olympic justice?

My fiance (Reaching Vivid) often gives me thoughtful reminders to consider justice. I was just telling her that the 2008 Summer Olympics would be held in Bejing. And she wondered why the Chinese governement didn't have to decrease its nation's social injustices in order to gain the olympic center stage. I can see her point; I wonder if China will ever be confronted for allowing child labor and other social abuses.

Then again, I think about what makes the Olympic Games great: the thrill of competition between actual people, not between the leaders or their political parties. In fact, it is that kind of separation that makes any resulting social/political significance more powerful. For example, at the 1936 Berlin games, Jesse Owens was given the opportunity to defeat the arian atheletes in front of Hitler.

Politics, however, have sometimes changed the face of the games. The best example in the present age is the 1980 U.S. boycott of the games being held in Moscow. The boycott was pushed through by President Carter, as a repsonse to the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistian. Then in 1984, the Soviets boycotted the Los Angeles games. The Soviets potential saftey risks for their athletes travelling in the anti-soviet society, but it was widely considered a retaliation for the U.S. boycott.

As a result of these political moves, hundreds of olympic hopefuls from both countries, who had trained their whole lives and been selected for their respective teams, were not allowed to compete... and had their leaders to thank.

So then I started thinking: if we use Carter's approach of boycotting as retaliation for unwarranted military invasions, perhaps other countries should have boycotted the 2002 games in Salt Lake City. Hmmm...

In any case, while considering whether China's lacking social reform should affect their olympic host status, we should remember that the Olympic Organizing Committee is not the puppet of the U.S. government.

And even if Washington were in charge, nothing would be different. This administration is too busy cultivating the image of the American cowboy in world politics to even consider justice as a guide for making decisions.

So the olympic committee must determine it's own standards for allowing a city to host the world's best athletes. And who knows, with China on the world stage, perhaps there will be some resulting justice that politicians might not otherwise be willing to or able to achieve. Let's hope.