Jacques Rogge was touted as the leader who would reform the scandal-tainted International Olympic Committee.
At first, it looked like Rogge was a man of his word. At the 2002 Winter Olympics, Rogge chose to stay in the Olympic Village with the athletes, instead of taking up residence at the Grand America Hotel with the rest of the Olympic bluebloods.
But, as the world prepares for the Summer Olympics in Beijing, Rogge has shown his morals are no better than any other Olympic weasel.
Just in case you’re coming out of a coma, let me bring you up to date. The Olympic Torch Run has given the world a forum to blast China for its mistreatment of Tibet. In Paris, protesters managed to quench the torch, despite the fact that it was surrounded by Chinese thugs. In San Francisco, protesters forced organizers to reroute the torch run so the Chinese wouldn’t have to confront the fact that people are not happy with their brutal regime.
Rogge, who is wringing his hands over this “crisis,” warned that any Olympic athlete who tries to make a pro-Tibet statement during the Games will risk losing his or her medals and be ejected. This includes wearing a Tibetan flag or taking one for a victory lap around the stadium. Rogge claims he will clamp down on “propaganda.”
By that grounds, the Olympics should be taken out of China completely. The Chinese are using the Games to whitewash their country to convince the world that they are good people. By using the Games to highlight Chinese accomplishment, they think we will forget the violence in Tibet, the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners or their support for the genocide in Darfur. This is no different than Hitler’s co-opting of the Olympics to promote Aryan superiority (which Jesse Owens scuttled in the track and field events). The torch run, which has become a staple of the modern Olympics, was part of Hitler’s propaganda effort.
But Rogge has no problem with the Chinese using the Olympics to gloss over its atrocious human rights records, but he is bothered if athletes and others attempt to exercise what Thomas Jefferson considered one of the inalienable rights granted us by our Creator, that being the right of free expression.
Instead of meekly submitting to this gag order, every team from a freedom-loving country should incorporate the Tibetan flag into its uniforms. And the leaders of those nations should boycott the Opening Ceremonies, and remind China that it is still a pariah among the nations.
Rogge and other Olympic leaders have demonstrated that the corruption exposed in Salt Lake City not only remains, but it has festered into a cancer. Ideally, the IOC wouldn’t have chosen China, but it has. The only way Rogge can correct that mistake, short of cancelling the Games, would be to allow athletes and others to protest China’s policies.
If Rogge won’t do that, then he shares guilt with the Chinese for the crimes committed against humanity by the people to whom he kowtows.
