Americans support Games in China

WASHINGTON — Most Americans think staging the Olympics in China was a good decision despite its government's human rights abuses, Beijing's smog and threats of attacks by militants, according to a poll released Wednesday.

The Associated Press-Ipsos survey also found that while just over half of Americans root for the U.S. team to capture as many medals as possible, nearly as many would rather see great achievements no matter where the athletes come from. Gymnastics remains the most popular sport, though swimming has overtaken track and field as No. 2.

By 55 percent to 34 percent, respondents said the International Olympic Committee's selection of China was the right choice rather than a mistake, a sentiment expressed evenly across party and ideological lines. The poll was conducted during the games' early days, which went smoothly, although an American was stabbed to death at a tourist site in an incident apparently unrelated to the Olympics.

Beijing has been a controversial choice because of how the communist government treats minorities, dissenters and religious groups; its brutal handling of Tibetan freedom demonstrators; and its close relationship with Sudan, which has waged a savage war in Darfur. There were also worries about threatened attacks by an Islamic group seeking independence for Xinjiang province in western China and about the capital's haze, heat and humidity.

Among those supporting China's selection was David Pulsipher, an American history professor from Rexburg, Idaho.

"The more the Chinese become dependent on the rest of the world, the more the rest of the world has influence," said Pulsipher, 41, in a follow-up interview.

Others would have preferred shunning China, which before the games was the target of demonstrations around the globe as the Olympic torch journeyed to Beijing.

"I don't think we should legitimize their government, which oppresses people," said Donna DiMauro, 45, a homemaker from Vineland, N.J.

Even as Russia attacked its neighbor Georgia as the games began, 74 percent said the Olympic movement has been successful in its historic goal of making the world more peaceful through sports. That was similar to the number who said so in 2004, when the games were held in the less controversial Greece, and to the large majorities who have called the competitions good for international understanding in Gallup Polls since 1948.