'Loose Talk'
By Benjamin Benedict

The Olympic Image

How do we restore the Olympics tarnished image? That is the question being asked after the demonstrations staged on the route of the Olympic flame-carriers.

A UK breakfast TV show asked their viewers how they felt about these demonstrations and were immediately flooded with emails saying how proud the senders were of the people carrying out those demonstrations and how proud they were to live in a country free enough for those demonstrations to have taken place.

And what exactly was the previous image of the Olympics, given the history of the Nazi inspired pre-war 1936 Berlin Event or the ‘Black September’ terrorists who killed nine Israeli athletes at Munich in 1972? Also, you may remember the 1996 bombing at the Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta which killed two and injured 111 others.

There is of course the possibility (which I do not back) of national boycotts. These we are told would further sully the Games harmonious reputation. Harmonious reputation? As if! We need to be reminded that The Soviet Union did not participate in the Olympics at all until the 1952 Helsinki Games, but organized alternative events for the Communist Block called ‘Spartakiads’.

The 1956 Melbourne Olympics was boycotted by the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland, because of the repression of the Hungarian Uprising by the Soviet Union; additionally, Cambodia, Egypt, Iraq, and Lebanon, boycotted these same games due to the Suez Crisis.

Again, in 1972 and 1976, a large number of African countries threatened the IOC with a boycott, to force them to ban South Africa, Rhodesia, and New Zealand. The IOC conceded in the first 2 cases, but refused in 1976 because the boycott was prompted by a New Zealand rugby union tour to South Africa, and rugby was not an Olympic sport. The countries withdrew their teams after the games had started; some African athletes had already competed. A lot of sympathy was felt for the athletes forced by their governments to leave the Olympic Village. Twenty-two countries (Guyana was the only non-African nation) boycotted the Montreal Olympics because New Zealand was not banned.

Particularly relevant to the present situation is the fact that in 1976, due to pressure from the People's Republic of China (PRC), Canada told the team from the Republic of China (Taiwan) that it could not compete at the Montreal Summer Olympics under the name "Republic of China". Taiwan did not participate again until 1984, when it returned under the name "Chinese Taipei" using a special flag.

In 1980 and 1984, the Cold War opponents boycotted each other's games. Sixty-five nations refused to compete at the Moscow Olympics in 1980 because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, but 16 nations from Western Europe did compete at the Moscow Olympics. The boycott reduced the number of nations participating to only 81, the lowest number of nations to compete since 1956. The Soviet Union and 14 of its Eastern Bloc partners (except Romania) countered by skipping the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, arguing the safety of their athletes could not be guaranteed there and "chauvinistic sentiments and an anti-Soviet hysteria are being whipped up in the United States". The 1984 boycotters staged their own Friendship Games in July-August.

Returning to the present, the government of Iran specifically orders its athletes not to compete in any Olympic heat, semi-final, or final that includes athletes from Israel. As a result, at the 2004 Olympics, an Iranian judoka who had otherwise earned his place did not compete in a heat against an Israeli judoka.

Further compromising the image of the Olympics is the issue of drugs. Looking back in time again, the winner of the marathon at the 1904 Games, Thomas J. Hicks, was given strychnine and brandy by his coach, even during the race. The first and so far only Olympic death caused by drugs occurred in 1960. At the cycling road race in Rome the Danish Knud Enemark Jensen fell from his bicycle and later died. A coroner's inquiry found that he was under the influence of amphetamines.

The first Olympic athlete to test positive for drug use was Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall, a Swedish pent athlete at the 1968 Summer Olympics, who lost his bronze medal for alcohol use. Seventy-three athletes followed him over the next 38 years, several medal winners among them. The most publicized doping-related disqualification was that of Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson, who won the 100m at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, but tested positive for stanozolol.

Despite the testing, many athletes continued to use doping without getting caught. In 1990, documents were revealed that showed many East German female athletes had been unknowingly administered anabolic steroids and other drugs by their coaches and trainers as a government policy.

The recent 2000 Summer Olympics and 2002 Winter Olympics have shown that this battle is not nearly over, as several medalists in weightlifting and cross-country skiing were disqualified due to doping offences. One innocent victim of the anti-doping movement at the Olympics was the Romanian gymnast Andreea Răducan who was stripped of her gold medal-winning performance in the All-Around Competition of the 2000 Sydney games. Test results indicated the presence of the banned-stimulant pseudoephedrine which had been prescribed to her by an Olympic doctor. Raducan had been unaware of the presence of the illegal substance in the medicine that had been prescribed to her for a cold she had during the games.

During the 2006 Winter Olympics, only one athlete failed a drug test and had a medal revoked. The only other case involved 12 members with high levels of hemoglobin and their punishment was a five day suspension for health reasons.
In October 2007, American sprinter Marion Jones admitted to having taken steroids before the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics. As a result of these admissions, Jones accepted a two-year suspension and forfeiture of all medals, results, points and prizes earned after September 1, 2000. Marion Jones now faces a six-month stay in prison.

Drugs have become so sophisticated that there is every reason to believe that there will be athletes competing in Beijing this summer who have taken drugs, but remain undetected.

An interesting aside is the fact that 203 countries currently participate in the Olympics. This is a noticeably higher number than the number of countries belonging to the United Nations, which is only 193. Why, I ask myself would a country not belong to the United Nations? All the answers that I come up with do nothing to enhance the Olympics image.

Send your opinions regarding Mr. Benedict's writings to bbenedict@netlistings.com