Larry in AZ wrote:

-snip-

Perhaps, but there does come a time when one should stop sleeping with
the enemy.

Boycotting the Olympics may not accomplish anything definitive but a
failure to boycott may well have the effect of lending aid and comfort
to genuinely nasty regimes.

The world might have been better served if the western democracies had
declined to participate in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Certainly hosting
the Olympics was something of a propaganda coup for the Nazis and lent
them some considerable prestige.

Well, no. The Olympic truce was supposed to guarantee safe passage of
competitors and spectators on their way to the games but the conflicts
themselves went on.

For instance, Sparta attacked Elea in 420 BC and the Arcadians invaded
the sanctuary of Olympia itself in 364 BC.

For rather good reason. Politics, in the highest sense of the word, goes
on, quite regardless of an overly hyped (and overly commercialized)
sporting event.

None of the political prisoners in China are likely to be able to attend
any of the games.

Peace and justice,