Coubertin’s humanism facing post-humanism – implications for the future of the Olympic Games^*

^*This text draws on a presentation prepared for the conference De l’Administration à la gouvernance olympique: défies pour notre siècle. Lausanne, 25–26 June 2015.

Abstract

The idea of human perfection and progress, expressed by the Olympic motto swifter, higher, stronger, one of the core concepts of Coubertin’s humanism, will probably foster all kinds of performance enhancement and sooner or later engender post-human athletes. The ideal of harmonious education that had a moderating effect on the ambition of permanent progress was more or less abandoned when the IOC had definitely to choose between what Coubertin called the market and the temple. Since then, the moral discourse on doping has replaced the discourse on amateurism/professionalism. But the quixotic anti-doping fight will perhaps end like the combat against professionalism as the doping issue seems to be an aporia. The rapid progress and convergence of the so-called NBIC technologies and sciences (nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science) will help to create numerous and powerful tools and methods that will allow enhancing human (sport-) performances and probably even transform human evolution. Sooner or later, the IOC will face the problem of athletes who could be characterized as cyborgs or post-humans in the sport arenas. To prepare this future, the IOC needs visions for the mid and long term to lead the Olympic movement in a proactive manner.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank Jean-Loup Chappelet for his kind invitation to participate and the inspiration for this paper.

Notes

^* This text draws on a presentation prepared for the conference De l’Administration à la gouvernance olympique: défies pour notre siècle. Lausanne, 25–26 June 2015.

1. French original: ‘Lausanne n’est-il pas destiné à devenir pour l’olympisme restauré plus qu’un simple centre administratif?’ (Coubertin 1917).

2. For the link between Sartre’s existentialism and post-humanism see Culbertson (2011).

3. When Boulongne claims that Coubertin’s humanism is an existentialism, he does not explicitly refer to Sartre’s (2007 [1945]) speech ‘L’existentialisme est un humanism’, but the allusion is evident.

4. Different authors have used the term ‘posthuman’ in different senses. Nick Bostrom defines ‘a posthuman as a being that has at least one posthuman capacity.’ By a posthuman capacity, he means ‘a general central capacity greatly exceeding the maximum attainable by any current human being without recourse to new technological means’ (Bostrom 2009b). The post-human visions promise that the progress of technology will ‘take us “beyond” our human nature’ (FitzGerald 2009).

5. See the discussions on Simona Halep’s breast reduction surgery; Tommy John surgery; Tiger Woods’LASIK; skin transplantation of Mixed Martial Arts fighter, etc.

6. On the problem of therapy/enhancement distinction see FitzGerald (2009).

7. Lionel Messi, one of the best soccer player in the world, suffered growth hormone deficiency in his childhood and was given a HGH therapy.