, wrote in his blog, “We made an oriental expression with our eyes. We thought it was something appropriate and that it would always be interpreted as somewhat loving. I would like to declare that we have a huge respect for the East and their people, some of my best friends in Toronto are from China and one of our Spanish National Team sponsors is the Chinese brand Li Ning. Anyone who would like to interpret this differently is absolutely confused.” I think we know who’s confused here. And I don’t mean the guy in the back left corner of the tennis photo, who seems to have had so much wine that he thinks he’s a puppeteer.