It doesn’t look good for Madrid in 2016.

Madrid is one of the finalists to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, along with finalists Tokyo, Chicago, and Rio de Janeiro.  However Madrid, and Spain, are receiving worldwide backlash for a controversial advertisement in which both the Men and Women’s Olympic Basketball Teams posed for a team photo making what can be perceived as racially-insensitive gesture towards Asian people.

Published in the sports daily Marca, the country’s best-selling newspaper, each Spanish team member, from both the Women’s and Men’s teams, posed in their respective team pictures making a “slant-eyed” gesture common in many countries for taunting Asian people.

“This was clearly inappropriate” said Emmanuelle Moreau, a spokeswoman for the International Olympic Committee,“We understand that the Spanish team intended no offense and has apologized. The matter rests there as far as the I.O.C. is concerned.”

But  whether the matter is closed or not is up for debate, especially if Madrid doesn’t end up with the 2016 bid.  The question is will the controversy have enough leg to carry over to October 02, 2009, when the I.O.C. selects the host country for the 2016 Olympics.  Despite Madrid having an 8.1, the second highest score of the four finalists after Tokyo’s 8.3, this might be a huge blow to their bid when it comes time for the IOC to make their recommendations.

Local and World Media weigh in
Media and Asian Organizations worldwide, specifically Canada, England, and the United States, countries with large Asian minority populations, shook their head in complete amazement and jumped all over the photograph.

“It’s something that I haven’t seen since I was a kid. I can’t speak for what is considered funny in Spain. I don’t know if it has the same impact that it would here. It’s clearly racist, and not even in a jovial way.” – Organization of Chinese Americans spokeswoman Sarah Smith (ABC News)

“Many Asian-Canadians couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw the controversial photo featuring the players in a pejorative pose. What they saw reminded them of a mocking childhood taunt.  But this was no schoolyard. This was a group of professional athletes who posed for an advertisement while smiling and pulling their facial skin to look ‘slant-eyed.'” (Canada.com)

“Sometimes things seem like a good idea at the time. This was probably not a good idea at any time.” (USA Today)

“The failure to recognise the potential consequences is striking in the light of the problems Spain has had with issues of race and the Spanish Olympic committee’s continued desire to host the Games in Madrid in 2016 or 2020.” (Guardian)

Following days of mockery, faux outrage, and general confusion from the rest of the world, you’d think that the Spanish hoops team would’ve realized by now that, no, it’s not okay to strike a highly offensive and blatantly racist pose and make it your team picture. (SLAM Magazine)

What’s unique about this photograph is that it ran in two of Spain’s biggest newspapers… The Spanish press doesn’t think these photos are a big deal, but the rest of the world disagrees. (Deadspin)

Spanish media has defended the National Team,“To try and convert an affectionate gesture of a model group of sportsmen and women into racism is repugnant.” wrote Jose Luis Martinez, a sports columnistfor Marca.

Spanish Players Respond
Included in the photo are many former, current and future NBA players such as Pau Gasol of the Los Angeles Lakers and his brother Marc Gasol (Memphis). The team also includes Jose Calderon of the Toronto Raptors, Juan Carlos Navarro, Rudy Fernandez, Jorge Garbajosa, Raul Lopez, and teenage phenom Ricky Rubio.

“One of our sponsors asked us to pose with a ‘wink’ to our participation in Beijing, we made an oriental expression with our eyes.  We felt it was something appropriate, and that it would be interpreted as an affectionate gesture,” Calderon wrote on his ElMundo.es blog. “Without a doubt, some …didn’t see it that way.”

“If anyone feels offended by it, we totally apologize for it.  We never meant anything offensive by it. Some of us didn’t feel comfortable doing it,” the Spanish star Pau Gasol continued to say that though he was uncomfortable making the gesture, he was pressured into doing so.

“To me it was little clownish for our part to be doing that. The sponsor insisted and insisted. They pushed because they’re the people that pay the money. It was just a bad idea to do that. It was never intended to be offensive or racist against anybody.”

The Toronto PG defended his team’s intentions,“We have great respect for the far East and its people, some of my best friends in Toronto are originally Chinese” Calderon wrote. “Whoever wants to interpret it differently is completely confusing it.”

The Spain-Chinese Connection
It turns out, as we spoke upon in an earlier article, that the ad was done for a Chinese company.  In fact, it was Li Ning’s sports apparel company, which is apparently huge in China. According to this, Li Ning’s company has a sponsorship contract with the Spanish National Team until 2012, so the ties between the Spanish National Team and China go further than a simple marketing shot, as many may assume.

“We don’t think this is an insulting gesture to the Chinese,” said Frank Zhang, Li Ning’s director of government and public affairs. “In fact, the gesture shows that the Spanish team is so humorous, relaxing and cute. They sat around a dragon pattern, which we think showed respect to the Chinese.

“Li Ning Ltd. will not change any business plans with the Spanish team because of this,” Zhang added. “People should focus on great Olympic Games instead of something else.”

What’s done is done.  The Spanish newspapers can defend the team as much as they would like, the players can continue to speak of their intentions and how their best friends are Chinese, but the people will see the photograph and will make judgments based on what that photo brings out of them..

So, in a surprising, yet not-so-surprising gesture, the normally sedate Chinese audience sprinkled boos on the Spanish players over and over during Spain’s 85-75 overtime victory against China on Tuesday night.

Whether the Chinese booed because of this incident is unclear, and that depends on whether you thought the ad was wrong (of course some the Chinese booed them for the ad), or didn’t think the Spanish was wrong (they booed the Spanish because they were playing China!).

Links and Resources: I.O.C. Calls Photo of Spanish Teams ‘Clearly Inappropriate’ (New York Times), Spanish Players defend controversial photo (AP),  Spanish NT involved in Racist Advertisement (Interbasket Forum), Spain has some explaining to do after ‘racist pose’ sparks worldwide furor (Canada.com), Spain’s Eye-Catching Faus-Pax (Guardian), 2016 Summer Olympics (Wikipedia), Basketball players in offensive ads (Winnipeg Sun), Chinese audience impress foreigners with politeness, help and enthusiasm (Xinhua), Spanish Ad spurs charges of Racism (New York Times Blog)