South America’s biennial competition, which has been held since 1916, has-this time around-been an on-again, off-again affair after a high official in Colombia’s soccer federation was kidnapped by rebels late last month. Though he was released a few days later, Colombia, fearful for the security of the sprawling event, which it is hosting for the first time in more than 50 years, canceled Copa. It brought back memories of Colombia’s humiliation of 1986 when, having been awarded the World Cup, it was taken away because of civil unrest and played instead in Mexico.
The latest decision loomed as a major embarrassment for the already shaky government, not to mention expensive, as sponsors and broadcasters made litigious noises. So Colombia recanted. President Andres Pastrana donned the national team’s blue-and-yellow jersey and told his soccer-mad nation in a televised address that the tournament would go on-that he and Colombia had put “everything on the line” and triumphed.
What Colombia has won (the tourney opened Wednesday and will run through July 29) is uncertain. Two of the scheduled participants, Argentina and Canada, have made polite excuses, explaining that they disbanded their teams during the brief cancellation interlude. And other South American nations have sent second-string teams, though none would ever suggest that somehow lesser players are more expendable. But the soccer will inevitably be overshadowed by the sight of all the security that has been committed-20,000 police, 3,000 state security agents, armed escorts for the teams, bomb-sniffing dogs and video cameras at every key entry point. Even with all that firepower, the man in charge, Gen. Aldemar Bedoya, is a realist. “In such a big country and with so many radical groups out there,” he told the Associated Press, “it’s not easy to say that absolutely nothing will happen.” Colombia is not the only flashpoint where a very high risk of terror is threatening treasured athletic events. The quadrennial Maccabiah Games, known colloquially as “The Jewish Olympics,” will open on schedule next week in Jerusalem despite escalating violence and recent threats of a wave of suicide bombings. Organizers had been urged by many involved to postpone the games for one year. (There was a similar impetus in Colombia, as if age-old problems will disappear by next calendar year.) The Maccabiah Games are proceeding only after an extraordinary campaign by Israeli and American Jewish leaders to urge, even to pressure athletes to participate, thereby showing solidarity with beleaguered Israel. Still, only about half the preregistrants (and about 70 percent of American team members) are heeding the call and heading to the Holy Land for the Games.
This is not to single out Colombia or Israel; it could happen here and, indeed, pretty much anywhere. (Of course, it already did with the tragedy at the 1972 Munich Olympics and again in 1996 with the bombing in Atlanta.) It is, however, to debunk the notion that sports somehow can be discussed on a lofty plane far above the realpolitik amid which it is played. That notion is, at best, idealistic, more often smug-and always ludicrous. Sports is one of the centerpieces of world commerce, inextricably linked with the political landscape. That will certainly be clear tomorrow when the politics of sports takes center stage in Moscow. There, in all likelihood, the International Olympic Committee will ignore a meager American congressional outcry, pleas of human-rights activists and pro-Tibet demonstrators and award the 2008 Olympic Games to Beijing.
If Beijing gets the Games, the vote will be portrayed as a democratic initiative, a noble attempt to embrace China and, ultimately, to inculcate it with Olympian virtues and values. China may very well prove immune, but it is hardly an absurdist notion. Certainly the 1988 Seoul Olympics helped the vanguard of South Korea’s democratic movement, thus playing a role in the end of that nation’s military dictatorship. And it is only within the Olympic framework that a once-inconceivable scenario-South Korean and North Korea athletes marching hand in hand under a single flag-could occur, as it did last year at the Sydney Games. Chinese officials aren’t foolish enough to promise miracles, but they are actively promoting the idea that hosting an Olympics will certainly prod China to change in the desired direction.
Of course, opponents of Beijing 2008 are claiming just the opposite: that China will view any pro-Beijing vote as an endorsement-and license to continue its repressive policies. They point to Berlin 1936 as the horrifying precedent. China, once it is awarded the Games, will to a certain extent hold the upper hand. But the world has changed since 1936, and the Olympic leadership will have considerable clout and some recourse if the Chinese leadership is deemed incorrigible. The IOC last year threatened to yank the 2004 Games away from Athens, Greece, because of slow progress on key facilities and major security concerns. A threat to embarrass the Chinese by taking back the Games-a desperate, but not impossible scenario-would likely be taken very seriously in Beijing.
Still, the democratic debate is ultimately incidental. Beijing “yes” or “no” is a decision driven by politics, but foremost by the politics of commerce. Winning the hearts and minds of billions of Chinese for democracy is a lovely, if perhaps fanciful notion. But if that it isn’t possible, well tapping their wallets is a helluva consolation prize. Major Olympic sponsors can’t wait to invade that market under the colorful umbrella of the five rings. The mother lode is sitting there for anyone who can successfully integrate their product into what will be a showcase for Chinese honor and pride.
None of this is necessarily shameful. It’s simply intrusive any time we’re tempted to view sports through a nostalgic prism and overly romanticize these games people play. Had you been at the Copa America’s opening game last night in Barranquilla, Colombia, you wouldn’t have been confused one iota about how grounded the games are in political realities. The sharpshooting Colombian soccer team kicked Venezuela 2-0. And the threat of sharpshooting Colombian soldiers kept danger at bay. Just another sports story.
