You’ll be seeing this image again during the Olympics:
… one of England’s darkest moments in the sport.
The venue: Berlin’s Olympic Stadium; the date: 14 May 1938. As the English players lined up alongside their German counterparts for pre-match ceremonies captain Eddie Hapgood and his men issued a Nazi salute to the crowd. …
It was a Foreign Office order that the England team, which included the legendary Stanley Matthews, perform the salute.
The British Olympic Association (BOA) is back peddling on the addition of “a controversial clause into their athletes’ contracts preventing them from criticizing the Chinese government while participating in the ’08 Beijing Games”:
The clause states only that athletes “are not to comment on any politically sensitive issues,” which would include China’s dismal human rights record and its occupation of Tibet. The move has been widely condemned as an infringement on the athletes’ rights of free speech.
Those who do not sign the contract will not be permitted to travel to the Olympics, and those that violate it while in China will be sent home, according to the BOA.
It’s inevitable that the world will be scrutinizing all aspects of the totalitarian dictatorship over the coming months. No manner of whitewash is going to prevent it.
The BOA should be ashamed.
This blog will happily link to criticism of China voiced by Olympic athletes. That nation has made fantastic progress. But the faster they move to transparency and accountability, the rule of law, and a truly open free market, the better.
The Olympics is the best chance the world has to influence decision-making in China.
Update: New Zealand and Belgium athletes facing the same controversy
Gymnastics Coaching.com 