CONCLUSION:
Sport Should Bring Athletes Together, Not Divide Nations

The IOC has often been accused of applying a double standard. Concerning South Africa, for example, the sports boycott may have sent a convincing message to white South Africans that apartheid is unacceptable to the rest of the world. But what has permitted the IOC, and other governing bodies of sport, to exclude South Africa from international competition while allowing participation of athletes from Castro's Cuba, Pinochet's Chile, Mengistu's Ethiopia, or even Brezhnev's Soviet Union? Juan Antonio Samaranch cleared the way for South Africa's return to Olympic competition in 1992, but was denounced by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the 1984 Noble Peace Prize winner from South Africa, who said his country's invitation to the Games should be revoked unless the South African Government due to ongoing violence in his country.

That same year, Vlade Divac, the Los Angeles Lakers star from Yugoslavia, bemoaned the intrusion of politics into sports. "We're not politicians and warriors," he said, "We are only sportsmen, and sports should not mix with politics."'xxiii

While that's been the hope and the unanswered prayer of the modern Olympic movement, it is not the reality. The Olympics is too big a target, too large a stage to resist political intrigue, be it the British preventing the Irish from flying their flag during the 1908 Games, the Black Power salute of John Carlos and Tommie Smith in 1968 at Mexico City or the tragedy in Munich, Germany, in 1972 when nine Israeli hostages were killed by Palestinian terrorists.

President Clinton to the U.S. Lillehammer Team: "Let me say, first of all, that the Olympics for me, like most Americans, is primarily a personal experience; not something I experienced as President, but something—I'm just another American, cheering for our teams. I'm proud of the fact that we brought home more medals than any U.S. Winter Olympic Team in history. I'm proud of the astonishing achievements of this Olympic team and the fact that at least two of the athletes won four gold medals.

"And I can tell you that I work hard up here every day, all of us do, trying to find ways to pull this country together and push this country forward and give our people the opportunities to live up to their God-given capacities. But in the end, this country is great because of what happens inside people's spirits, and in families, and in communities.

"And there are many of those young people who you could reach better than I ever could. And because of what you have done, they will see that there are things that they could do. Because of what you became, there are things that they can become."xxiv