An Alternative to Continue the Chinese Saga of Olympic Shame -- Stop the
Games / IHT
--Micky's humble opinion: This is rare but courageously candid view on
the pathetic true state of the Olympic Games. The way I see it, Olympic
spirit has been lost in the search of profit for years. --
International Herald Tribune
Stop the Games
By Buzz Bissinger
Sunday, April 13, 2008
PHILADELPHIA:
In 1894, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, having refused the military and
political careers typical of a French aristocrat, settled upon the
revival of the Olympic Games as his life's work. He saw s****t as a
higher calling, a religion. And he saw the Olympics as an event that
would enhance moral virtue: "May joy and good fellow****p reign, and in
this manner, may the Olympic torch pursue its way through ages,
increasing friendly understanding among nations, for the good of a
humanity always more enthusiastic, more courageous and more pure."
He is considered by many the father of the modern Games, first held in
1896 in Athens. But if he were alive today and witness to the Olympics
over the past 40 years, he would almost surely come to the conclusion
that his grand idea had failed, that idealism is no match for the troika
of politics, money and s****ts.
The Summer Games in Beijing are four months away and already a
predictable mess. The running of the Olympic torch resulted in arrests
and nasty confrontations with the police last week in London and Paris
amid protests against China's recent crackdown in Tibet and other human
rights abuses. In San Francisco, the only North American stop, the
torch-bearers played literal hide-and-seek with protesters when the
route was suddenly changed for security reasons. There have been
repeated calls for heads of state to boycott the opening ceremonies.
But protests and boycotts are no longer effective remedies. There is
only one way left to improve the Olympics: to permanently end them.
True, in the world of s****ts, any plan that puts morality over money is
unlikely to happen. Commissions are formed only once the problem is over
and the cheaters will always find another angle - you can bet that some
lab somewhere is working on the design of a new steroid undetectable to
testing. The loftier the rose-colored rhetoric, which in the Olympics
has become an Olympian growth industry, the worse the underlying stink.
And this is an institution that is rotten in so many different ways.
In 1968, in what became known as the Tlatelolco massacre, government
troops fired on thousands of student protesters in Mexico City 10 days
before the Summer Games. Nobody knows exactly how many were killed, but
the best estimate is 200 to 300.
Four years later in 1972, members of the pro-Palestinian group Black
September took members of the Israeli team hostage from its quarters in
the Olympic village in Munich; 11 died.
In 1976, the East German women's swim team won 11 of 13 gold medals, a
performance that was stunning - too stunning, since it was later
revealed that hundreds of East German athletes had been using steroids
for years to enhance performance.
In 1980, the United States and roughly 60 other nations boycotted the
Games in Moscow because of the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.
In 1984, although nation-by-nation medal counts are supposed to be
against the very spirit of the Games, the performance of the United
States in Los Angeles was ballyhooed. Such chest-beating only reinforced
the inherent jingoism of the Games, since the Soviet Union and East
Germany boycotted of course in retaliation for the American snub of
Moscow. More im****tant, 1984 became the first Olympics in which
cor****ate sponsors got their hooks in deep, making the Games too often
seem like one running advertisement.
As for the 1988 Games, in arguably the premier track event of the
Olympics, the men's 100 meters, the Canadian Ben Johnson was ultimately
stripped of his gold medal after testing positive for
performance-enhancing drugs. In addition, the host nation, South Korea,
displaced 720,000 residents to build facilities. (According to an
advocacy group, the Center on Housing Rights and Evictions, China has
more than doubled that figure to an estimated 1.5 million displaced for
its Games.)
In 1996, the Olympics in Atlanta were marred by a bombing that resulted
in two deaths.
In 2000, the American track star Marion Jones won five medals, three
gold, while taking performance-enhancing drugs, lied about it for seven
years and is now in prison for perjury. In addition, 40 of China's 300
athletes withdrew after seven rowers failed blood tests.
Before the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, it was revealed that
backers, in trying to get the Games, had bribed officials of the
International Olympic Committee. At those Games, one of the judges in
the pairs skating competition admitted that she voted to ensure victory
for the Russian team.
In 2004, the Greek government spent as much as $12 billion on the Summer
Games in Athens, 5 percent of the country's economy. Yes, part of that
money went to the building of a new rail system and air****t, but the
Greek government also admitted it had no plan for what do afterward with
many of the lavish facilities it was required to build for the Games.
At the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy, policemen raided the Olympic
residences of the Austrian ski federation for possible illegal use of
performance-enhancing drugs; two members fled the country.
With the Summer Games approaching in August, one event has already
started, the who-is-in-who-is-out opening ceremonies boycott over
China's record on human rights (as of the last tally, President George
W. Bush was in, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Prime Minister
Gordon Brown of Britain were out and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France
was on the fence).
But lest we as Americans feel too righteous, we should consider this: If
the host country were the United States, every visiting nation would
have to consider either boycotting the opening ceremonies or withdrawing
given a disturbing record of our own, which includes the occupation of
Iraq and the abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guant¨¢namo Bay.
It is, of course, unfair to make a sweeping condemnation of all the
athletes who participate. "This is their chance," says Bob Costas, who
will have his seventh turn as the prime-time Olympics host for NBC in
Beijing. "It is the culmination of all their time and effort."
It is the single best argument for the Olympics. But still not enough to
overcome the sordid history.
A permanent end to the Olympics might actually not be that difficult.
All it would really take is a single act of courage and morality by the
United States to pull out of the Games forever on the basis that the
mission is not coming close to being served. A U.S. departure would
severely dilute the Games since it would no longer be a world
competition of anything.
But a far stronger factor in the exit of the American team would be the
likelihood that American cor****ations would stop backing the Olympics.
It would also severely diminish the willingness of American networks to
continue to pay mind-boggling sums for the broadcast rights to the
Olympics. If Americans aren't playing, Americans won't watch.
In place of the Olympics, world champion****ps would still be held in
individual s****ts as they are now, but perhaps at permanent venues
designed for optimum performance. This would be a good thing for
athletes. For all the hype, the Games often don't provide the greatest
performances. In Athens, for example, there was not enough time to build
a roof for the pool, exposing swimmers to hideous summer heat and the
backstrokers to blinding sunlight.
Would some athletes become innocent victims with the loss of the
Olympics? Yes. But it would be nothing close to the number of innocent
victims killed in Darfur with Chinese-supplied weapons, or in Iraq
during the U.S. occupation.
The world would carry on without the Games. The ideals set forth by
Coubertin, instead of being routinely mocked, would be honored by the
admission that the Olympics have simply failed.
Buzz Bissinger is the author of "Friday Night Lights" and "Three Nights
in August."
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