Stop Politicizing the Olympic Games

By Justin Jurek

Every four years, the people of the world turn their eyes to their television sets, or travel across the vast distances of our beautiful world. What draws them to do this? What could possibly capture the attention of the whole world in this manner? I will tell you what that event is. It is an event like no other; a single, spectacular affair that draws the world's best to one location, that causes the people of the world to put aside their differences for a brief moment in time to gather together to celebrate the values of friendly competition and sportsmanship.This singular event is the fabled Games of the Olympiad, popularly referred to as the Summer Olympics.

The Games of the Olympiad bring together the finest athletes in all the world. They bring them together to compete in friendly competition, to represent their respective countries with all the honor and dignity such an opportunity demands, and to celebrate the eternal values of sportsmanship and honorable competition.

As I write these words, the Games of the XXIX Olympiad are being held in the fabled city of Beijing, in the equally fabled nation of China. This city, and the land it is situated in, is rich in the fascinating and beautiful culture of a proud people. For many years, this wonderful nation has remained sheltered from the rest of the world. Only those who have had the privelge to travel to this wonderful land have had the great opportunity to truly experience all that this land has to offer; it's wonderful landscapes, it's unique philosophy and artwork, and the great ruins of ancient civilizations long past into the pages of history. Now, with the advent of these games, the people of China now have the opportunity to share in the richness of their nation with the entire world, not just with the privelged few who visit the land.

But it seems, with the advent of the games, that there is a movement afoot to turn the entire spectacle into a politcal event. Various groups are raising their voices in objection to the games. They raise their voices over many issues; the politcal status of Tibet, human rights, the issue of Taiwan, censorship, etc. But what these various groups all have in common is their goal of turning a spectacle of sportsmanship into a spectacle of politcal protest. And in any case, these groups are making a grave miscalculation.

Since their inception, the Games of the Olympiad were never intended to be a stage for politcal protest. The games were then, and still are, a stage for the athletes of the world to compete in fair, honorable and friendly competition. The worlds best have trained for their entire lives for the chance to compete on what most agree to be the greatest stage in sports. Men and women from across the world have devoted countless hours to training and conditioning for this, the greatest specatcle in the world of sport. To turn them into a stage for political protest mars the experience for these athletes, who have waited their entire lives to obtain the honor of competing in the Olympics.

I pose a question for all of those who say that the Olympics are more than appropriate for staging political events. What right do you have to tarnish the experience of the Games for these 

honored men and women? What right do you have to turn something that is about sport and sportsmanship into a circus of politics and stunts? I can think of only one answer, and that is that you have no right. The athletes deserve better, the Chinese people deserve better, and most importantly the people of the world deserve better.

It is time to cease the mindless politicizing of the Games and return to what the games were intended to be; a spectacle of sport and honorable competition that they were always intended to be.