Should the Olympic Games Be Used as a Political Forum?

In the beginning the Olympic games were open to all nations for the purpose of a competition that would determine the very best of all countries elite champions in the various sports represented.

Various controversies concerning performance enhancing drugs, use of steroids and males competing as females have been issues at times.  In fact In some instances athletes have been forced to return their medals to the Olympic committee due to various infractions.

Trans-gender issues have grabbed the spotlight with men changing sexual designation desiring to compete in women's sports.

But by far the most dangerous trend has been the political agendas by a few competitors wishing to use the games as their political forum.

In Berlin 1936, the world was transfixed with the dilemma of how to respond to the games being held in Nazi Germany during Adolf Hitler's rule.  Hans Goebbels convinced Hitler that the Olympics being held in Berlin was an opportunity to show the superiority of "the master race" off to the rest of the world.

Not being an athlete, Hitler was unenthusiastic about sports competitions, but the games had been planned to be held in Berlin before his rise to power.  Largely because the ambassador to the Olympics who represented the United States was treated preferentially and easily deceived about the non-existence of persecution of Jews and gypsies existing in Germany, and due to a massive deception including reining in the SS police and the removal of offensive signs of discrimination being removed from public venues, as well as sidelining inquiries by the press, the United States allowed their athletic contingent to take part in the competitions.  Other nations refused to be a part of Hitler's charade.

In a wonderfully ironic situation, several of America's black atletes won track and field events, thus debunking the theory of a "master race" and providing Hitler with a ceremonial slap in the face which kept him absent from the rest of the games.

1968 was a turbulent year all over the USA and I was a graduating senior at Bradley University with a double major in English and Professional Physical Education and a BA in Education (grades 6-12).

With the haughty view of the world and its problems and a naive understanding of the unseen powers present on the world's stage, I believed that although the war in Viet Nam was unjust, my generation was intelligent and more than capable of bringing an end to the war and getting the hell out of Viet Nam.  Of course I was wrong.

The Olympics that year were bloody with political unrest on both sides of the border.  Nothing was solved by using the games as a forum; just a preview of worse things to come in the future.

Munich, 1972, the Israeli athletes were targeted for execution, innocent blood was spilled and nations of the world wept in horror at the injustice that had occurred.  Were future Olympics doomed to be the stage for future political statements and the slaughter of another nation's elite athletes?  Would the Olympics ever be a safe haven for good will among nations and peaceful rivalry again?

1976 no terrorists were allowed to ruin the Canadian Olympics and the nations relaxed.  (Twenty African nations boycotted these Olympics and the New Zealand teams had special security, but there ere no acts of violence.)

In 1980 President Jimmy Carter called for a boycott of the Moscow Olympics due to the Soviets involvement in Afghanistan by giving them a deadline by which to pullout their military presence, it was ignored.

Other nations followed the American example and also boycotted the games in Moscow.  It was another irony that even though fewer nations were in attendance, the world records broken in Moscow were more numerous than had been broken in Montreal (1976).

2008 and the world has several upheavals in evidence: the unrest in the middle east due to America's military presence in Iraq, (the Iraq Olympic team will not be allowed to compete this year), the host country China has been accused of human rights violations involving Tibet, war continues in Afghanistan, and Israel and Palestine still have each other in their sights.

Will smog be the biggest threat to the Bejing Olympics, or will terrorism mar yet another would be peaceful competition?

Are the Olympics doomed to forever be a forum for political dissent, and is it too late now to even raise this question?