Take the 2014 Olympics off the table

Now!

My memory of the cancellation of America in the 1980 Olympics games in Moscow still rankles me 33 years later. President Jimmy Carter announced the boycott to the games as a protest to the Soviet Union activities in Afghanistan. 

Why should a country ever allow its Olympic athletes to become embroiled in political decisions? These athletes train for most of their lives for an opportunity to participate in the games under the flag of the United States of America. 

Carter made a horrible decision then, and it remains one today. He tried to say that the situation in 1980 was worse than in 1936. President Franklin D. Roosevelt allowed the Olympians to participate in Berlin despite the American opposition to German dictator Adolph Hitler and his Nazi views. 

In a meeting at the White House in March 1980, Carter said, "The highest commitment that I have in my official capacity as President is to preserve the security of the United States of America and to keep the peace. Every decision that I make, every action that I take, has to be compatible With that commitment. Ours is a nuclear age. We have a much more serious prospect now even than existed back in 1936 when the Olympics were held in Berlin. It was serious then. In retrospect it’s obvious."

<http://www.commandposts.com/2012/03/jimmy-carter-announces-1980-summer-olympic-boycott-to-athletes/>

Nonsense. This was not a Cuban Missile Crisis, handled very well by President Kennedy. It was differences over policy. Carter was not even close to the Black Box.

The 2014 Olympic boycott was proposed this week by another nitwit, Sen. Lindsay Graham. Like Carter, he probably never competed in any competitive sports, nor understand the value to the athletes and to their countries.

American participation in those 1936 games provided a tremendous spectacle as Hitler, the proponent of the Aryan belief that whites were superior to any other race, was embarrassed by a fantastic performance by American sprinter and jumper Jesse Owens, an African-American. 

Owens captured the gold in the 100 meter dash, the 200, the 4x100 relay and the long jump -- all with Hitler sitting in the audience.

Hitler was using the Olympics as a means of promoting the superiority of the Aryan race over those with roots in Africa. The Olympics served as a tremendous boost for American athletes and teams -- and most important, to the black athletes.

That brings us back to Carter. I was personally campaigning against Carter at the time, and this just exacerbated the animus that I held for him. However, I felt the pain of those athletes who were heartbroken at the action. 

Carter made a horrible choice in 1980s. The athletes could never recover those lost medals.

That brings us to 2013. President Obama has reasons to be upset with Vladimir Putin on a host of issues. Putin is moving Russia toward an semi-dictatorial state, not quite USSR-like, but close. 

The events with Edward Snowden sitting free in a Moscow airport are upsetting for American authorities. Nevertheless, Obama cannot hold these athletes hostage to any political situation short of a nuclear cataclysm.

As bad as Putin is, he is a cagey politician who realizes the value of the Moscow games to his country.

At some point in the near future, Obama must tell the American athletes that they will be participating in Moscow next year. Obama has a better feel for athletics than Carter did, so I have no doubt that he will come to that decision.

Sooner, not later, Mr. President.