Someone wanting to push their political agenda could not find a better stage than the olympics. After all, the whole world is watching. As Kurt has stated this isn’t a new phenomenon. The Olympics in the 1980s had widespread boycotts, which resulted in the formation of the Goodwill Games. Earlier than that, we have the carnage in Munich. In the 1930s, we have Hitler using the games as a means to prove his supreme race theories. I am not saying any of the above decisions are good or bad, though the last two are apparently on the side of evil. I am saying that non-sports agendas have used the Olympics as a platform for about as long as the modern Olympics have been.

Thus, what better use for that platform than to point out the horrors of genocide that are happening throughout the world.

I was amazed that China even got the olympics in the first place.
They sell girl babies as a cash crop.

Anyway..

It should be about the sports and the competitions, but I suppose it isnt anymore.

Boycotting will hurt the athletes as much as China itself. Maybe more. The athletes have been training their whole lives for this thing. Its a shame their futures are in the hands of people who could care less about how hard they have worked.

That venue should be free of politics. People should be worrying about having to use the squat toilets in common use in that country instead! I used to think the boycotts and such helped, but there is too much evil and men’s (mostly) egos in the world for that to do any good. I am not sure we will ever change the power hungry enough to stop human rights abuses. Sadly, all “religions” and political parties seem to support it at some level. This country does it more on a mental abuse plane at times on US soil. Other countries see a more aggressive reaction from us towards their peoples on their lands. The more you travel, the more you see there are few innocent regimes. It will be interesting to see where the final blow up point will be to produce a necessary change. Perhaps the book Oprah is now bringing to the world using technology will help.

I really enjoy the Olympics. I marvel at the work ethic of the athletes from around the world. I’m always excited to add Olympic stamps from the host country to my stamp collection. When I watch an athlete representing any nation, I seldom think about the politics of the current governing entity. I always think that the Olympians represent the masses. I think of how proud the population of each country is of their Olympic teams accomplishments.
I understand that the visibility of the Olympic Games makes it a fine platform for making your opinions known, and that’s fine. I just don’t care. It’s the job of political leaders around the world to play political games. If they don’t want to attend the games, fine. I don’t see that as a loss. If they want to deny hardworking, dedicated athletes their dreams, that’s a different story. You’d have to have a brain the size of a peanut to force athletes to boycott the Olympics.

The athletes should be free to compete in the olympics. But our elected officials should boycott attending the games. I heard Bush has stated he will attend the opening ceremony. He should stay home.

I don’t think the games themselves should be boycotted. That would be unfair to the individual athletes who have spent their lives training for this one moment and the decent nations of the world who send their teams. But I would wholeheartedly support any nation or athlete who refused to participate in the opening and closing ceremonial propaganda. The communist regime in Beijing does not deserve the attention or the possibility of being seen as anything but the violent, repressive, and genocidal thugs that they are.

It was one thing for nations to attend the 1936 games in Berlin - many in Europe and the US actually admired Hitler and the Nazis. Even if the fate of Tibetans weren’t an issue, there’s no excuse in 2008 for not knowing what the Chinese Communists represent.

After all, Olympic Games is a sports event, it is for athletes and some of them have devoted their whole life to be able to participate. Interestingly, none of those who favor boycott Beijing Olympic Games is an athlete.

I alway wonder why those politicians want to boycott Olympic Games, since they themself are not even competing in the Olympic Games. If they don’t like China’s government or its leaders, they should boycott China’s leaders and never meet them again. (But they should be careful doing the same to our government, we might just break their necks.)

Don’t sacrifice our athletes because some of the politician think that they can control these athletes life.

Interaction between nations is politics, and that includes sports.

As suzy has commented, politics and the Olympics have a long history. The political decision to boycott the Bejing Olympics is just as political as was (and are for any nation) the struggle for China to get the Olympics there in the first place.

I don’t recall how long an interval it is between knowing where an Olympic event will be and when it happens, but I was in China in 2002 and they were beginning to crack down on a lot of their image problems back then in specific preparation for the 2008 Olympics. They’re out to buff up their image to the world, and that has plenty of political implications in it.

For the athletes and spectators it’s all about unity, amiable competition and pure enjoyment, but for those who make an effort to bring an Olympic event to their city and nation, it’s about image and everything that can come with it, from commerce to prestige.

That China has a troubled society, groaning under communism that practices prejudice through elevating the majority, and in power, Han, over all other ethnic groups is nothing new. That there have been social and political upheavals in Tibet, straining and venting against the Chinese government is nothing new. In nearby Xianjiang the Uygurs are just as frustrated as the Tibetans, though they haven’t as vocal a rebellion, much less such a figurehead as the Tibetans do with the Dali. That it is occuring within months of the Bejing Olympics merely brings it to the fore with more gusto, especially considering that in this day and age of technology it’s getting harder and harder for a supressive regime like China to hide their problems yet at the same time appear open, modern and friendly.

I do not trust the Chinese government. I foresee more news coming from them this fall that we as Americans will not like. I think they’re going to be making actions that will affect the world, and not necessarily in a positive manner. People fail to consider the realization that not only do they have the largest standing army, but they have an extremely lopsided population of men to women due to their population growth strategy combined with the fact that their eastern culture elevates boys over girls - thus creating a high rate of abortion and infanticide, specifically against girls. Compound this with their economic growth (however unstable their current infrastructure may be), continuing population growth and growing demand for energy resources. Then finally consider their economic, energy and military ties with Russia, Iran and Sudan.

These games this summer are a hoped smokescreen, long in the planning and purely political, no matter how much the athletes, attendees or viewers may hope otherwise. That a boycott may occur will probably matter little other than for futher political points and platitudes by those who call for it. We owe China too much economically and much of the world doesn’t mind dealing with China already.

At least people outside of China can express their political adgenda. That’s more than the China public can do. I think that it’s a shame that they gave China the games to begin with. It’s a communist country. Why would any free country send their people to compete in a country that doesn’t even want them to bring a bible or let them view what they want on their laptop. Someone has to speak out against them before they own every large company in the United States. Your damn right I would support a boycot. If you don’t, your un-American.