Quote:
Originally Posted by texas*princess
I don't think having Iraq there is putting the Olympic games at risk.
Having a crapload of people there and a chance of a televised catastrophe is what puts the Olympic games at risk. If someone seriously wants to do something "terror-wise" they will do it regardless of who is/isn't there.
They might as well ban the U.S. too b/c just about all the countries hate the U.S. 
Something in China is not right... I feel like they are using the Olympics as an excuse to do certain things. |
I'm confused.
I don't see anything in the post to indicate that a "chance of a televised catastrophe" has anyting to do with the suspension. The passing mention of athletes being killed in Iraq at the end of the link has nothing to do with the decision -- rather it is a problem with the Iraqi government interferring with the Iraqi Olympic Committee.
It also doesn't seem to have anything to do with whether a country is "liked" or not.
I do agree with Phi Gam that the Games are heavily politicized which flies in the face of the stated goals of the Games and the Olympic movement.
The thing that I find most distressing is that the lions share of the athletes from the major participants are anything but amateurs.
We used to piously point at the (former) Soviet Union players, many of whom just happened to be "border guards" which was the way the USSR managed to pay their people for training. Then came "The Dream Team" and using NHL players for our hockey team, etc. But even during the famous 1980 "Miracle On Ice" between the US and USSR, while the rest of the team was composed of college players, the captain, Mike Eruzione, was a minor league hockey player -- which in my mind made him a professional. As Al Michaels said in his famous call of the game, "Do you believe in Miracles?" I might have some years ago, but not now. How about the Williams Sisters? Are they "professional" tennis players? Won't the US Women's Basketball team be made up entirely of WNBA players -- with the exception, of course, of WNBA runner-up MVP Becky Hammons who was spurned for whatever reason by the US coaches and will play for Russia.
Of course China is making a statement. Everywhere else where the Games are staged does, too.
Far from being amateur athletic events with the highest standards of integrity and sportsmanship, the Olympic Games are a strange combination of nationalism and capitalism -- strange bedfellows in many cases.