Francisco "A.J." Camacho
The Tennessean
June 3rd 2021
One of the few areas where Donald Trump and Joe Biden have common ground is also one of today’s greatest tragedies: China's repression of Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Both the former and current president have agreed that it is a genocide. This bipartisan agreement has amplified calls for a boycott of the 2022 Beijing Olympics, but a letter from the U.S. Olympic Committee pushed back.
The letter gets it right. The situation in China is troubling, but “an athlete boycott of the Olympic and Paralympic Games is not the solution to geopolitical issues.”
We often consider the Olympics as above politics. In ancient Greece the games meant truces in wars and a pan-Greek peace every four years, but the Olympics have come a long way from 776 B.C., and our lofty aspirations for apolitical games are often going unrealized.
'Dropping the Torch'
To review the history of boycotts and the Olympics — and find lessons for a potential 2022 boycott — I called Dr. Nicholas Sarantakes, author of "Dropping the Torch: Jimmy Carter, the Olympic Boycott, and the Cold War."
While half of all Olympiads have been politicized in some way, there have been only three significant boycotts: Montreal in 1976, Moscow in 1980 and Los Angeles in 1984.
The 1976 boycott comprised 34 mostly African countries that were objecting to New Zealand’s participation after its All Blacks rugby team played several games with South Africa’s Springboks during apartheid. This was questionable logic at best. The All Blacks team is a private business and has no association with New Zealand's Olympic Committee. Unsurprisingly, the All Blacks and Springboks continued to compete after the boycott.
The U.S., Russia and dueling boycotts
The 1980 Olympic boycott, the biggest to date, with 66 non-attending delegations, was headed by the U.S. after Congress and President Jimmy Carter asked Team USA not to compete. The Carter administration wanted to pressure the Soviets to withdraw forces from Afghanistan. Despite Carter’s aspirations, the Soviet-Afghan War continued for nine more years and, if anything, the boycott only further escalated the Cold War.
Moreover, the Soviets retaliated by leading an 18-nation communist-bloc boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. But just like in Montreal and Moscow, the party went on. As Sarantakes told me, “The Olympics have a magic, power, or charisma all of their own, and no one cared that the Soviets weren’t in Los Angeles.” Beijing would be no different.
Practically speaking, a boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics would hurt only the athletes, most of whom will never again have the chance to compete in the world’s greatest sporting event. On principle, I question whether it is right for the public or government to demand that sacrifice from them. They didn't choose the host city, after all.
On the other hand, Beijing is the primary investor for 2022, and if you believe the Chinese Communist Party is committing genocide against Uyghurs, taking a symbolic stand may matter more than the crushed dreams of a few hundred. Some athletes may even agree.
Hitting the Chinese economy has a better chance of success
But there are means to try influencing the CCP that stand a chance of succeeding. If enough people write and call Nike, Apple and other multinational corporations asking them to stop doing business in China, those firms might pull assets from the country. That would hurt the Chinese economy and may force the CCP to reconsider its Uyghur policy. That too could fail to sway the famously stubborn party, but money speaks louder than words.
Perhaps I’m naive, but I still believe that the Olympics can build a better world through sport. Politicizing the games damages that vision. Sarantakes ended our conversation with a sentiment I hope outlives 2022: “I’d like to see actions of substance rather than actions of weak symbolism.”
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