Boycotting Beijing

This summer the Olympics come to Beijing. And recently the news has picked up on stories about various organizations pushing athletes and nations toward boycotting the games due to China’s policies about Tibet, Darfur, and a variety of other important topics.

My question is, how effective would such a boycott really be?

If a nation were to boycott the Games, who would it really hurt? Or we could ask who would it hurt more, the host nation or the athletes who are deprived the opportunity to show their athletic abilities on a national stage?

Now I do wholeheartedly agree that China should be pressured to change their policies about Tibet and Darfur. These are issues that should be of interest and concern to many nations in the world, but is boycotting the Olympics really the answer?

I keep thinking back to the boycotts of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow and of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. While I’m sure the host cities took a bit of an economic hit due to these boycotts, did it really have an impact? Did the host nations truly change their governmental policies due to such moves?

And it has to be remembered that by boycotting the games athletes truly are the forgotten casualties. For some the have a very small window in which they are at the top of their sport. If these athletes lose the opportunity to test their mettle against the best athletes in the world then that truly is a shame. Hundreds of athletes in 1980 and 1984 had this happen to them, and I’m sure many of them while they understand why the boycotts occurred are truly sorry that they never were seen on such an international stage.

Right now the countries of the world are saying that they will not be boycotting Beijing, but are leaving the door open if any individual athletes want to back down from competing in Beijing. And I hope that these countries maintain this policy through the summer months.