U.S. should boycott 2008 Beijing Games

MIZELL E-mail: Click here Archive

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 14, 2001

He's far too busy now, but there is a global politisports issue President Bush should investigate, considering definitive if controversial action.

It's not war, but it is important.

A boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympics seems in order, unless China executes demonstrative changes both in attitudes and reactions. I am surprised American outcries have not been at higher decibels since the International Olympic Committee made a questionable Summer Games award.

President Carter ordered athletes from the United States to skip the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics, protesting a Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan. Ironic, huh, considering what's going on today?

It will forever bruise the soul to see the Olympics, the epitome of world athletics, disrupted by politics. After we snubbed Moscow, the Soviets and eastern European allies boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. One more time, innocent and talented young pawns were robbed of monumental experiences.

Always, a tough call.

In 1936, the United States participated in the Berlin Summer Olympics, despite Adolf Hitler's scheming to make the Games a Nazi showcase.

Due to the guts and talents of quadruple U.S. gold medalist Jesse Owens and a boatload of remarkable teammates so long ago, those Olympics became a Hitler-bashing, American conquest.

Still, with the Summer Games in China less than seven years from torch-lighting, deep presidential rethinking is merited. We are Earth's superpower. In 2008, to send Americans to compete in gymnastics, track, swimming, basketball and other exercises of strength, grace, speed and mental dexterity would be deemed an endorsement of sorts of the host. Ten times, I have worked Olympics as a journalist, but my emotions have become tattered. Too much Dream Team, Tonya Harding, overcommercializing, Salt Lake organizer controversies, uninspiring taped-delay TV coverage and also those arrogant, disgusting 4x100 U.S. relay idiots in Australia last year.

I'm not saying terminate the Olympics. Grand scrapbooks of good, warm stories are always submerged beneath the high-profile garbage. But we should examine China more closely, checking Amnesty International reports of 20,000 citizen executions there since 1990, including 3,000 in the past year. Should we go in 2008?

I think not. How can memories not be considerable of the Tiananmen tanks of 1989, threatening to flatten those who dared to protest at a so-called democratic occurance?

Prove me wrong, China.

HOME RUNS: Do not undersell effects on Tampa Bay's defense of losing both Herman Edwards and Lovie Smith to higher coaching callings with the Jets and Rams. ... Chris Simms says he's "keeping a list of my critics" for later use; so I've decided to keep a list of college football's finest QBs and Phil's son hasn't made it. ... For energy, world-record marathoner Naoko Takahashi sips juice from giant hornets."It's like any other sports drink," she said after doing 2 hours, 19 minutes, 46 seconds in Berlin. "You can get it anywhere in Japan." Hey, a few years ago UF jocks gagged at the taste of Dr. Robert Cade's original Gatorade. ... Barry Bonds was a C student at Junipero Serra High near San Francisco, where a teacher became so confounded at the kid's shortage of effort that a message was blurted: "Barry, you'd better get yourself in gear because baseball will never get you anywhere."

READERS' SHOUTS: E-mail from Evan Adams says, "Your comments on Barry Bonds last Sunday were right on. People like him and Carl Everett turned off me and many others on major-league baseball." ... Another from Turk Bennett of Pinellas Park suggests, "Bonds and Everett don't care what a newspaper jerk like you thinks. How's your bank account, Hubert, compared to theirs? I like athletes who stick it up the noses of authority." ... Mayette Thomas of Tampa messaged that she "was captivated by the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa homer battle of 1998 because each man seemed to forge a genuine, warm relationship with fans. I don't get anything close to those emotions from Bonds. Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn, now there are baseball millionaires who beautifully crossed the gap to the ticket-buying public and they will be hugely missed."

TOUCHDOWNS: Twin Cities murmur says Vikings owner Red McCombs, full-time resident of San Antonio who commutes to Minnesota, will work to break his Metrodome lease if the franchise doesn't get a new NFL stadium, trying for relocation to Los Angeles; or, if that fails, selling out. ... Butch Davis, after leaving the Hurricanes in a highly ranked lurch, has quickly coached the Cleveland Browns II into contenders with a 3-1 record. ... Repeat after me: It's offensive line that will limit the Bucs.

Whatever happened to Richie Petitbon?

-- To reach Hubert Mizell, e-mail mmizell02@earthlink.net or mail to P.O. Box 726, Nellysford, VA 22958.

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