{"id":121167,"date":"2021-12-13T19:16:47","date_gmt":"2021-12-14T02:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=121167"},"modified":"2021-12-13T19:16:47","modified_gmt":"2021-12-14T02:16:47","slug":"olympic-and-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/12\/13\/olympic-and-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"OLYMPIC AND POLITICS"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The\nOlympic games have been subjected to politics since 1936, the refusal of some\nWestern countries to boycott the Winter Olympics (2022) in China is the newest\npolitics and China has reacted that countries like Australia, the US, Canada\nand New Zealand would be subjected to consequences, and the politics in\nOlympics might lead to economic relationships and what would be the measures\nthat China has planned to implement is not clear. Politics in Olympic games is\na less emphasis point, however, the story of politics in Olympic games would\nprovide a broader knowledge about the game history and to understand how\ninternational events used to spread propaganda. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many\naccept that Nazi abuses in the Berlin Olympic games of 1936 were the first\nevidence of politics in the modern Olympic games. Since then, different\norganized politics have been assiduously worked for a long time, and so-called human\nrights abuses of China against the Uhgher community have become to originate\nnew politics in the Winter Games in 2022. As people are involved in the games,\nit is easy to assume that the involvement of politics cannot avoid whether athletes\nare like to politics or they don\u2019t. The vital nature that could be observed in politics\nis unidentified powers are behind politics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nthe Olympic games were forming in 1887, Baron de Coubertin had to get the\nconsent of politicians of different countries and he could not organise the International\nOlympic Committee as an independent body that purely represent the wishes of\nthe people. It is observable that the representatives to the committee from\nmany countries have political links and they should make hidden representation\nfor the political link. The political influences of modern Olympic games have a\nlong history and the political influences have been increased since 1900. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nsecond obvious evidence of politics in the Olympic games was recorded in 1956\nin the Melbourne games. There were two international political events that\npeople were talking about. The first event was the Russian invasion of Hungary\nand the British and French Invasion of the Suez Canal was the second. They were\nnot related to games. The Netherland and Arabic countries pulled out from the\n1956 Olympic games in protest at these two political events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

African\nNations threatened to boycott the 1968 Mexico Olympic games and because of this\nthreat, the International Olympic Committee reversed its decision to readmit\nSouth Africa to the Olympic games. The 1968 Mexico Olympic games were the most\nviolent Olympic ever recorded in Olympic history. Ten days before the Olympic\ngames over 10000 protesters, many of them university students gathered in Plaza\nDe Las Tres Cultures in the centre of Mexico City for the protest and without\nwarning the Mexican government opened fire with rifles and machine guns and the\narmy dropped grenades by military helicopters. In this incident, 300 to 500 died\non the spot and over 1000 were injured. It was so violent and recorded\nregrettable violence despite the peace expected by peace-loving athletes, but\nthe Mexican government claimed only four persons died. This incident had wide\npublicity in the world and sport loving people question why is such an incident\nincurred and what was the use of such a violent game festival for the world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nLondon Daily Telegraph reported the incident as one of the bloodiest assaults\non a civil group that had taken place anywhere in the world for the past twenty-five\ncenturies. The best observation was recorded by Chris Brasher, a Gold Medallist\nin the 1968 Games, that they were killing people when I arrived in Mexico City\non the night of Wednesday the October 22nd\u201d<\/sup>. Many people living\ntoday are out of knowledge about the records of politics and many have an idea\nthat the game spirit should not be disturbed by politics. When it is talking\nabout politics the involvement of money with the politics of the Olympic Games\ncould not be ignored and money has been an incentive for politics despite that\nmany critics don\u2019t talk about it.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nOlympic Committee for Human Rights in the United States was organised by Harry\nEdward, a prominent Californian activist who specialized in racial politics in\nsports. Two US runners, Tonic Smith and John Carlos, protested against American\nracial discrimination by wearing black gloves and socks and making the black\npower salutes and bowing their heads during the US anthem.\u201d This circumstance\nshowed that how did the Olympic games could have been used for politics for\nvarious human issues in countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nthe 1972 Munich Games, the German government expected a cheerful game intending\nto erase the Nazi abuses of the 1932 Berlin Games, Moshe Weinberg, an Israel\nWrestling Coach was killed by eight members of the Black September Group, El\nFatah and they took the custody of ten Israeli hostages.  The Black September group demanded the\nrelease of 234 Palestine guerrillas and German terrorists, Andreas Baader and\nUlrike Meinhof. Later, ten Israelis were killed and the Black September group\nwas provided with a plan by the German authorities to be flown to an Arabic\ncountry. The politics in the Olympic game have gone too far and the organized\nstructure of the games was abused by terrorist-style political groups.  The division of International political administration\nwould have the major reason for violent politics in the games. The visible\naspect of politics in the Olympic Games was the division of political groups\nbased on philosophies or leadership or any other reasons.  That situation complicated issues and intricate\nthe manipulating a solution to the demand that was complicated and arduous to\nsolve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further,\nthe 1976 Montreal games were boycotted by Africans and the American president,\nJimmy Carter influenced 62 countries to boycott the Moscow Olympic Games in 1980\nto display the disapproval of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The politics\nfurther revealed in the Los Angeles Games in 1986, many East European countries\nboycotted it and the International Olympic Committee is in a difficult\nsituation to avoid politics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although\nthe common people of the world disapprove of politics in the Olympic Games the\nexperience indicates that politics have become the major event in the game. The\nother significant aspect of politics is internal political parties and\norganizations and others play politics selecting players to games from\ncountries and in many instances have selected players who are not the best\nspirit in countries. This type of politics dominates in developing countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\npolitics in the Winter Games in 2022 seem to involve political and economic\narguments that should have not been considered because the economic\nbackwardness created by the COVID 19 forced the world to cooperatively work the\neconomic problems.       <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS The Olympic games have been subjected to politics since 1936, the refusal of some Western countries to boycott the Winter Olympics (2022) in China is the newest politics and China has reacted that countries like Australia, the US, Canada and New Zealand would be subjected to consequences, and the politics in Olympics […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-edward-theophilus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}