Olympic Glory

Well, I'm back, after a few short days of not blogging. A few interesting developments have happened in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. There is now a new blog up on the New York Times called "The Rings" that has blog entries much more often than this one. Check it out here. So, here are a few thoughts and updates.

Oscar Pistorius
Oscar Pistorious is a South African sprinter who would like to make it to the Olympic games. While he's probably not fast enough to make it in his big events, the 100, 200 and 400 meter dashes, he will probably be placed on the South African 4x400 meter relay team. He is, as far as anyone can tell, a model athlete, trains well, and would like a shot at the Olympics. However, in January, the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) prohibited from going to the Olympics.

The reason for that is that Oscar Pistorious is a double leg amputee. He runs with the aid of what are known as "cheetah legs," shown on Pistorious here. In January it was determined that the legs he uses gives him an unfair advantage in competition with able-bodied people. Note the wicked irony: a man who has neither of his legs is determined to be better equiped than those who have both of their legs, and thus is not allowed to compete.

Pistorious appealed his decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and research was done at Rice University's Locomotion Laboratory under the direction of Professor Peter Weyand. He is also part of a six-member team led by Hugh Herr of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (a bilateral amputee himself) and comprising of scientists from the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of Saint-Etienne (France), and the University of Wyoming. This team presented their findings to the Court, saying that the prosthetics used gave no significant competitive advantage and the previous study was not scientifically valid.

In a shocking overturn, the Court reversed the ruling of the IAAF, allowing Pistorious to have a shot at competing on the highest stage in all of sports. Pistorious hopes to follow in the footsteps of fellow South African Natalie du Toit and make a trip to Beijing in August. Du Toit is a swimmer who has only one leg and will compete in the 10k open swim, which makes its Olympic debut this summer.

Other "Heartwarming Stories"
The Olympics will have some of the most heartwarming stories you'll here about--people who have defied the odds. Oscar Pistorious and Natalie du Toit are just two examples of people like that. Kenyan athletes will come out of a country torn by a recent bout of violence leaving 1200 people dead and thousands more injured. Some of their athletes sustained injuries in the violence that ensued. Yet they will be going to the Olympics this summer.

In 2004, the North and South Korean athletes marched into the opening ceremonies under the Korean unification flag, a hopeful gesture of future peace between two countries separated by one of the most heavily armed borders in the world.

During the Olympic torch relay, I noted in my last blog that the torchbearers made it to the top of Mount Everest. The torch was passed between five torchbearers to a Tibetan woman standing on the summit of Everest. It was perhaps a step towards unity between the Chinese and Tibetans--a step which is small, and smells of propoganda, but perhaps a nice gesture on the part of the Chinese government.

What are the Olympics About?
Those who place at the Olympics will bring home a gold, silver, or bronze medal and glory for their country. But very few of the athletes who compete actually win. There are swimmers who don't have a pool to train in--they train in their local lake instead. Will they come away with a medal? They're going up against athletes who have had their skills honed against stiff competition in the world's fastest pools in the world's fastest suits. Of course they won't. But that's not why they're there. They are there to be part of the Olympics, which is bringing together the countries of the world in a supra-political way. It is one event where people from Iraq and Iran, North and South Korea, Israel and Jordan, France and England, and the United States and Russia can come together in harmony.

Why would we want to ruin that? We are angry with China for their political deeds (or misdeeds). But the Olympics aren't Chinese--nor where they ever Australian or American or Spanish. A host country opens itself up to invite harmony between countries. Hopefully Beijing 2008 will fulfill that ideal.

An Update on Beijing

Well, finals have come and gone, work has started, and this blog has fallen into disrepair. It's not for disinterest--I have a fervent interest in the 2008 Olympics, to be sure--it is quite simply for lack of time. Without any further ado, I shall address the latest updates about Beijing.

China Under the Microscope
Quite simply, China has its hands full. Not only is it preparing for one of the most extravagant Olympics in history, but the world's largest country has to deal with its own extensiveness--and it's under more pressure and more scrutiny than the formally-backward country has ever experienced.

Per usual, it must deal with the day-to-day strife regarding political control on the island known as Taiwan, conflict with the West (read: United States) regarding North Korea, and border disputes with (count them): India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, Brunei, Japan, North Korea, Burma and Thailand (with recent conclusion in disputes with Tajikistan and Russia). Let's not forget Western (again, read: United States) criticism of Chinese practices like communism, its dealings with countries like The Sudan, its greenhouse gas emissions, its production of practically everything Americans buy, and its enormous consumption of virtually every natural resource humanity finds a use for.

That, of course, is just for starters. The Beijing Olympics, which to date only comprises of a torch relay, has become Tibetan protesters' newest platform for the promotion of human rights. And plenty of other anti-China causes. Finally, Sichuan province in China has just suffered one of the deadliest earthquakes in recent history. The central-Chinese quake was felt as far away as Beijing, and currently (as of May 14, two days after it happened), the official report is that there are 80,000 people killed or injured by the damage. That is not an estimate of the final tally, so it does not include people who are missing. The final figure looks to be much higher. For once, the world has backed behind China as a huge humanitarian crisis emerges north of the Himalyas, and put political differences aside. Perhaps we should take a hint and treat the Olympics in the same apolitical sense.

So What Should the US Do About the Olympics?
Hillary Clinton, soon-to-be former presidential candidate and current US Senator from New York, believes the president should boycott the opening ceremonies. Others go farther: perhaps the United States as a country should boycott the the ceremonies. Radicals take it to the extreme and think that the United States should boycott the games entirely.

The radical idea of a boycott is just plain silly, as evidenced by the boycotts (by the Soviets) of the 1984 Los Angeles games and (by the Americans) the 1980 Moscow games. It simply took away the competition (and the spirit) of the Olympics. The Soviets won far more medals than they would have in 1980, and the Americans did the same in 1984. What did we gain? Our best athletes couldn't compete for the prize they had waited four years for, and the Soviets got a leg up on us.

Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, has declared his intentions, under intense national pressure, to boycott the opening ceremony. Again, what is the usefulness of such a move (with no disrespect to the Prime Minister intended)? The ceremony isn't about the Prime Minister or the Premier or the President. In fact, it's not about politics at all. It's about the people--the people of China, the people who will compete, and the people who will cheer them on. China has an impressive coming-out party awaiting us, so we gain nothing by missing out on the first night of the festivities, fittingly scheduled for the 8th day of the 8th month of the 2008th year (according to the Christian calendar). For those of you who didn't pick that up, that would be 08/08/08. Eight happens to be a lucky number in China (I thought all one or two digit numbers were lucky, judging by all the numbers I get on the back of my fortunes from fortune cookies, but alas, I was wrong). There is no harm in going to the Olympics, other than by experiencing fruits of the money China poured into preparing the games for the West.

So What Else is Going on in China?
So not everything in China is dismally political and depressing. China is indeed preparing itself for what I hopes to be its finest moment. It all starts when your plane touches down Beijing Capital Airport, and walk into their brand new Terminal 3 (which, incidentally, it does not look like we will be using, as Korean Air uses Terminal 2). That terminal, pictured here, is larger than the Pentagon, and the Chinese used hired a feng shui master to incorporate Chinese elements into it.

In other news, the Chinese reached the summit of Mount Everest (also known as Mount Qomolangma) on their torch relay. It is an impressive achievement, to be sure, and underscores the nature of the Chinese Olympic effort. There was criticism over the event, as Mount Everest lies on the border between Nepal and Tibet, the subject of much antagonism toward China. However, one should note that many of the climbers on the team that summitted Everest with the torch were actually Tibetans.

China is under enormous scrutiny and pressure (albeit some of it self-imposed). How will it perform? That is the million-dollar question, or in the case of China, the 400 billion-dollar question. News from China has moved from being second page biweekly stories to front page weekly stories, to front page daily stories. The closer one gets to Beijing, both chronologically and geographically, the bigger the story from China becomes.