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Sunday, February 10, 2008

The Great Gall of China

posted by on February 10 at 12:39 PM

Via Drudge:

British Olympic chiefs are to force athletes to sign a contract promising not to speak out about China’s appalling human rights record—or face being banned from travelling to Beijing. The move—which raises the spectre of the order given to the England football team to give a Nazi salute in Berlin in 1938—immediately provoked a storm of protest.

The controversial clause has been inserted into athletes’ contracts for the first time and forbids them from making any political comment about countries staging the Olympic Games.

Are American athletes being asked to sign similar contracts?

RSS icon Comments

1

Probably. I'd sign and then say whatever the hell I wanted to. What are they going to do? Make a scene? That's the last thing they want to happen.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty | February 10, 2008 12:49 PM
2

china is fucked. shit might be sketchy here on our home turf but china is seriously fucked.

Posted by greg | February 10, 2008 12:53 PM
3

Did you know? You can just link directly to the story in question at its source, without bothering to credit that cunt Drudge for noticing it...

What does "via Drudge" mean? A story on the Daily Mail, written by actual reporters, is somehow credited to Matt Drudge why, exactly?

Posted by please stop giving Drudge links | February 10, 2008 12:56 PM
4

@1 They striped the medals of the Americans who gave the black power salute at the '68 Mexico City Olympics

I know its a little different in that it wasn't a protest of the host country but still, the USOC is petty and would punish athletes if they felt it was best for the USOC

Posted by vooodooo84 | February 10, 2008 12:58 PM
5

"Via" doesn't mean "Drudge wrote this." It means I found my way to the story by looking at Drudge.

Posted by Dan Savage | February 10, 2008 1:00 PM
6

Dan, don't try to confuse people via facts!

Posted by Bellevue Ave | February 10, 2008 1:04 PM
7

I understand that you found a news story "via Drudge" but why admit to that, never mind linking back to the awful, awful man's site and risking sending well-meaning people there?

Oh, never mind, whatever -- help the closet case get his ad dollars and keep propagandizing the right.

Posted by please stop giving Drudge links | February 10, 2008 1:21 PM
8

Don't know if they're even thinking about forcing American Olympians to sign such a statement, but I'd like to see them try. Something like this: You can go to The Olympics but you have to keep your mouth shut. Wouldn't there be hell to pay?

There was a story this week about the breathing problems some are going to have in Beijing - one of the most polluted cities on Earth. It's felt that the air quality in Beijing is so foul that it will, for instance, aggravate asthma, but inhalers are on the banned substances list because they contain - among other things - cortisone. Athletes won't be able to use their inhalers until they can prove 10% or more diminished lung capacity.

Hard to run a marathon, wouldn't you think, with air that's tantamount to having one's lips wrapped around an exhaust pipe?

It's not unusual for a country to use The Olympics for its own promotion (drawing another analogy to the '36 Games), but Beijing is sounding like it's going to be no fun at all.

Posted by Bauhaus | February 10, 2008 1:24 PM
9

does anyone know if there are any countries planning on boycotting the china olympics (or a movement boycotting watching it)?

Posted by Judith | February 10, 2008 1:32 PM
10

I'm with Judith, boycott the mutha-f**king thing.

Posted by Y.F. | February 10, 2008 1:42 PM
11

does taiwan have an olympic team? would the chinese not let them play?
when the hell is that country going to declare there independance....there a free democracy that takes care of there people...i see no reason why they should be absorbed by bejing

Posted by linus | February 10, 2008 1:46 PM
12

no, the US team does not have to sign such a pledge, says so right there in the story...

Posted by detroit jenkins | February 10, 2008 2:30 PM
13

no, the US team does not have to sign such a pledge, says so right there in the story...

Posted by detroit jenkins | February 10, 2008 2:30 PM
14

no, the US team does not have to sign such a pledge, says so right there in the story...

Posted by detroit jenkins | February 10, 2008 2:30 PM
15

@11

Yes, Taiwan plays as "Chinese Taipei", because most of the world doesn't recognize it as the "Republic of China." Taiwanese politics is complicated, because from 1949 until recently, the government was run by refugees from the mainland who were kicked out by Mao Zedong. The main guy was "Generalissimo" Chiang Kai-shek, who is not winning any Nobel Peace Prizes anytime soon.

Because of this, Taiwan maintains the fantasy that they will "re"unify with China. Most of the "native" Taiwanese do not give a shit about "re"unifying, because they were never part of China in the first place. In fact, most older Taiwanese love Japan more, and speak better Japanese than Mandarin (Taiwan was a Japanese colony for a number of years, Mandarin was introduced by the Nationalists to replace the native Taiwanese dialect). However, officially declaring independence brings its own obvious set of problems. So they kinda half-ass it.

Posted by kebabs | February 10, 2008 2:37 PM
16

Australian athletes are being bullied into signing the same kind of contract. The IOC are sick, money-grubbing, fascist pigs with no interest in sport, athletes, humanity, or anything except money and ego-stroking.

Posted by Donovan | February 10, 2008 2:53 PM
17

Just out of curiosity, I'd be interested in seeing how many athletes could even find China on a map, much less know anything about their politics.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty | February 10, 2008 2:54 PM
18

the olympics are not supposed to be about politics. these agreements make sense: if the athletes want to make a stand they should boycott. i know it's harder that way -- to give up the chance at a medal to make a point. but the sacrifice is what makes the sentiment so poignant. if it's not worth boycotting, it is worth keeping your mouth shut and letting the olympics be what they are supposed to be.

Posted by geoffrey | February 10, 2008 3:07 PM
19

or sign, compete, win, and then make your statement. the mexico games were well before i was born, yet because of that protest, i am aware of them.

Posted by geoffrey | February 10, 2008 3:16 PM
20

BBC has update: not clear how much of this was incorrectly reported or musunderstood in the first place, vs is backpedalling by British Olympic Assoc.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7237599.stm

British athletes will not be banned from commenting on political issues at the Beijing Olympics, the British Olympic Association has said. [...] Section 51 of the International Olympic Committee's charter [...] says that competitors must refrain from any kind of demonstration or engaging in any political, religious or racial propaganda at Olympic sites.


A spokesman said the BOA could not stop athletes talking to the media, nor questions being asked [...].

More at bbc. Likely that section in the IOC charter applies to all competing teams, US included.

Posted by musely | February 10, 2008 5:42 PM
21

A news story misinterpreted from a tabloid paper, propagandized out of context and presented as "proof" of a psychotic right winger's particular world view? Who could have forseen that Drudge may have been disingenuous with his link to the original story? It's almost like someone repeatedly linking to filtered stories about Islam to advocate for destroying its followers!

Posted by please stop giving Drudge links | February 10, 2008 8:28 PM
22

Political statements have already been banned at the Olympics for some time.

Posted by K | February 11, 2008 8:33 AM

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