The NCAA's Marta Lawrence looks toward the Beijing Games and questions why the Olympics aren't in a more open and democratic society.
Beijing? You mean the place where students were killed protesting for democracy? The country that disposed the Dalai Lama and committed scores of human rights violations? Why in the world would the International Olympic Committee want to host the 2008 Games in such a controversial place?
In 2001 several members of the IOC claimed giving China the Games would encourage a more open and democratic society, but as Christine Brennan argues in a recent column, the IOC has largely squandered that opportunity.
Rather than demanding the Communist country change their oppressive ways, Beijing, Brennan claims, has largely been left to be itself, which means queuing drills for its citizens, violent squashing of protests and prohibiting live broadcasts from Tiananmen Square.
Honestly, what did the IOC expect? It's tough to believe that the Games can succeed where years of diplomacy have failed.
Unlike Brennan, however, I think the IOC (maybe even by accident) is creating the change they hoped for. Think about it, can you turn on the television without hearing about Tibetan protests or China's link to the genocide in Darfur?
I did a quick Google News search for "China Human Rights" and returned nearly 25,000 stories written in the last week. This time last year there were 281.
China may not be changing as a result of the Olympics, but they're certainly getting a lot more attention for their bad behavior. Maybe the IOC never intended to influence China. Maybe they intended to influence the rest of us.
What do you think? What's the lasting legacy of the Beijing Olympics?