The history of politics around the Olympics
Sochi 2014 The Washington Post newspaper 14 August 2008 in connection with the Ossetian war proposed the "US-European boycott of the Winter Olympics 2014 of the Year in Sochi." On the same day, the US Democratic Party Allison Schwarz and the US Republican Party B. Schuster, the co-chairs of the Georgia Support Group, announced that a resolution was being submitted to the Congress on the revision of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games from Sochi by the International Olympic Committee.
In response, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told 2 on September 2008 in Tashkent: “Winter Olympic Games will be held in Sochi in 2014,” and if “Take away? Let them drag (then yourself, author annotation) ... "
Beijing 2008 Since the end of 2007, a campaign to boycott the XXIX Olympic Games in Beijing has been launched by a number of influential human rights organizations in the West, with the explicit and implicit support of the official authorities. In parallel, a series of press conferences and negative reports of human rights defenders on the situation in the PRC, two resolutions were submitted to the House of Representatives of the United States Congress at once (from Republicans and Democrats, author annotation) about the official boycott of the Games.
But, the official sponsor of the American team is Nike and the press service of this company in an interview with the Russian service Bi-bi-si said: “Nike’s leadership, of course, is entirely for the protection of human rights, but the amount of the contract is so large that Beijing by all means. "
Athens 2004 The famous Iranian judo player Arash Miresmaeli, the standard-bearer of the Iranian national team, who had twice won the world championships, and this time confidently left the group stage of the tournament, but being a clear favorite, he refused to continue the fight and was disqualified. His rival was to be a citizen of Israel, Ehud.
The then mayor of Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said that although Arash “did not receive the gold medal, he deserved eternal fame with his refusal.” 8 September 2004 The Iranian National Olympic Committee presented the athlete with a $ 125 000 money prize - the same as the other two Iranian gold medalists of the Games in Athens received.
Sydney 2000 In the XXVII Olympic Games 2000, Sydney, was attended by all members of the IOC - with the exception of the boycotting the game in Afghanistan. The Taliban's theocratic regime banned sport as such, eliminated the country's NOC and rejected the IOC invitation. The presence of Afghan athletes has become impossible.
Barcelona 1992 Due to international UN sanctions, the IOC could not officially invite the team of the disintegrating Yugoslavia and the USSR to the XXV 1992 Games in Barcelona. However, the way out was found: sportsmen from these countries performed under the Olympic flag as “independent Olympic participants”.
Seoul 1988 The 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, were boycotted by North Korea. Pyongyang decided not to send its sports team to the Games, since the organizing committee for the preparation of the Seoul Olympics rejected Kim Il Sung’s proposal to transfer part of the sports competitions to the DPRK cities in order to demonstrate the unity of the Korean Peninsula.
Stadiums and other sports facilities prepared for the Olympic Games were used by the DPRK at the XIII International Festival of Youth and Students, held in Pyongyang a year later.
Los Angeles 1984 The 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles were boycotted by all the countries of the socialist camp (except Romania, Yugoslavia and the PRC). The socialist republic of Romania also formally joined the boycott, but allowed its athletes to go to the US privately. The official reason for the response boycott was the refusal of the organizers of the Olympics-84 to provide security guarantees to athletes from the USSR and other Warsaw Pact countries.
However, it was in 1984 that the Chinese team took part in the summer Olympics after an 32-year absence, which had previously boycotted the Olympic movement due to Taiwan’s partial international recognition, and the Taiwan team resumed its participation in the games (called the English Chinese Taipei and special non-state flag author annotation).
Moscow 1980 The idea of an Olympic boycott in protest against the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan in December 1979 was born at the NATO meeting 1 January 1980. Nelson Ledski, head of the Olympics-organized boycott group headquarters, said: "The main initiators of the boycott were the United Kingdom, Canada and the US. The governments of these countries agreed to boycott 1980 in January. True, in the end, England and Canada did not participate in the protest." (England and Canada "threw" the US author annotation)
10 June 1977 at the White House, US President Jimmy Carter, in an interview with editors of American publications, explained his administration’s motives as follows: “I personally would like ... to challenge the Soviet Union and other countries, in an aggressive way, of course, in a peaceful way, to acquire influence in all parts of the world, which, in our opinion, are of decisive importance for us today or can acquire such value in 15-20 years. "
Montreal 1976 The XXI Olympic Games in Montreal were scandalously famous not only because of the debt of $ 5 billion (Canada ended up paying for it only in 2006-year), but also because of the boycott by twenty-six African countries initiated by the Republic of Congo and Tanzania. Thus, they protested against the match of the New Zealand rugby team in South Africa and demanded to exclude the presence of New Zealanders at the Olympics.
According to South Africa's international agreements with 1964, the year was under the influence of sanctions, the IOC boycotted and did not participate in the Olympic movement (it was re-admitted to the IOC only in 1992 author annotation). From a boycotting point of view, New Zealand, which sanctioned games with South Africans, thus violated the isolation of the apartheid regime. The International Olympic Committee in response was justified by the fact that rugby is not included in the Olympic program.
The Montreal Games were also the first to ignore the existence of the Chinese Republic team (Taiwan author annotation): due to the non-recognition by Canada of the island’s authorities, it was decided to ban its national team from being officially called the “Chinese team”. Canada offered the Taiwanese athletes a limited use of state symbols as a compromise, but Taiwan authorities chose to refuse and boycott the Olympics. It is curious that the People’s Republic of China also announced a boycott, not satisfied with the half-hearted decisions of the IOC. The question that the PRC team is the only legitimate representative of China was resolved by the IOC only in November 1976, after the Montreal Games (the beginning of the PRC's weight gain in the world, author annotation).
Munich 1972 The XXth Olympic Games in Munich 1972 of the year continued the sad boycott baton: then the US national basketball team did not go out to the awards ceremony. In a fierce final match with USSR basketball players with an 50: 49 score, Modestas Paulauskas put the ball into play from behind the front line, and at that moment the electronic scoreboard broke, with the result that the final siren immediately sounded. But the Americans, as it turned out, began to celebrate victory prematurely. The Soviet representatives pointed out a violation of the rules: the time counter was supposed to turn on not at the time of the transfer, but at the time of reception. The judges admitted the mistake and gave the Soviet national team to repeat the ball in, “unwinding” the time counter 3 seconds ago. That was enough for the pass of Ivan Edeshko through the entire court and the heads of two defenders Alexander Belov and the final victory of the USSR national team - 51: 50. In this way, for the first time the USA was left without Olympic "gold" in basketball. The captain of the US basketball team Kenny Davis even wrote in his will that none of the heirs would ever agree to receive his medal (silver, author annotation).
In addition, the organizers of the Munich Games had to face a rather negative public opinion after the commission of a terrorist act against the Israeli team. Despite the demands of the media and the public to stop the Olympics as a sign of mourning for the victims of the terrorist attack, sports events were suspended for just one day. The next morning, the IOC decided that the termination of the games would mean the victory of the terrorists and a sign that they managed to thwart the Games. Therefore, it was decided to confine only to the mourning ceremony in the Olympic village and the memorial service at the main stadium, and the next day the Olympic Games continued.
Mexico 1968 At the 1968 Olympiad of the year, for the first time in the history of games, a method of political protest was used, such as deliberately violating the provisions of the Olympic Charter: black American athletes Tommy Smith and John Carlos, gold and bronze medalists in athletics, without boycotting the competition in general, during the awards ceremony US anthem performances defiantly lowered their heads and raised clenched fists in black gloves.
Another event at the 1968 Games in Mexico was the political protest of the absolute champion of the 1964 and 1968 Olympiads by the famous Czechoslovak gymnast Vera Chaslavska. She has repeatedly and publicly opposed the communist authorities of Czechoslovakia. Being dissatisfied with the dubious, in her opinion, the decisions of the Olympic Jury in favor of competitors from the USSR Larisa Petrik and Natalia Kuchinskaya, Vera Chaslavska at the awards ceremony during the performance of the national anthem of the Soviet Union lowered her head and turned away.
Melbourne and Stockolm 1956 The 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne became hostage primarily to the domestic political struggle in Australia itself. The Prime Minister of the Australian State of Victoria refused to allocate money for the Olympic Village, and the Prime Minister banned the use of federal funds. Because of this, and also because of the quarantine that made it impossible to hold equestrian competitions (they were eventually held separately in Stockholm, author annotation), the fate of the Games hung in the balance.
Berlin 1936 Berlin was chosen to host the next XI Olympic Games in 1931, during the Weimar Republic and two years before the Nazis came to power in Germany. In 1933, at the initiative of the American Athletic Union, the question of moving the Olympics from the capital of the Third Reich to another country began to be seriously discussed. The IOC has sent a special verification commission to Berlin. However, its members also didn’t see anything “that could harm the Olympic movement,” and the head of the commission, the president of the US NOC, Avery Brendage, made a public statement that the boycott was “an idea alien to the American spirit, a plot to politicize the Olympic games "(modern Americans would listen to him author annotation), and “the Jews must understand that they cannot use the Games as weapon in their fight against the Nazis. " As a result, the star of the Olympics was, for example, Jesse Owens, a negro who won four gold medals. Subsequently, he said that he had never been honored with such applause as in Berlin.
As you can see, the Olympics have always been a platform for politics. Therefore, you need to forget about boycotting and concentrate on the participants, ensure their safety, fair refereeing, good mood and beautiful victories. Boycott is nothing more than a means of attracting attention (it does not say that you need to “hand over” the game, the Russian team will be the same as everyone else, author annotation)
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