Let the games begin; Boycotting Olympics hurts the athletes, Kingstonian says

from the Kingston Whig Standard, March 24, 2008
by Brock Harrison

Several of the world's highest-profile Olympians have publicly denounced any notion of boycotting the upcoming Summer Games in China because of that country's human-rights record in Tibet.
Kingston's own elite Olympian is adding her voice to that call.
Andrea Blackwell, now a well-known local basketball coach, was just 17 when she was prevented from playing with the national women's basketball team in the 1980 Olympiad, as Canada joined U.S. President Jimmy Carter's boycott of the Moscow games.
She says she understands the need to draw attention to critical international issues - like Russia's refusal to pull out of Afghanistan in 1980 and China's current human-rights rap sheet - but she also says a politically sanctioned boycott that withdraws participation can be "devastating" to the athletes.
"Just knowing the time and the effort that athletes put into the Olympic Games, I don't know that I could support a boycott," said Blackwell, who was fortunately at the very beginning of her amateur career in 1980.
"Obviously, this shows how important [the Olympics are] to countries but its unfortunate who gets affected most by it."
Competing in the 1984 Games in Los Angeles and the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta has somewhat erased Blackwell's painful memories of missing the 1980 Games, but she says if a 2008 boycott goes through others won't be as fortunate.
"I couldn't imagine had the 1996 Olympics been boycotted. That was the end of my career. I wouldn't have had another chance," said Blackwell, who coaches the St. Lawrence College Vikings women's basketball team and the senior boys' team at Loyalist Collegiate.
Calls for the Beijing boycott have intensified in the wake of deadly clashes between the Chinese government and Tibetan protesters who are pushing for greater autonomy from the Communist regime.
Ostensibly, the Olympic boycott would be one of several diplomatic pressure points the international community could apply to China for its violent treatment of protesters and its continued support for the Sudanese regime that is accused of aiding genocide in the Darfur region.
China wishes to use the spotlight it will receive from the upcoming games to signify its arrival as a world power on the international stage. A large-scale gesture of rebuke, in theory, would throw cold water on those ambitious plans and draw widespread attention to China's alleged domestic and foreign atrocities.
Blackwell, echoing the sentiments of Australian Olympic swimming icon Ian Thorpe and British Olympic silver-medalist swimmer Sharron Davies, says there are other ways for government officials and diplomats to exert influence.
She also says it's opportunistic for governments to leverage the Olympics to promote their own agendas when those same governments often fail to support athletes between events.
"The whole idea of a boycott demonstrates the power of sport and how valuable sport is," she said. "It's not just the tiny fraction of people who actually makes it to the Games, it shows how valuable it is to everyone."
The Canadian government hasn't taken a stance on a boycott, but the idea is getting some political footing. Randy Hillier, Progressive Conservative MPP for Hastings-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington, rose in the legislature last Tuesday calling on Ottawa to impose a boycott.
Blackwell says that would be an "incredibly hard" pill for athletes to swallow, given the years of training they dedicate to reaching the Olympics.
"You obviously want to support your government and the decisions that get made, but sometimes it makes it pretty difficult when you're directly affected without any control," she said.