Columnist Dean Juipe: Olympics expose our many biases

Dean Juipe

Friday, Feb. 8, 2002 | 8:57 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

If politics and business had nothing to do with sports at the Olympic level, we might have seen the torch pass through Las Vegas and the war in Afghanistan would continue unabated.

But politics, business and sports are inseparable, as is readily apparent as the Winter Games open today in Salt Lake City.

It would appear the Utah Olympic Committee had just enough influence on the 13,500-mile torch route to keep it out of its largest neighboring city.

More than 11,500 runners strolled the torch through 46 states in the eight weeks since it was lit in Atlanta, yet it didn't pass through Southern Nevada. Nobody seems to know exactly why, but the slight underscored the commonly held belief that we aren't apt to experience any residual benefits of having the Olympics so close, as well as the fact we're opposites; after all, you have to pay a membership fee and join a club to even get a drink in the state next door.

That minor quibble shouldn't curtail our interest in the Games, which are rife with patriotism and apt to be aided by the White House unofficially suspending serious action in Afghanistan. There isn't a truce in place, of course, but the U.S. is not apt to accelerate the tensions in that part of the world unless it is unduly provoked in the next couple of weeks.

But war and peace routinely conflict in Olympic years, so much so that the 1916 Games in Berlin were out and out canceled.

Further instances of political posing within Olympic stadiums was evident in 1936 at Berlin (when chants of "Heil Hitler" intimidated competitors and Hitler himself reviewed the action), in 1968 at Mexico City (which were very politicized and included a spectator shooting himself at a cycling venue to protest the Mexican government's treatment of students), and in 1972 at Munich (when Arab terrorists took hostages and killed 11 Israeli athletes).

Hopefully these Olympics will not force an addendum to that grim litany above and that the greatest concern in terms of disruptive behavior will be the gung-ho conduct of American spectators.

At risk is an international perception that the U.S. is using these Winter Games to rebolster its position as the world's policeman (or bully), yet such a criticism is only a step above what Australians heard when they turned the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney into one big Aussiefest.

Maybe it's important at times like these to review the Olympic creed and attempt to take it to heart. "The most important thing in the Olympic Games," it reads, "is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well."

If only it were so simple, so pure, so unencumbered by modern life and the hostilities that rage across the globe.

Yet as the Games begin we can certainly hope that a spirit of goodwill and friendly competitiveness will remain apparent throughout, and that they will serve their purpose as a platform for peace, brotherhood and understanding.

We'll see if that's too much to ask.