I guess I’m in the minority here: I love the Olympics, so I’ll be watching. I’ve watched every Olympics since 1972 (except for Moscow 1980), so I have to keep the streak going. I’ve even attended events in Montreal 1976 and Los Angeles 1984.
Ed
Sorry, don’t know where that extra ‘h’ came from.
The way you reduce China’s abuse of human rights is by increasing its democracy and the prosperity and education of its growing middle class. I don’t buy the argument that the Olympics are more important, or somehow separate, from these abuses. But boycotting the Olympics doesn’t accomplish either of those goals, in fact, it hurts them. The narrative–not the narrative, but one of the main ones–that the Chinese state tells its citizens about why a strong state is necessary is a deeply anti-imperialist narrative. They justify their strength (and oppression) by painting themselves as victims of western might. A strong government is necessary to fight western meddlers. Efforts to disrupt the Olympics, which are seen as the jewel of China’s rise in recent years, will be easily spun as evidence of the West’s anti-China attitudes and used to underscore the existing narrative.
The Olympics bring both money and international contact to China’s middle class. I think that is demonstratively more valuable than any symbolic protests which will just be successfully spun into the existing anti-democracy narrative.
One could argue that the only way to reduce China’s abuse of human rights is by encouraging its citizens to revolution. The current regime is firmly anti-democracy (in any sense we practice it) and has made a deal with the devil in encouraging rapacious capitalism where only the rich get richer, minorities are exploited and the natural environment destroyed. The only way to stop its practices is to get rid of it altogether.
By these lights, a massive loss of face on the part of the regime might only serve to burst its fantasy of being a major world power that can buy off its people via perpetual economic growth in return for unchallenged one-party rule.
Personally, I’m sick and tired of the idea that issues of actual, occasionally mortal, importance should take a back seat to a fucking athletic competition.
Yes, but the Olympic Games are not just a “fucking athletic competition.”
It is (or should be, or aspires to be) a convergence of the world’s greatest athletes in traditional and modern sport, in the spirit of friendly competition and mutual pushing toward excellence.
Say what you want about the “money” sports like basketball and track/field, but we who are amateur international athletes know and love each other and push each other to succeed because in so doing we push ourselves.
I am not an Olympian, but I have competed nationally and internationally for fifteen years. My brothers and sisters in competition and I are close sometimes because of politics and sometimes despite them, but our insistence that the Games be held and that all compete should be a model for all the politicians who want to take their ball and go home (metaphorically speaking) over one disagreement or another.
Just because our stage is smaller doesn’t mean that our example is insignificant. It was wrong to the point of being a crime to boycott in '80 and the '84 boycott was no less criminal because it had precedent.
The Olympic Games have brought more attention and will bring more reporters to China than a boycott ever could. Some of those reporters will be intrepid enough to report what they are told not to, and that will be a triumph. When the Games are over, there will be ambassadors from dozens of nations to speak about what they saw firsthand.
There will be no Tommie Smiths or John Carloses if there is a boycott. There will be no Jesse Owens to spite Hitler if there is a boycott.
God Bless Kimberley Crow and all others like her.
The Olympic Games are anything but a “fucking athletic competition.” Maybe if the rest of the world followed our example rather than frothing at the mouth as to how we ought to stay home, there’d be a bit more progress.
Glancing at the article, a big part of the theme appears to be “look how hard I’ve worked to get here! This is my childhood dream!”
So? It’s HER dream to compete at that level, and SHE put in work to get there, and she regognizes that HER contributions have repercussions beyond her own actions. Would you prefer it had been her parents’ dream for her to do this?
Of course it’s her dream. Growing up, none of us realize that this little thing we do has a ripple effect on the world- all we want to do is go fast becaused that’s all we know. When we do realize it, the responsibility that it brings only adds to its importance to us.
All I ever wanted to do growing up was win races. When I realized that, for better or worse, people listened to what I said because I won races, it didn’t make racing any less special- it just added another fact to it.
And hell yes, I’d be mad if someone tried to take that away from ME just to satisfy their own agenda.
You can love something for more than one reason, you know.
I love to compete because winning races is fun. That doesn’t change the fact that I appreciate and want the pulpit it provides to help my fellow people.
I know it’s a standard talking point, but in this case, as in most cases where that line gets trotted out, that’s simply not true. China’s development has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty, as even critics of its policies acknowledge.
I know it’s a standard talking point, but in this case, as in most cases where that line gets trotted out, that’s simply not true. China’s development has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty, as even critics of its policies acknowledge.
Are Olympic athletes really amateurs? Do they actually hold down regular jobs or are they supported by the state or other sponsors while they’re training?
Marc
I am happy to see the protests. I am not sure China’s face issue matters all that much. If they cared so much about face, they wouldn’t commit the atrocities they do. It’s the atrocities that cause the loss of face, not the attendant spectacle.
The idea that China will ever be a democracy is laughable. I’m not even sure it SHOULD be a Democracy. It’ll end up as some sort of benign corporate autocracy ultimately, at least that seems the direction it is heading. They have so many people that day to day oppression on cultural grounds will just be too much of a logistical nightmare for the central party to care.
One thing that makes me sad about the Olympics is that China was banned from introducing a new sport to the Olympics which is usually the right of the host country. So now, no Wu Shu. It’s too bad because it would’ve made the Olympics worth watching.
Marc My cousin almost made it to the Olympics for sailing last time around, and for a while she was training without working, but she worked in the field year round and made decent enough money that she could take off a few months to train.
You’re missing my point: she’s so driven to compete and win in her particular sport that (perhaps) she overlooks the fact there’s a lot more happening in world more important than sport. And a gentle suggestion, maybe the brotherhood of international athletes has far less of an impact on the scheme of things than they like to tell themselvest they do.
Jesse Owens winning at the 1936 Berlin Olympics was nice and all that, but appeared to have negligible effect on the Nazi regime. Certainly far less of an impact than would have had a clear message from the rest of the world that Berlin should be boycotted and its sponsoring regime treated as an international pariah.
Sorry, but I don’t consider the Olympics or sports in general to be the be-all-end-all of anything.
Yeah, should be, but it’s not. Put me down squarely in the “it’s just a fucking athletic competition” category. And it’s not even a fucking athletic competition; it’s a fucking see-who-has-the-best-pharmacist-and-can-elude-testing competition. I never did care much about the Olympics, but when they started letting pros in, that was really it for me.
BBC is saying now there’s a real possibility that the torch relay will be cancelled if there’s more trouble in San Francisco.
I probably won’t watch much (if any) of the Olympics, but that’s more because NBC’s coverage is always awful. I’m pretty much all outraged out when it comes to China.
Protest aside I was pretty annoyed that these clowns were allowed to climb the bridge. What if they were terrorists? Give them 1 good warning and shoot their asses.
And I agree that boycotting China is pointless. Protest the Olympic committee and leave the athletes out of this.
And you’re missing mine: the drive that got her to the top of her particular sport also provides her a degree of attention, however small, that can be used positively.
We all realize that there is a lot more going on in the world than sport. Trust me, we all know just how limited our Q ratings are. I remember a conversation I had with a school friend when I happened to be recognized in the street by some recreational practitioners of my particular sport. He said, “Wow- I had no idea you were famous!” To which I responded, “Well, that pretty much means that I’m NOT, doesn’t it?”
We realize that we don’t have a gigantic impact on things. But every once in a while the opportunity to make a statement presents itself, as it did to Smith and Carlos, a statement that helped define a movement.
And looking further at 1936, it is a small thing- an extraordinarily small thing- that foreigners were ordered not to be subjected to the laws criminalizing homosexuality, but it is something. There wasn’t exactly constant international attention and pressure on Nazi Germany to change its ways as there is on China, mind you.
Furhtermore, if you don’t know who Lutz Long is, look him up. If there were more like him, the world would be a better place. But if there were no Olympic Games, there would be none like him.
Jesse Owens’s job wasn’t to take on the Nazis all by himself. Jesse Owens’s job was to be a competitor and in so doing to show, prove, and forever symbolize that the myth of Aryanism was utter crap. And he did that- beautifully. Boycotting the Olympic Games in 1980 did less to stop the Soviets than economic attrition did. And how much impact did the 1984 boycott have on the host nation? None.
Olympic boycotts are 0-for-2. Letting them play creates the moments. Letting them play provides the access. Letting them play brings the publicity and forces openness.
I’ve never met an athlete in support of an Olympic boycott. Not just because we want to compete, but because isn’t there something, I dunno… “Chinese” about the government ordering me where to go and what to do for nationalist purposes?
Let the politicians do their jobs and let us do ours. Our job is not so heady or so important as determining national policy or crafting trade agreements. We play sports that people like to watch, and when people take a trip for a two-week sport-viewing vacation to wherever they go, they don’t just shuffle to and from the venues, and the people in the TV trucks don’t just point their cameras at us, especially when there are so many other additional stories to be had.
There’s no need to apologize.
However, you should be honest enough with yourself to admit that no one has ever tried to take away the crowning opportunity of YOUR life in a vain, misguided, and ineffective attempt to make a point. The politicians are so enamored of the idea of a boycott because it costs them nothing and makes them look tough. The reality is that it accomplishes nothing and destroys the sporting lives of people who have trained a lifetime for this window.
Haven’t read the thread yet, but here’s my take.
The Olympics is an international institution, not the creature of Beijing. Its place in the world of individual sport is too big to cancel it or boycott just because of where it is one year.
So those who are trying to shut it down over China’s Sudan policy or anything else don’t get a lot of sympathy from me.
Happy Scrappy Hero Pup I am against the boycott for the reasons you’ve outlined. I won’t be watching because the summer olympics is boring, but I agree that it’s good because it brings the focus in on it. The more spectacle the olympics are the more attention paid to the issues. A boycott will get a byline for a few days, but protests leading up to and during the event will get coverage for the whole time.
I think that pretty much says it all , I hope all those atheletes realize their dream and we can pretty much deal with china after the games.
Declan