Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Few will forget the image of the black-gloved fists of track stars Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised in solemn protest during their medal ceremony at the 1968 Mexico City Summer Olympics.
Their anti-racism Black Power salute, which prompted the U.S. Olympic Committee to dismiss them from the Games, symbolized the turmoil of that year -- from widespread civil rights and Vietnam War protests and clashes between police and demonstrators at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago to the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.
Certain Olympic Games are irrevocably linked to events and chapters in history. As China is poised to present its best face to the world as host of the Beijing Games, which begin Friday, historians are reflecting on Olympics past and speculating about the legacy of these Summer Games.
"There's an irony in that we tend to think that sport should somehow transcend politics, but it rarely does," says Rob Ruck, a sports historian and senior lecturer in the University of Pittsburgh's history department. "Sport is infused with politics."
And China provides lots of political fodder. Environmental problems and human rights concerns relating to Tibet and Darfur are all potential sparks that could set off a powder keg of protests.
What happens in and around each Olympics sometimes is in tension with whatever ideological agenda or public-relations messages the host country or city is trying to convey about itself through the Games, says Richard Maddox, a professor of anthropology and history at Carnegie Mellon University.
Here are some historic touchstones that played out on the Olympic stage:
Berlin 1936
The 1936 Summer Olympics were assigned to Berlin before the Nazis took power. Once it was clear to the world the horror the movement represented, there was talk of a boycott, explained David Wallechinsky, vice president of the International Society of Olympic Historians and author/co-author of "The Complete Book of the Olympics" and "The Complete Book of the Winter Olympics."
"There were alternative Olympics set up in Barcelona, and they had gotten as far as printing the programs, but then the Spanish Civil War broke out," said Mr. Wallechinsky, who left last week for Beijing to work on his next book. "The Nazis, they used those Games in order to prove to their own people their international legitimacy."
"You may be seeing some parallels with the current Games."
Despite the spectacle, the performances of Jesse Owens and other athletes in Berlin undercut Nazi efforts to promote Adolf Hitler's message of Aryan superiority, Dr. Maddox said.
Mexico City 1968
Demonstrations erupted all over the world in 1968, and not just in the United States over civil rights and the Vietnam War:
There were student protests and political upheaval in France, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and a massacre of 200-plus people in Mexico City a mere 10 days before the '68 Games, the culmination of months of political unrest.
"There was a nonviolent protest, and the government opened fire and killed about 250 people and the [International Olympic Committee] said this was a domestic issue and should not be addressed by the Olympic Movement," Mr. Wallechinsky explained.
However, the IOC did lobby the USOC to dismiss Mr. Smith and Mr. Carlos -- who respectively finished first and third in the 200-meter dash -- after their Black Power salute.
"You can shoot down 250 people on the street, but don't ruin our [medal] ceremony," Mr. Wallechinsky said of the IOC's position. "People are completely oblivious to the fact that people were massacred in the streets of Mexico City. It shows how images and media can create our perception of a historical event."
Munich 1972
The Black September terrorist attacks that left 11 Israeli Olympic athletes and coaches dead in 1972 is the singular historic event linked to the Munich Games. The incident served to expose on a world stage the depth and severity of the Arab-Israeli conflict that continues today in the Middle East.
"However, that was an event that created its own history," Mr. Wallechinsky said. "If that hadn't happened, you wouldn't associate the 1972 Games with terrorism."
In fact, Summer Olympics tend to be more volatile and ripe for protests and attacks.
"Terrorists do not operate in cold climates," Mr. Wallechinsky says. Winter Games draw about 80 countries and showcase 80 events while Summer Games attract 200-plus countries and 300-plus events, he said.
Boycotts, 1980 and '84
U.S.-Soviet relations, rather than a single event, emerged as the theme of the Olympics throughout the decade.
The U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, participation in the Lake Placid, N.Y., Winter Games that same year -- which yielded the memorable and euphoric U.S. Olympic hockey team's miracle-on-ice victory over the Russian team -- and Russia's revenge boycott of the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles were manifestations of the Cold War climate surrounding the Games.
Atlanta 1996
Domestic terrorism visited the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta with the Centennial Olympic Park bombing on July 27, 1996, which resulted in two deaths and 111 injured people.
Richard Jewell, a security guard who discovered the knapsack containing the 40-pound pipe bomb, alerted authorities and helped clear people from the area before the bomb went off.
Initially hailed as a hero, he unofficially was considered a suspect until the FBI captured the real bomber, former U.S. Army explosives expert Eric Robert Rudolph, in 2003.
Mr. Rudolph said he carried out the attack to protest "abortion on demand" and the Olympics promotion of "global socialism."
The '90s till now
Since 1996, the Olympics have been linked less to world events and more specifically to the sports and athletes themselves -- from doping scandals that resulted in several U.S. track-and-field athletes being stripped of their medals from the 2000 Sydney Summer Games to several IOC members' admission that they accepted bribes to award the 2002 Winter Games to Salt Lake City, Utah.
Perhaps the most tainted memory in recent years has been Skategate from the Salt Lake City Games. A French figure-skating judge admitted she was pressured to select a Russian pairs team as the winner regardless of how other teams performed.
When it comes to 2008, experts agree that the Beijing Games aren't a coming-out party for China, as many viewed the 1988 Games for Seoul, South Korea.
In fact, the Games will be a major introduction to the West for the Chinese.
"The Beijing Olympics mark the moment in human history when China -- which is farthest from the political centers of the West both culturally and geographically -- is incorporated into the world system to a degree never seen before," said Susan Brownell via e-mail from the Beijing Sport University, where for the past year the anthropology professor has been a Fulbright Scholar researching the Games.
"Because of the intense interaction and high level of collaboration with the outside world required to organize the Olympic Games, many Chinese people are just now realizing that their old way of doing things did not reach international standards -- and that they did not understand the West as well as they thought they did."
Also, given its social and economic tensions, China likely will use the Games to try to win the loyalty of its people, rally a sense of nationalism and enhance cohesion in society, Dr. Ruck said.
"The impression they make on the rest of the world is secondary," agreed Mr. Wallechinsky. "What's important is to show their own people, the 95 percent who aren't communists, that the rest of the world acknowledges the Communist Party as the legitimate leader of China.
"If the [U.S. president] will stand next to their leader, that's fine," he said. "It's all about the stagecraft."
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