Politics has dogged Games for decades

• Reuters
• , Sunday August 10 2008

(Adds Afghanistan missing Sydney Games)

Aug 10 (Reuters) - Heavy fighting in the breakaway Georgia enclave of South Ossetia has alarmed Russian and Georgian athletes at the Olympic Games in Beijing, though both teams say they will be staying on.

The following plots the history of how politics has overshadowed Olympic Games through the decades.

1916 - The Games scheduled to be held in BERLIN, Germany, were cancelled because of World War One.

1920 - Awarded to ANTWERP to honour the suffering that had been inflicted on the Belgian people during World War One. Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey were not allowed to participate because of their part in the war.

1924 - French irritation over U.S. criticism of its occupation of the Rhineland led to demonstrations at the PARIS Games; disputes at the fencing tournament led to two real duels.

1936 - When BERLIN was chosen as host in 1931, few suspected that Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party would rise to power just two years later. Jewish groups sought a boycott. An alternative People's Olympics was planned for Barcelona but it was cancelled due to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. All German winners at the Berlin Games raised their right arms in a Nazi salute.

1940 - Games scheduled for TOKYO were reassigned to HELSINKI after Japan invaded China, but when Soviet troops invaded Finland as part of the widening world war the Olympics were cancelled.

1944 - Scheduled for LONDON, these Games were also cancelled because of World War Two.

1948 - Treated as aggressor nations, Germany and Japan were not allowed to participate in the LONDON Games. A gymnastics official from Czechoslovakia refused to return to her country, marking the first political defection.

1952 - The Soviet Union entered the Games for the first time at the HELSINKI Olympics. Its athletes were housed in a separate "village", but there were no clashes over Cold War rivalry.

1956 - Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon withdrew from the MELBOURNE Games to protest against the Israeli-led invasion of the Suez Canal, while the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland boycotted the Games to protest against the Soviet invasion of Germany.

1964 - South Africa was banned from the TOKYO Games because of its government's racist policies. North Korea withdrew, as did Indonesia, which had been suspended by the International Olympic Committee for refusing to allow athletes from Israel and Taiwan to participate in Jakarta's 1962 Asian Games.

1972 - Eleven Israelis died at the MUNICH Games after Palestinian gunmen took them hostage and German authorities botched a rescue attempt.

1976 - 22 African states and Guyana boycotted the MONTREAL Games after New Zealand's rugby team toured South Africa.

1980 - The United States led a boycott of the 1980 Olympics in MOSCOW to protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan that was joined by about 60 countries, including China.

1984 - In a Cold War tit-for-tat, the Soviet Union and most of its eastern bloc allies boycotted the LOS ANGELES Games.

1988 - North Korea, still technically at war with its neighbour, boycotted the SEOUL Games and was joined by Cuba, Ethiopia and Nicaragua.

1992 - The repeal of apartheid saw the return of South Africa at the BARCELONA Games, the entry of a reunited German team and teams from former Soviet bloc countries, though other ex-Soviet republics competed as a "Unified Team". Yugoslavia was banned from taking part in any team sports because of its military aggression against Croatia and Bosnia, but individual Yugoslav athletes were allowed to compete as "independent participants".

2000 - Afghanistan was suspended from the Olympic movement in 1999 because the-then ruling Taliban regime was not internationally recognised and did not allow the participation of female athletes. The country missed SYDNEY but was allowed to compete in ATHENS 2004 when it did send female athletes. Sources: The Complete Book of the Olympics, 2008; Reuters (Writing by John Chalmers; Editing by Nick Macfie) (For more stories visit our multimedia website "2008 Summer Olympics" at http://www.reuters.com/news/sports/2008olympics; and see our blog at http://blogs.reuters.com/china)

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