College Sports

Every time I turn a sports page these days, it seems I am seeing the same question in bold type: Should the US Boycott the Olympic Games in China?

A lot of people have very strong opinions on both sides of the matter. China has a horrific record with human rights. There continues to be oppression of religion, and those who dare speak out against the regime wind up imprisoned… or worse. Remember the Tiananmen Square Massacre of 1989? Depending on which source is to be believed, between 200 (the Chinese government) and 3000 (Chinese Student Government and Chinese Red Cross) were murdered. The foreign press was ordered out of the country, and wide-spread arrests of protesters and those who supported were used to crack down on the uprising. Not exactly what Pierre de Coubertin had in mind when he founded the modern day Olympics, I’m sure.

Here we are 19 years later, and China has emerged as a world leader, and the city of Beijing will be hosting this summer’s Olympic games.

Talk about extreme make-over!

But that is just the point, according to those worldwide who believe there should be a boycott of the games. There has been no wholesale make-over, just some lipstick and rouge slapped on the face of an aging tyrant.

The hot button in all this is China’s recent crackdown on those who sympathize with Tibet and the Dalai Lama, as well as China’s support of the Sudanese genocide in Darfur. Virtually everywhere that the Olympic torch has traveled during it’s trip around the world, there have been protests. In this nation, the torch’s voyage through the streets of San Francisco was interrupted repeatedly, and some in the media claim that San Francisco was selected as a site for the torch run specifically because there would be demonstrations, in a city with a large Chinese-American population.

As many of you remember, there is a history to nations withdrawing from the Olympics. In 1980, the U.S., along with more than 50 other countries, boycotted the Moscow Olympics to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Four years later, the Soviet bloc of nations stayed home from the Los Angeles games, in a kind of tit-for-tat boycott.

All well and good, but if you look closer, behind all the “speechifying” (as we say down south), behind all the political bragadacio, there were athletes who had spent years of their lives training for their one moment… and that was gone in an instant.

My question is, was the world better off? Did the Soviet Union crumble when the U.S. and it’s allies stayed home? Did the U.S. crumble four years later? The answer to both questions is no.

When the modern-day Olympics was founded, it was on the belief that sports rose above the political, above boundaries, to bring out the best in mankind. I think going into China, network cameras rolling, will give the world a look at a secret society that wants to put on it’s best face, but whose cracks and wrinkles will show.

Sure, China will get some PR. But do you think for one minute that the world will suddenly forget the rioting monks in Tibet? Heck, if anything, it may put the pictures into the minds of those who usually skip the front page and go straight for the sports section (you know who you are!).

So let the Games begin, full-strength. And maybe, as China makes it’s steps out into the world, the revolution can begin from within.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS