Not that anybody believed that there were any real legs to the United States potentially boycotting the 2014 Olympics if Russian gives Edward Snowden asylum, as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) suggested, but if there was any, the United States Olympic Committee swiftly quashed it with a statement released today.
If there are any lessons to be learned from the American boycott of 1980, it is that Olympic boycotts do not work.
Our boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games did not contribute to a successful resolution of the underlying conflict. It did, however, deprive hundreds of American athletes, all whom had completely dedicated themselves to representing our nation at the Olympic Games, of the opportunity of a lifetime.
It also deprived millions of Americans of the opportunity to take pride in the achievements of our athletes, and in their dedication and commitment, at a time when we needed it most.
This was likely an effort by the USOC to assure the International Olympic Committee that there was no political interference in the world of sport, which can draw the organization a ban (as has been used recently against India and Ghana, and threatened against Pakistan and Ecuador).
“I would just send the Russians the most unequivocal signal I could send them,” the South Carolina senator told The Hill.
One would question exactly what sign such a decision would ‘unequivocally’ send to the American community as much as it would to Russian politicians. Most observers see Graham’s proposition as a sign of chest-thumping from a senator who is considered to be vulnerable after several conservative groups have criticized that Graham is not “conservative enough“.
Even his own party leader, House of Representatives leader John Boehner, rejected the calls at a news conference, asking ”
“Why would we want to punish U.S. athletes who’ve been training for three years to compete in the Olympics over a traitor who can’t find a place to call home?”
Expect this to be a dead story within 48 hours.
> It did, however, deprive hundreds of American athletes, all whom had completely dedicated themselves to representing our nation at the Olympic Games, of the opportunity of a lifetime.
I just hope Australian and British swimming federations would consider this very closely when they engineer their restrictive qualification procedures for the Worlds next time, i.e. instituting additional limits on times or the maximum number of participating swimmers.
The 1980 boycott is a big ugly scar on the face of American sport. I would lose what little respect I have left if they make the same mistake again.
They won’t. Too many people remember that nightmare and it will NEVER happen again!
Maybe they could swap Fast Eddie for Baby Vlad.
Massive surveillance data for that winning relay split.
That’s the first thing that Boehner has said that makes sense!
Agree. Graham is just trying to bend towards the Tea Party crowd with such an outdated and isolationist notion.
He is referred to as Gramnesty by those folks but the bill is going nowhere .
On the other hand he is a ranking member of the Intelligence Committee with perhaps the highest level of Security knowledge & experience in the whole Congress.
The Boycott is not my call but the situation is dire. America’s historical enemy is a hand away from grabbing every US intelligence method plus data on almost every American citizen .
But this is what I love about sport fans 🙂