2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and US half-hearted boycott
1980’s Moscow Olympics were boycotted by the outrage sparked by the USA on the leading slogan of humanity crimes.
The former Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan was tagged as a crime against humanity and almost 65 countries following the US boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
When drama ended, Jimmy Carter the then President of the USA, said that from now on Olympics must only be held in Greece to avoid controversies.
Meaning by the USA is here to create its hegemony will keep on engineering controversies rather helpless to apoliticise sports so the solution is, help yourself and choose one place for the Olympics for the future.
Boycotting the Olympics is not a decision that always comes lightly though, considering how long athletes have been training for an event on this scale which only happens every four years depending on seasons.
In the case of the 1980 Olympics, 29 of the nations that had joined the US boycott instead competed in the Liberty Bell Classic, held in Philadelphia just a few days before the Moscow games.
However, with the 1984 Olympics being held in Los Angeles, 15 countries then joined a Soviet-led boycott of those games.
It is also the reason why cities spend millions of dollars bidding to host the Olympics and then spend hundreds of millions more building infrastructure.
There is no doubt that many countries have vested interests in the competition and ambition to use the spotlight to achieve political ends.
Ancient Olympics (776 BC-393 AD) started with the notion of goodwill, all the participants used to introduce themselves with the names of the city they belong, Greek identity was established much later, followed by Greek-Persian wars and thus influence the games with power, prestige and politics.
Politics made the Olympics a war arena, where winning and losing got politically polluted with power.Olympics turned into political monopoly games.
The manoeuvrability with the word boycott took shape and filthy politics with covert agendas led to the demise of ancient Olympics in 393 AD.
The modern Olympics started in 1896 with the renewed spirit of healthy competition, friendship and harmony.
History repeated itself and Olympics’ and politics became inseparable once again.
The US has a history of boycotting and making every issue a political issue, this time while boycotting Beijing Olympics 2022 has decided to alter the boycott recipe, a little different from the 1980 Moscow Olympic boycott.
It is positive that the USA has at least grown up to the extent where it can realize that a total boycott may not be appropriate.
The US said it would not send US government officials to the Beijing Games opening ceremony but boycott won’t prevent US athletes from participating in the 2022 Olympics.
The 1980 Moscow boycott was due to the former Soviet Union criminal invasion of Afghanistan; supposedly if the International Olympic Federation can make this a road map for future criteria of who can host the Olympics, then the USA for sure will never be able to host any Olympics in the future.
All the war crimes in the Middle East and Afghanistan, all the criminal, unlawful invasions and engineered coup de ta around the world are unending charge sheet of crime against humanity.
The irony of today is, a nation whose base is standing on the genocide of native Americans, enchanting the slogans of genocide games and boycotts.
The President of International Olympics Thomas Bach has rightly said “It would be the end of Olympics as it was for the ancient Olympics when politics got involved” Let’s not politicize every aspect of our normal life, let’s not convert healthy sports into monopoly games, where a sport became a spectacle and most of the time, bloodier than we expect. Let’s manifest humanity instead of shouting hollow growls.
—The writer is Prague-based Foreign Affairs expert.
