Americans oppose Olympic boycott

Americans overwhelmingly oppose an Olympic boycott, according to a recent poll.

Seventy-nine percent do not want the United States to skip this summer's Beijing Olympics, while only 9 percent support a boycott, according to a poll conducted by the Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University. Another 12 percent don't know or didn't answer.

The poll, which was taken shortly before the recent unrest in Tibet, found that the televised spectacle of the Olympics is a strong draw even among critics of China's human rights policies. About half of the people who said they support a U.S. boycott also said they plan to watch some of the 17-day international competition on TV.

Overall, 76 percent of those polled said they will watch at least some of the Olympics on television. Only 20 percent said they would not watch any part of the Olympics, while 4 percent said they did not know.

This week, Paris-based Reporters Without Borders disrupted the Olympic torch lighting ceremony in Greece. Though the group does not endorse boycotting the Olympics because it would deprive athletes and the Chinese people, Lucie Morillon, the group's Washington director, said the international community can effectively pressure China into improving its human rights record by boycotting the Opening Ceremony.

"We're not calling on the boycott of the Games themselves, but of the Opening Ceremony ... which is supposed to be the political part, the showcase," Morillon said. "If China releases political prisoners in the coming months, then we would be the first ones to call upon political leaders to go attend the Opening Ceremony and reward China for its behavior."

The Opening Ceremony for the Beijing Olympics is scheduled for Aug. 8.

Boycotts and protests are not Olympic novelties. In 1980, the United States led a boycott against the Moscow Olympics protesting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Four years later, Russia boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, citing security concerns.

In 1968, some human rights protestors pushed for athletes to boycott the Mexico City Olympics. For Bob Beamon, who still holds the Olympic record for his gold medal- winning long jump in 1968, a boycott was never an option.

"I never thought about not going. It was my time," said Beamon in a teleconference last month. "You have to understand athletes train so hard. That's why politics needs to be so far away from these Games. You may not ever get that chance again, so you have to take advantage of what's in front of you."

Darryl Seibel, chief communications officer for the United States Olympic Committee, said the 1980 and 1984 Olympics are good examples of how boycotts are "ineffective, misguided and useless." Instead, hosting the Games is a catalyst for positive change for any country, including the United States.

"Boycotts are futile and they accomplish absolutely nothing other than to unfairly penalize athletes," Seibel said. "The Olympic movement is one of the greatest forces for hope, unity and peace in our world today."

The survey of 1,012 adult residents of the United States was conducted by telephone from Feb. 10-28 under the supervision of Robert Owens, operations manager of the Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University. The co-directors of the center are Jerry Miller and Ani Ruhil. Guido H. Stempel III, distinguished professor emeritus at Ohio University, also assisted the project. The poll has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)