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**sunnykerr** · 08-27-2008, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vc318 (View Post)

True but the athletes are the one's competing - not the government. The athletes are there to compete and that's it. I'm sure a day doesn't go by for them when they're not thinking about how much their government stinks. But sometimes we really need to get off our high horse. China is no worse off than other places. It would be nice for once if politics could stay out of a simple game for two weeks. I'm sure people are forming their own opinion about the 2012 London Olympics right now.

At the end of the day, that's exactly why I couldn't write off these Olympics.

That they were held in China is appalling and, as far as I'm concerned, a real bad call from the IOC, but as long they were going to be held anywhere, it's about the athletes at the end of the day.

Georgia was invaded while the Olympics were held, there was a coup in Mauritania, and who knows what other conflicts were raging? Some of these athletes had no Olympic-level facilities to train with and yet they qualified. And, yeah, other times it was just a question of athletes being given ample opportunity to compete to the highest level.

But to write the whole thing off because these athletes were being hosted by a rather despicable government flies in the face of what the Olympics are supposed to be about: sports and competition. These athletes have nothing to do with China. They shouldn't be penalized because of a bad call from the IOC.