Opinion> R Emmett Tyrrell> My Olympic Boycott Hardens

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My Olympic Boycott Hardens

WASHINGTON — I see that the Olympic Games are taking place again. Nonetheless, the boycott that I slapped on them a couple of decades back remains in effect. I shall not watch them voluntarily. Perhaps I shall be passing through a room where the games are being boomed and blathered, but I shall avert my gaze.

Admittedly, the games have suffered no setback since my boycott began. In fact, they seem to be tawdrier than ever. But my boycott finally has attracted the support of my old friend and former Olympian Alan Somers, who recently set a world record for the 3,000-meter swim for men 60 and older. Al was a teammate of mine on the Indiana University swimming team in the early 1960s, where many of our teammates were Olympians and world-record holders. When I slapped my boycott on the Olympics, he dissented. Worse, he chided me, attributing my boycott to sour grapes over never making the team.

Well, it is true that I never made an Olympic team, but I never won a Rhodes scholarship, either, and I never have been critical of Rhodes scholarships. Yet I accepted Al's rebuke with my usual benignity, confident that as the Olympics lurched ever further from the Olympic ideal of amateurism and good sportsmanship, Al would capitulate. It is immensely rewarding to have him on my side during this Olympiad. What is more, next week he will collaborate with me in this space; we shall deplore a particularly egregious excess in this year's swimming competition.

For now, Al, whose Olympics were in 1960 in Rome, is at work reviewing David Maraniss' confused book on those games, "Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World." Among other deficiencies, Maraniss fails to report that the 1960 swimming competition was the first in which male swimmers shaved their body hair to improve their times. One of the great news stories of the games issued from one reactionary American's refusal to follow the fad. Al was the reactionary. He gained instantaneous worldwide recognition after propelling his shaggy body to an Olympic record in the trials for the 400-meter freestyle. How he did in the finals I shall leave for Al to explain.

He still denies shaving has anything to do with performance and in fact wore a mustache when he broke the world record in the 3,000-meter swim.

What makes the Olympics in Beijing fouler than previous games is the behavior of the Chinese government. I can understand its concerns for security. I even can understand its attempts to dissuade political protests. (I said dissuade, not repress.) But now comes word that the Chinese government is going to oppose displays of faith before and after events. Not only that, but apparently, the Olympic Charter is supporting the repression of religious gestures. Its charter prohibits displays of "political, religious or racial propaganda." No such boilerplate was to be found in the original Olympic Charter.

One of the repellent aspects of the Olympics is the megalomania of the athletes, the coaches, even the fans. One of the saving moments is the occasional display of sportsmanship. An athlete graceful in victory or defeat is a noble sight. An athlete thanking his maker is equally moving. As our great quarter-miler Sanya Richards has said: "It's (her quick genuflection and prayer of gratitude) important because I want people to know that I'm not the best because I'm Sanya Richards. I'm the best because of God. I truly believe we can't will ourselves to win. I hope people see the same thing I see."

It will be interesting to see how the Chinese officials respond to one of the last noble traditions of the Olympics: an athlete giving thanks to God. And will the Olympic officials aid the Chinese? What will the Olympic officials do, deny the athletes their medals? And the Chinese, what will they do, send the athletes to reeducation camps?

Actually, I have an answer for both groups of officials. Thanking God for victory after an event or asking his help before an event is not "propaganda," as mentioned in the revised Olympic Charter. It is prayer. Where prayer is viewed unfavorably, no civilized person should want to be.

R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. is founder and editor-in-chief of The American Spectator, a contributing editor to The New York Sun, and an adjunct scholar at the Hudson Institute. His newest book is "The Clinton Crack-Up: The Boy President's Life After the White House." To find out more about R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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Sir; you can't stop people from praying even when it does no good. The doomed man prays beside the saved and the saved lives to testify on the power of prayer. I have seen prayer, and no doubt, have seen miracles. But your little cute, non sense article misses the point... It is; that the people are being pushed into older forms of relationship by the failure of our society. Mr. Obama says the bitter people are clinging to their guns and religion. They are seeking a form of relationship that once worked, a sort of feeling that once worked, turning inward, becoming more parochial, and trying to hang on to the last vestiges of community. You do not undertand what a complete repudiation this is of the age of reason and enlightenment, that people should retreat into ritual, prayer, mumbo jumbo, magic, fate, and hand holding when the roof is caving it.. When the whole economic sector counts on luck, or the president can lead us into war with little more than his faith in God and good fortune to justify his actions then something is seriously wrong with your society. It is not that people should not be free to believe. Everyone should believe. But when God hisself can't stop the bishops and preachers from making a market place of the house of God, then the battle is lost. When there is no political plum at the end of belief, when priests stop preaching politics with faith, when the money goes out of churches, and the humanity, the charity, and the dignity return; I will be there. Governments have got to quit relying upon God to save their bacon. They have to learn to act responsibly, and adapt to the future. Capital has got to quit relying upon the endless gullibility of the market to save their fortunes. And churches have got to get out of government, or both will be swept away together.

Comment: #1
Posted by: James A, Sweeney
Thu Aug 7, 2008 6:01 AM