Beijing's Road Towards an Infamous and Notorious Olympics -- Olympic gag
rule? Let's talk/USA Today

USA Today, Feb 21, 2008 p02C

Olympic gag rule? Let's talk.(SPORTS)(2008 Beijing Olympics)
Christine Brennan.

Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2008 USA Today

Byline: Christine Brennan

With the most controversial Olympic Games in at least a generation still
more than five months away, there already has been a fair amount of
conversation, talk and discussion -- all about the freedom to continue
doing just that.

Last week, as Steven Spielberg quit working on the Beijing opening and
closing ceremonies because of China's lack of commitment to tackle human
rights abuses in Darfur, the British Olympic Association tried to forbid
its athletes from speaking out on the veritable cornucopia of political
and human rights issues in China.

That idea lasted about 24 hours. Once the British people got wind of the
gag rule, it was history.

All kinds of nations, not just the Brits, seem to be walking on
eggshells as they envision bringing hundreds of youthful, exuberant and
sometimes outspoken athletes into China, hoping against hope that --
what? -- one of these outsiders doesn't start telling the truth about
what he or she sees. Nervous Olympic officials from Belgium and New
Zealand have tried to tell their athletes to watch what they say about
their hosts. They have received well-deserved criticism in return.

Meanwhile, U.S. Olympic officials, forever mindful of trying to be good
guests at a time when Americans aren't exactly beloved the world around,
nonetheless report that they have no plans to tell their athletes what
to say or not say, which is exactly as it should be.

None of this early conversation about what will happen in Beijing should
surprise us. On the contrary, the drumbeat of free speech in China --
among the athletes, not the Chinese people, alas -- will only get louder
as the Aug.8 opening ceremony approaches. What's happening now is just a
harbinger of what summertime in Beijing will bring to the world.

For if you give a repressive communist nation such as China the greatest
gift it could possibly imagine -- the Summer Olympic Games, with its
inherent affirmation of the society on which it has been bestowed -- and
if you don't see any change over the nearly seven years China has had
this gift, you shouldn't be surprised when athletes recoil with shock,
anger or some other kind of normal human reaction at what they see, hear
or read.

This is the reaction the International Olympic Committee was supposed to
have had all along, politely (or not so politely) nudging China to
change. This was the tacit agreement made when China won the Games, that
change would come, particularly in the area of human rights. If it
didn't, the IOC had the power and the right to encourage it.

This is, after all, an organization that is well known for demanding
that a host city finish stadiums on time, or clean up its streets, or,
in the old days, give out great gifts. Yet it has exhibited a shocking
reticence to say what needed to be said about the far more important
topic of human rights. Talk about your tragic missed opportunities.

So now that the adults in the Olympic movement have failed at their job,
the kids will get their shot to right some wrongs with a choice word, or
perhaps even an appearance at a protest, if they so choose.

Athletes almost undoubtedly will be asked for their opinions on Chinese
society in Olympic news conferences. They shouldn't pull punches. They
should absolutely say what they think. If it embarrasses the Chinese, so
be it.

Just this month, another dissident journalist was sent to prison for
being critical of China's government, and there are concerns that the
political crackdowns will continue in large part because the Games are
coming. What a lovely Olympic legacy that is.

Speaking out can be unpopular at the Olympics, mainly because so many
hope that the Games will be a 17-day respite from political turmoil.
That's an idyllic thought, but not reality.

The Games have always been about much more than sport. There were the
1936 Berlin Olympics, in which Adolf Hitler wanted to showcase the
"superiority" of the Aryan race. There was the 1968 black-gloved civil
rights protest of U.S. sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos, memorable
to this day. And there was the tragedy of 11 Israeli athletes and
coaches killed by terrorists at the 1972 Olympics. The Games are not an
escape from the world as much as they are a reflection of it.

Chinese officials and some of their IOC accomplices would love to paint
a beautiful picture of Beijing this August. In so doing, the Chinese
would like all 2008 Olympians to be seen and not heard. They should not
get their wish.