'Beijing Games must go on' spiel grows weaker by the day

With this CoVid still raging, it's crazy to even think about something like an Olympics.

Athletics are a way to demonstrate pride peacefully, if not exactly constructively.

@1glenn - pride is a selfish and dangerous thing.

The Olympic Games are not supposed to be about anything other than athletics, and pride; pride for the host nation, pride for the winning athletes, and pride for the nations sending the athletes. This is not to say that there is no injustice in the world, but that it is easy to forget what the games are supposed to be about.

The article seems to suggest that athletes themselves may be harassed by Chinese officials. If that happens, it would certainly violate the spirit of the games, but let's not condemn China for something it has not yet done.

In just the past 10 days or so, athletes were threatened by the organizing committee with “certain punishments” for saying or doing anything that would offend their Chinese hosts, which experience suggests could be ... literally anything. Several delegations urged anyone headed to Beijing to take “burner” phones instead of their personal devices because of concerns over government spying. Ticket sales to events were canceled, meaning the few spectators the organizing committee allows to attend will be there by invitation only. Even that modest attendance goal won’t be easy in a nation where more than 20 million were under some form of lockdown as China tries to quell a series of COVID-19 outbreaks.

This is just crazy. Ban those infernal games.