Will the Olympic Flame be extinguished by Politics?

The Olympic flame is a practice continued from the ancient Olympic Games. In Olympia (Greece), a flame was ignited by the sun and then kept burning until the closing of the Olympic Games.

The flame first appeared in the modern Olympics at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam. The flame itself represents a number of things, including purity and the endeavor for perfection.

In 1936, the chairman of the organizing committee for the 1936 Olympic Games, Carl Diem, suggested what is now the modern Olympic Torch relay.

The Olympic flame is lit at the ancient site of Olympia by women wearing ancient-style robes and using a curved mirror and the sun. The Olympic Torch is then passed from runner to runner from the ancient site of Olympia to the Olympic stadium in the hosting city. The flame is then kept alight until the Games have concluded. The Olympic Torch relay represents a continuation from the ancient Olympic Games to the modern Olympics.

The Olympic Torch began a 130-day, 85,000-mile journey that would take it from the site of ancient Olympia in Greece to Beijing, China, where the 2008 Summer Olympic Games will begin on August 8.. The Chinese People considers this as an auspicious day - 8 8 8.

While much of the trip will be aboard a chartered jet, tens of thousands of torchbearers -- 19,400 in China alone -- will carry the flame on foot through 23 cities on five continents and then throughout China.

China's Olympic swimming gold medalist, Luo Xuejuan, will take the flame from Greece's Olympic Taekwondo silver medalist Alexandros Nikolaidis. Another 603 bearers will run the torch through Greece, culminating in Athens on March 30, where the torch will be handed over to China for a flight to Beijing.

After a ceremonial arrival in Beijing, the flame will move around the world through April. At the beginning of May, it begins a three-month trek through at least 111 Chinese cities in more than 30 provinces and regions.

In addition to visiting cities in Greece and China, runners plan to carry the torch to countries including Almaty, Kazakhstan, St. Petersburg, Russia and San Francisco, California.

The most controversial leg of the torch relay is planned for June, when it is scheduled to be carried through Tibet and three neighboring provinces where violent unrest broke out this month.

Olympic officials insist the torch relay in these areas will proceed as planned and will not detour around Tibet and nearby regions despite violent anti-Chinese protests and calls by Tibetan activists for a boycott of the Beijing games.

The flame is set to arrive in Beijing on August 6, where it will be paraded around the city until entering the stadium for the Olympics opening ceremony on August 8.

The upcoming Summer Olympic Games in August 2008 have become controversial much to the dismay of the International Olympic Committee. Opponents of Chinese policy in Tibet, and elsewhere, are calling for total or partial boycott of one of the world's most important sporting event.

Unruly protesters have disrupted the Olympic Flame Torch Relay in some of the European cities. In San Francisco thousands of spectators were disappointed because they were unable to watch the Relay when the route was changed and shortened in order to avoid violent incidents.

The modern Olympic Games have been tainted by politics that have more negative impact and results than positive ones.

The 1936 Summer Olympics, held in Berlin, were the first games in which politics had a major role. Hitler had used the Games to show off the new Germany and also to put forward his view that the Aryan race is superior to others and black people are inferior. American black sprinter Jessy Owens proved him wrong when he won four gold medals in track.

The 1956 Summer Olympics, held in Melbourne, were affected by numerous boycotts. Egypt, Iraq, and Lebanon boycotted in protest of the Israeli invasion of Egypt. The Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland boycotted in protest of the Soviet Union's invasion of Budapest, Hungary.

The 1968 Summer Olympics were held in Mexico City. At these games Tommie Smith and John Carlos, gold and bronze medalists, gave the black power salute during the Star Spangled Banner. This led to the two athletes being expelled from the games because their action was against the principles of the Olympic Games. See 1968 Olympics Black Power Salute

The 1972 Summer Olympics held in Munich Germany were probably the most negatively affected games. Eleven Israeli athletes were kidnapped and ultimately killed by Palestinian terrorists. The terrorists demands was the release of 234 Palestinians.

Held in Montreal, the 1976 Summer Olympics were marred with more boycotts as well as drug allegations against the East Germans. The boycotts were held out by 26 African countries because New Zealand's rugby team toured South Africa.

Another political note is that Taiwan was not allowed to compete because Canada would not recognize them as the Republic of China.

Moscow's 1980 Summer Olympics was the year of the largest boycott in Olympic history. The boycott included the USA and 61 other countries in response to the USSR's invasion of Afghanistan.

Solely in retaliation of the 1980 boycott, the USSR, East Germany, Cuba and 14 other countries boycotted the Los Angeles 1984 Summer Olympics.

This was also the first year since 1952 that China participated.

Very unfortunately we are unable to separate politics from the Olympics. Would boycotting it have a beneficial effect on the political situations they are trying to highlight? History shows that the answer is no.

Politicising the Olympics will also cause harm to the athletes. So while Tibetans are using the spotlight of the Olympics to express themselves, some countries are taking this as an opportunity to play out their own politics with China.

The Beijing Games should have a chance to be a sporting event. As former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan once said, "Olympic ideals are also United Nations ideals: tolerance, equality, fair play, and most of all, peace." The world should not be deprived of the great celebration that is the Olympics.

Associated Press - updated 8:22 a.m. CT, - Thurs., April. 10, 2008

WASHINGTON - President Bush has said he plans to attend the Beijing Olympics, but the White House has not ruled out the possibility that he may miss the opening ceremony, which China hopes to use as an international showcase.

Critics of China say that Bush avoiding the event would be a powerful sign of international anger over China's violent response to demonstrating Buddhist monks in Tibet. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's spokeswoman said Wednesday that Brown will not attend the opening ceremony.

Over two days, White House press secretary Dana Perino has faced questions about Bush's attendance at the opening gala for games that China hopes to use to make a statement about its rising economic and political power. She says Bush will go to the Olympics