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When boycotts should be boycotted
The Olympic Games have a history of boycott calls from activists who disregard sport.
- By Nicholas Coates Associate Editor
- Published: 00:55 March 30, 2008
- Image Credit: Illustration: Luis Vazquez/Gulf News
Despite the often repeated mantra "politics and sport should not be mixed" it never ceases to amaze me how frequently they are.
With the Olympic Games taking place in China this year, opponents from all sorts of political persuasion have taken the opportunity to put an end to the summer Olympics before it has even started.
At the moment it is the "Free Tibet" supporters who are causing the furore and doubtless this will run and run not only up to the Olympics, but even during the Games themselves.
Even French President Nicolas Sarkozy, on his state visit to the UK, mentioned the possibility of EU leaders not attending the opening ceremony of the Games, in support of Tibet. But he may well have already been pre-empted on that call, by the disclosure from the White House that President George W. Bush will go to Beijing.
Prior to that, the US-based "Genocide Olympics" was calling for a boycott or for China to show more involvement in the tragedies occurring in Darfur.
Their reasoning being that as China was an active and principal trader with Sudan, it was morally obligated to intervene and censure the Sudanese government in some (unspecified) way.
Before that, it was Reporters Without Borders debating the prospect of a boycott (and they still are) over what freedoms will be given to the media during the Olympics. Doubtless there were other "activists" seizing the opportunity to also express their cause, but failed to make the international headlines.
However, anything could happen between now and August, when the Games start, so there could yet be other causes crawling out of the woodwork to rebel against China. Some sports personnel have threatened not participating in the Games due to the very high level of pollution in Beijing.
As a concession the International Olympics Committee has seen fit to cancel some events and to hold them elsewhere at a later date, rather like a West End theatre: a play in several acts.
Sadly, although the admix of politics and sport is so universally decried, it does nonetheless occur more frequently than it should.
It is, of course, the politicians who most commonly call for the separation of the two; but it is, of course, the politicians who drag politics into the sports arena.
Seeking to underline a particular avenue of political thought or hobbyhorse, or jump on a recently built bandwagon, politicians will demand of their nation's athletes that they not take part in some upcoming major event.
It is usually the Olympic Games that is their target, but it can also be the football World Cup or even a less prominent event like the Davis Cup (tennis).
The shame of calling for boycotts, besides mixing the two entirely different categories, is that the participants would have trained for many years to achieve a high enough level to compete against international athletes.
So to suddenly be pulled out of the event because of misguided politicians' crusades is not only a great disappointment to the athletes, but may also lose them the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to participate at that level.
Boycotts of international sporting events is not new and, regrettably, it is apparent it will continue for many years to come. The Olympic Games in particular have seen their fair share of boycotts or threatened boycotts over the years, for one cause or another.
The first recorded threatened boycott was the Berlin Olympics in 1936. Taking place only three years after Adolf Hitler came to power, many Western countries questioned the morality of participating in the Games hosted by the Nazi regime.
In response, the then president of the American Olympic Committee, Avery Brundage, stated: "The very foundation of the modern Olympic revival will be undermined if individual countries are allowed to restrict participation by reason of class, creed, or race." A comment all politicians, present and future, would do well to remember.
Huge controversy
Brundage also said: "The Olympic Games belong to the athletes and not to the politicians." His responses created a huge controversy in America, although then President Franklin D. Roosevelt avoided, continuing a tradition whereby the American Olympic Committee operated independent of outside influence.
The 1936 Berlin Olympic Games was when American legend Jesse Owens won four gold medals, encouraging Hitler to leave the Games early. It is assumed it was because Owens, a black African-American, did not represent the "true Aryan image" (blond hair, blue eyes) Hitler was advocating.
The modern Olympic Games have suffered a number of boycotts, attempted boycotts or political disturbances of one type or another. Yet generally speaking, demonstrators tend not to get the sympathy to their cause they would wish for.
Instead, they often damage their cause by disrupting a sports event. In the case of the Olympics, it also undermines all that it stands for.
The catalogue of causes for boycotting the Olympic Games, both summer and winter, is nearly as varied as those countries that did not participate at some time or another, for one reason or another.
That is because there is always something, somewhere in the world that can be sufficient enough to create a demonstration or instigate a boycott. The only pity is the demonstrators feel obliged to disrupt sports events, so spoiling it for the vast majority.
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