The torch is lit, the music swells, chiseled athletes parade and wave.
Every other year, the Olympics begin with glossy pomp and circumstance, but the real field of international competition is often far away from the arena, a realpolitic triple jump of ideology, economics and power. The 1936 Games in Berlin became Adolph Hitler’s Aryan showcase. In Munich 1972, the Middle East conflict entered the Olympic Village as terrorists murdered eleven Israelis. In the 1980’s, the Cold War cast its shadow as the US and USSR swapped boycotts during the Moscow and Los Angeles Games. And today, Beijing gets Summer 2008.
Some call it appeasement of human rights abusers, others say this can be a positive force for change. That’s a lot of weight riding on two weeks of sport.
(Hosted by John Donvan)
Guests:
John Hoberman, Olympics historian at the University of Texas-Austin
Allen Wachman, assistant professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University
and Nancy Storrs, member of the 1980 Olympic Team which did not compete in the Moscow Games.