Tokyo Olympics

[UnkNuk]

15 hours ago, Ilunga said:

Politics having an impact on sport and in particular the Olympic Games is not a recent phenomena.

 

As I stated in my original post the most politicised Olympic games in history were the 1936 Berlin games.

 

Them there was the 1956 Olympic games here in Melbourne where many countries boycotted because of the Suez Crisis and the Soviet invasion of Hungary. 

 

 

Then there was the 1968 Mexico games were the government massacred 100's of demonstrating students 10 days before the games.

 

Them there was the 1972 Munich games, a group of Palestinian terrorists attacked the Olympic village, killed 2 Israeli athletes and held 9 hostage. 

 

Then there was the 1978 Montreal games where over 2 dozen mainly African countries boycotted the games due to the IOC's refusal to ban NZ.

The All Blacks had toured South Africa during the Apartheid era. 

 

The Americans boycotted the 1980 Russian Olympic games due to their invasion of Afghanistan. 

 

The Russians retailed in 1984 and boycotted the LA games.

 

People have short memories.

But in those cases we're talking about *countries* boycotting the games.  That's not what's happening here.

 

As I mentioned, if the Canadian government had decided to boycott the games and refused to send any athletes then I would understand the idea of not watching the Olympics.  But that's not what happened.  We are sending our athletes.   And it doesn't make much sense to me to say:  We'll send our athletes but we're not going to watch them.

[Ilunga]

2 hours ago, UnkNuk said:

But in those cases we're talking about *countries* boycotting the games.  That's not what's happening here.

 

As I mentioned, if the Canadian government had decided to boycott the games and refused to send any athletes then I would understand the idea of not watching the Olympics.  But that's not what happened.  We are sending our athletes.   And it doesn't make much sense to me to say:  We'll send our athletes but we're not going to watch them.

This reply was addressing your statement 

" The fact we can't even watch some entertaining sports now days without have a political shade thrown over time is a real buzz kill". 

 

As I have pointed out politics and sport have always been intertwined and always will be.

 

This article sums up these games and the previous Winter Games in Sochi that caused Russia to be farcically banned from Olympic competition.

 

https://sports.yahoo.com/beijing-2022-blind-eyes-come-cheap-at-the-ioc-213329162.html

 

 

 

I have and never will tell anyone what to do.

If one wants to watch these games that's their personal choice.

 

[Phil_314]

Watching the Canadian women light up the Swiss and Finns for 23 goals combined, I wonder how competitive they would be if they played in the men's tournament this year (I think they can at least beat weaker teams like the host Chinese).

[UnkNuk]

58 minutes ago, Ilunga said:

This reply was addressing your statement 

" The fact we can't even watch some entertaining sports now days without have a political shade thrown over time is a real buzz kill". 

 

As I have pointed out politics and sport have always been intertwined and always will be.

 

 

 

Ah!  Okay.  I was concentrating on the ethics question.

 

Yes, you're right - the Olympics have had a history of being intertwined with politics.