What if they had an Olympics...

Originally posted by der schwarze Ritter
When the Olympics is awarded to a country like Communist China, one that enslaves political dissidents and tramples on the former sovereign state of Tibet,

On the basis of the USA still enforcing the death penalty and by the demographic of the people who predominantly populate her prisons and of the nations who are cursed by her foreign policies and are now burdened by the results of her neglect, oversight and mismanagement how can you in good conscience cast any stones??

Originally posted by der schwarze Ritter
I never would have awarded it to such a place. After all, the Games symbolize freedom and competition, not slavery and coercion. The IOC is nothing but a cartel. Their power should be stripped and the games held every four years in Athens, home of the first Olympians.

you are a tad confused. the first olympic games were not held in athens. but in olympia(duh).

not to mention that every country has its share of evil, either in it's history or in it's present day. so when you say "such" place you are of course being subjective and passing judgements on what place is worthy to host the games.

the uk has problems in northern ireland.(let's call it a smaller tibet)
spain has problems with the ETA.
US eradicated the native americans and practiced slavery.
Germany had dear Hitler.
Russia had stalin.
and so on
By your judgement none of the above are worthy.

The olympic games are not about politics. IT's about bringing humans together to compete only through sports. As such the organisation of the games is given to the country that can offer the best conditions for the games.
You want to protest agains china being jerky and opressing the poor tibetans? fine. but don't involve the games into it.

Originally posted by Zahlanzi

The olympic games are not about politics.

Today, the Olympics are about money.

http://www.moneymorning.com/2008/03/07/beijing-games-chinas-olympic-forecast-calls-for-clear-skies-lots-of-profits/

The post that was quoted here has been removed

Sure, but then again, getting mankind together in celebration through sport despite enmity is also political.

I think that such a role for the Olympic Games is perhaps the best possible use for a worldwide sporting tournament.

Originally posted by der schwarze Ritter
When the Olympics is awarded to a country like Communist China, one that enslaves political dissidents and tramples on the former sovereign state of Tibet, and the IOC has the gall to tell the athletes -- the alleged stars of the show -- that they can't make any overt political or religious demonstrations for fear of offending the host country, I ...[text shortened]... hope this is just the beginning of a tsunami of popular outrage and the whole show is canceled.

The original Olympics probably had slave masseurs for the athletes, you know. Ancient Greeks had plenty of slaves.

Originally posted by kmax87
For Double Jeopardy and control of the game.

Number of USA gold medals at the 1980 Moscow Games?

[EDIT} : Not all the American athletes wanted to boycott the games because at the time it was felt that by doing so you only helped make the games a political football, rather than the unifying spectacle it was intended to be.

are you asking us to support the policies of Jimmy Carter?