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Show 22 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY THE DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE 2002 1, Games Will Never Be About Pure Athletic Competition that the U.S. men's basketball team refused to accept the silver medal upon losing the championship game to its archrival in 1972. After losing again to the Soviets in 1988, the United States refused to compete with college athletes. We have since insisted upon destroying other nations with our basketball "Dream Teams," composed of professional jocks whose paychecks render a gold medal worthless. Upsetting the dominant Soviet hockey team at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid sent Americans into a frenzied fever of patriotism. Yankees dubbed that team the "Miracle JAMES SEAMAN t 1 Chronicle Opinion Columnist hot-doggi- claiming the Olympics represent of athletic competition cither doesn't know history. While Olympic athletes may possess integrity and spirit, the (James themselves function as a political tool, manipulated by leaders with Anyone on Ice." Cold War tensions reached such heated levels during the 1980s that the United States boycotted the 1980 Summer Olympic Games in Moscow. The Soviets returned the favor in 1984, refusing acceptance to an Olympic invitation from Los Angeles. Without Russian athletes to challenge them in sunny Southern California, the Americans cleaned up by winning an astounding 174 medals, 83 of them gold. Mary Lou Retton became the first American woman to win a gold medal in the combined gymnastics exer- agendas. What do the 2002 Olympic Winter Games represent? An opportunity to unite the world against terrorism. What you think of the war itself is another matter altogether. Hut no one can deny that these Games serve as both a rallying point for Americans and a cohesive bond for our allies. Those facts make these Olympics no different from any others. Some of the 20th century's most intense conflicts played out on Olympic battlefields. The Cold War's icy grip spread a blanket of permafrost upon athletic competition for 40 years. Competition between the United States and the Soviet Union reached far beyond military build-uor even the space race. The Russians cises. Yet the prize awaiting Retton after the (lames represented Cold War disparities more than her athletic skill ever could. Retton collected a whopping $5 million in endorsements. Such a treasure supposedly sits at the rainbow's end for those who fulfill the American dream. In a communist society, however, no such loot awaited victorious athletes. Instead, they returned home to a continued life of p identified prospective athletes during childhood, training promising girls and boys to become woi gymnasts and hockey ss players. The United States so despised the Soviets training, preparing for the next Olympics or becoming old and useless to a regimented society. The Cold War also engulfed Russian and American allies. When gymnast Nadia Comaneci won three gold medals and earned seven perfect scores in 1976, the Romanian government named her a Hero of Socialist Labor. East Germany wanted so badly to display the superiority of its socialist system that it instituted a nationwide steroid program. Thousands of athletes unknowingly received illegal and highly dangerous supplements during Manfred Ewald's tenure as head of the East German sports federation from 1963 to 1988. Drugs gave East Germany a competitive advantage, but now leave their athletes to deal with the side effects of a nation's haunted past. At the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, the East German women's swim team won 11 of 13 gold medals. But female athletes received instructions not to give interviews because the testosterone made their voices frighteningly deep. East Germany stationed its track and field competitors 500 miles from the athlete village in order to avoid drug testing. Pctra Schneider, a swimmer who struck gold individual medley in the 1980 in the Summer Olympics, now suffers serious heart problems caused by drug use. Individual athletes live with the knowledge that their Olympic performances were tainted, even without their consent. The tragedy of East Germany's athletes reminds us that Olympic competition is as 400-mct- er much about politics and world events as about sport. Numerous nations have waged warfare in Olympic venues. On the heels of the Soviet Union's crackdown in Hungary, the Russians battled the Hungarians in water polo at the 1956 Summer Games in Melbourne. Their heads filled with fresh memories of Soviet tanks rolling through Budapest, the Hungarians brawled with the Soviets literally. A fight broke out between the two water polo teams, leaving one player bloodied and resulting in the match's cancellation. Sometimes, Olympic events don't focus on athletics at all. The 1972 Games will live forever in the scarred memories of those who witnessed tragedy. Those Games left the haunting image of a terrorist in a ski mask standing on the balcony of the athlete village. On Sept. 5 of the Munich Games, eight Arab terrorists pierced the morning silence by killing two Israeli athletes and grabbing nine others as hostages. The fiasco finally ended in a bloody shootout at Munich's military airport where all nine remaining hostages perished. Conflict in the Middle East reared its head in earlier games as well. Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon boycotted the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, protesting Israel's invasion of the Sinai Peninsula. Tumult and turmoil seem like old friends. That's why this year's Games, standing as a patriotic symbol for Americans, offer no surprises. In fact, the stage may appear slightly see COMPETITION, page 23 TRADITION C-- 3 C- A 4 continued from page - K-U- c I ThU tlt Station Applications are now being accepted for Manager for next year. No experience needed, but a passion for student media is required! For more information, pick up an papplication packet at the front desk of the Communication department, or from Sheri Young in the Union offices. KHii brwfc. Zoxo's Welcomes the World K-U- 1 15 Student Radio TE 1 OFF 1 Any Purchase Available at any location 1620 1 1 fl uj w uj.kute.org 4 50 So. Main Street 532 E. 400 South 3927 So. Wasatch Blvd 1069 W. Riverdale Rd. 5905 So. State St. 6191 So. State St. 7190 South Union Park Avenue cable channel 8 in the dorms a Private Club for members S 1249 E. 3300 S. The only thing changing at Liquid Joes in February is 467-JOE- our opening time, not our prices. Mow Open at Noon for February """" j H 21 IT" IT 11,111 illlllKJl!li'MAlniUiWlwwiuiiWi.1.Pr-.v- (titlf' ., Concerned by the exploitation of black athletes in intercollegiate athletics, Harry Edwards, an African American sociology professor at San Jose State University, proposed the Olympic Project for Human Rights basically the boycott of the Mexico City Olympics by black American athletes. Only one prominent black athlete supported the- - boycott and,, refused to participate in the Games, Lewis Alcindor, later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabba- r. On the fifth day of the Games, two students at San Jose State, Tornmie Smith, who won the 200 meter sprint in world record time, and John Carlos, who finished third in that event, stood on the victory podium. After receiving their medals, and while the U. S. National Anthem was being played, they stood shoeless wearing black socks, closed their eyes, bowed d their heads and raised a single fist straight in the air. As Smith later explained: "The black socks symbolized the poverty of Black America. The glove symbolized the power that exists in Black America." (Smith wore a glove on his right hand and Carlos on his left because Carlos had .forgotten his gloves and thus used one of Smith's.) It was The Perfect Protest. Normally, television cameras would have turned away from an overt political protest, but demonstrating during the National Anthem guaranteed Smith and Carlos center stage and worldwide attention until the music ended after some 36 seconds. They were immediately castigated in the press, the United States Olympic Committee gave them 24 hours to leave Mexico City and banned them from future Olympic competitions. Protests Outside the Games Political demonstrations and conducted outside the protests a have Olympics long history, but rarely have been a source of significant concern or controversy. The major exception occurred 10 days before the opening of the 1968 . black-glove- Olympics in Mexico City. Angered by the government's domestic policies and the expenditure of huge sums of money on the Games in a country burdened with massive poverty, college students launched a series of protest demon- - www.liquidJoes.com see TRADITION, page 23 |