Politicizing the Olympics: A Compromise

Some say the Beijing Olympics are a great opportunity to make the whole world aware of Chinese abuses. Others say the Olympics are about sporting competition, and politics should not have anything to do with it. And some seem to believe that it would be possible to depoliticize the Olympics, while others say that will never happen. Possibly a working compromise would be to say that politics should not be allowed to interfere with the actual sporting competition. So, for example, no boycotts by nation A when the Olympics are held in nation B. You send your best and you compete for the gold, period. That would not prevent athletes from having, and expressing, political viewpoints -- as long as the expression did not interfere with the sporting competition itself. Individual athletes could boycott, as long as others were free to take their places. The other half of the compromise, already implicit in the foregoing remarks, would be that everything else is fair game. Political leaders can attend or not attend; Tibetans can block the passage of the Olympic torch; people can protest -- even in the sporting arena, for the world's cameras -- as long as they do not interfere with any athlete's quest for victory before or during an actual athletic contest.

2008 Beijing Olympics: The Chinese Government Is Screwed

It appears increasingly likely that China will not be able to deliver air suitable for athletes, in time for the 2008 Olympics (or, indeed, for years to come). There could not be a better way to advertise China's pollution problem -- to tell the world what a terrible price China is paying for its rapid economic advance -- than to convene the planet's best athletes there, force them to breathe that air, and give them and the sports commentators something to talk about, for years to come. It also appears increasingly likely that China will present, to the world, the picture of a political mess. The Chinese government needed to be responsive to its people's dreams and concerns before 1989. If it had done so, there might not have been a protest or consequent massacre in Tiananmen Square that year. Failing that, there was an opportunity to become more responsive thereafter. That, too, has substantially failed to happen. At present, the government is ramping up its suppression of dissent. But the dissenters are not quitting. With the eyes of the world on that nation, the ugly truth will be highly visible. In short, within the Olympic context, the Chinese government is doing its level best to persuade the world that the government is illegitimate and that the Chinese route to prosperity is not the right one. This is not Abu Dhabi, with its shimmering wealth. This is a land of a billion people who cannot get clean air or drinking water. And the whole world is going to see that. Having the Olympics in Beijing was a proud idea, but it does not seem likely to serve the Chinese government well.