An Olympic boycott? Been there, done that

Uh-oh, here we go again. Don't you hate when they start talking about boycotting the Olympics?

You know the drill: When the going gets tough, when nobody can figure out anything better to do, hold the Olympics hostage.

With the Beijing Olympics set for this summer, everyone with a cause is coming out of the woodwork to hold the Games as hostage — environmentalists, human rights activists, the Tibet crowd (what, no PETA?). The usual celebrity crowd — Richard Gere, Mia Farrow, the Dalai Lama, Steven Spielberg, George Clooney — is leading the charge against the war in Burma, genocide in Darfur, air pollution in China, and China's 57-year rule of Tibet.

Not that their causes aren't just and good — just misdirected.

Just a few questions: Isn't it a sign of diplomatic and political failure that these causes have nothing stronger to barter with than an athletic event?

Isn't this something the IOC should have considered before they ever made Beijing the host?

Then again, is there any place on Earth perfect enough to host an Olympics these days and thus able to avoid a boycott?

Here's one reason you do anything except boycott: Henry Marsh 's flag ceremony.

In 1979, Marsh, a Utah resident and four-time Olympic distance runner, competed in a competition in Moscow called Spartikiade, which was a tune-up for the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. Marsh won the 3,000-meter steeplechase, but what happened afterward is what he remembers most. He stood atop the awards podium and listened to the U.S. national anthem play while the American flag was raised in Lenin Stadium at the height of the Cold War.

Where else could such a thing have occurred?

"It was one of the highlights of my career," says Marsh. "I had goose bumps. That symbolizes more than anything why we need to keep politics out of it."

A year later, the U.S. boycotted the Moscow Olympics and took some 60 nations with them to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. For Marsh, as well as thousands of other athletes, it was a lost opportunity. In 1980, he had the fastest time in the world in the steeplechase. He not only won the U.S. Olympic Trials but also produced an American record and was voted Outstanding Athlete of the competition.

But he never got to compete in the Olympics.

"It was stupid," says Marsh. "The only people hurt by the boycott were the athletes."

The Soviets left Afghanistan eight years later. They didn't leave because of the boycott; they left because they couldn't beat Afghan insurgents. Ironically, the U.S. provided financial support to those insurgents, some of whom are now among the terrorists the U.S. is fighting in the Middle East.