Forget Boycott…Play
Now some people are suggesting that we should boycott the Olympics as a means to somehow punish the Chinese or to convince them to Free Tibet or improve their human rights conditions. Even today, protestors littered the streets of London attempting to interfere with the torch ceremony in an attempt to discredit the Chinese and bring attention to the Tibetan problem. The thought is that by withholding our dollars and our attention we somehow take away something the Chinese government is seeking to obtain from the Olympics and thus can convince them to change their ways. That type of thinking I find silly. The Chinese are not looking for money or American approval; they want global legitimacy and they want to win in the medal count.
The legitimacy comes from a well run Olympics, and we have no effect on that. Profit is going to be secondary; so long as they run a well run Olympics with minimal turbulence, the Chinese are going to get that legitimacy. In fact, a United States boycott would arguably lend credibility.
Where the US can do some damage, where we can really hurt the Chinese, is to beat them where it counts. The Chinese want to knock the US out of their place of medal supremacy, and have even entered into an alliance with the Russians to make that happen. The countries that win the most medals are those that have the most economic and political clout, and its one way to gauge strength. China wants the title and they will do anything to get it. They started by importing the East German “coaches” that created the massive beasts that swam for the East German “women’s” swimming team, and this alliance is just another step in that direction.
China is targeting the US in swimming and track. Well I don’t know about track, but they are more than welcome to try in swimming. While it could be that the Chinese are hiding their swimmers to lull the rest of the world into quiet complacency, on the men’s side the Chinese better have Aquaman. Michael Phelps dominates his sport unlike any other athlete that I have ever seen…and I grew up in Chicago during the Jordan era. In a sport where specialization is the key, Phelps has world records in four separate events, and is ranked in the top three in eight.
Each country is only allowed to take two swimmers per race for the Olympics. The American guys are so dominant in the sport, their top two are all within striking distance of the medals, if their rankings from last year holds up. The Chinese, on the other hand, only have five people in the top twenty and none of them are in the top three. We’ll smoke them there. The guys will pick up anywhere from 20 to 24 medals out of a possible 48. The women are a little weaker in terms of the rest of the world, but will do something comparable. In short, barring catastrophe, we’ll have approximately 40 medals or so in swimming before we even do any other sport. China will be lucky to crack double digits. Based on this sport alone, we should establish the sort of medal dominance that will prevent the Chinese from achieving their goal.
So let’s not run from the Olympics; they are already getting our dollars and by boycotting they will have our attention. If we want to punish them, if we want to deny them something that they value, let’s go and compete with them and beat them. Our presence will hurt them more than our absence will.
Comment by JayBandit on 6 April 2008 at 11:17 am:
Name that movie…(no cheating):
“If Hate were people, I’d be China!”
Comment by Allan Niemerg on 6 April 2008 at 7:44 pm:
Boycotting is for wusses… You wanna impress the world? Protest at the Olympics.
I’m looking forward to the riots… err athletic events!
Comment by Augur on 7 April 2008 at 11:11 am:
Allan has nailed it. I say we get swimming boxers that say “China Abuses Human Rights” and let them be photoed w/ at the gold metal ceremony.
Protest is called for. China shouldn’t have landed it in the first place.
Comment by Allan Niemerg on 7 April 2008 at 8:49 pm:
Thanks, Augur, and I love the protest boxers idea.
But I think that the Olympics could be good for human rights in China. First and foremost, the existence of the games has created an opportunity to draw world attention to the abuses. It seems to be working. Second, the Olympics allows those who oppose the abuses to argue against the abuses without sounding “unpatriotic” while giving those who favor the abuses a convincing and face-saving reason to end them. As a simplified example: Even a spouse who strongly resists cleaning will pick up a mop when guests they want to impress are coming over.
But the decision is theirs: Will they tolerate protest and speech and act like a good global citizen, or will they clamp down on protests and expose their paranoia and weakness?
We shall see.
Comment by Allan Niemerg on 7 April 2008 at 10:50 pm:
Hmmm… so it appears that the Chinese have sent bodyguards to mind the flame.
I find this disturbing. Will San Fransisco allow these “minders”? I hope not.
Comment by thetodd on 8 April 2008 at 4:03 am:
What about boycotting the opening and/or closing ceremonies?
Does anyone know if many of the athletes would feel they are making a big sacrifice by boycotting the ceremonies but not the competitions? If not, then a ceremony boycott might send a message without depriving athletes of their chance to achieve their dreams. If so, then forget about this silly idea :)