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U.S. to Boycott Sochi?


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i think athletes skipping the OCs en mass would send a powerful a message at a time when hundreds of millions are watching. of course, not being a winter olympian myself, i can't actually propose or suggest that they do this, but if they should take it upon themselves, i'd be very supportive. if i were a winter olympian, which again i'm not, i'd contact my NOC.

it's interesting to speculate how few athletes would be left when you take away the liberal alps/nordic powerhouses and throw in other assorted gay rights bastions like canada, the netherlands, and states like vermont/new york. sochi could deliver beijing on steroids and the parade of nations fiasco would be all anyone talked about.

But don't count on 3,400 athletes to be 100% gay-friendly. Have u taken a poll? How many would actually pass up a chance to march in an opening ceremony to protest Russia's laws?

They'll always have someone else march in to carry the flag as they did in Kazan...and the cameras can cut away to audience shots if an absent delegation marches in. The TV cameras will be in the hands of the OBS...not some West Hollywood guy. They've done this before in 1980, remember?? And I'm sure Putin's men are putting together a task force to smooth over any such superficial glitches in the broadcast. The Russians will be in control of everything. If it's not to your (athlete's) liking, then you shouldn't attend.

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But don't count on 3,400 athletes to be 100% gay-friendly. Have u taken a poll? How many would actually pass up a chance to march in an opening ceremony to protest Russia's laws?

They'll always have someone else march in to carry the flag as they did in Kazan...and the cameras can cut away to audience shots if an absent delegation marches in. The TV cameras will be in the hands of the OBS...not some West Hollywood guy. They've done this before in 1980, remember?? And I'm sure Putin's men are putting together a task force to smooth over any such superficial glitches in the broadcast. The Russians will be in control of everything. If it's not to your (athlete's) liking, then you shouldn't attend.

you are so narrow minded it's almost not even worth having a discussion with you sometimes.

obviously not all 3,400 athletes would have to participate for the gesture to be effective. obviously it would be heavily discussed and, in many places around the world where the winter olympics are discussed--which is not every place on earth certainly--it would dominate the discussion. (where do you think people are watching the winter olympics, by the way? cameroon? colombia? india?)

and isn't the point of hosting the winter games to begin with the global reach? it would be terrible PR and an absolute fiasco regardless of "camera angles" or whatever completely irrelevant, nonsensical garbage you're trying to argue. you may be a 60 year old man, but you are still living in the age of twitter where it's much harder to whitewash mistakes and glaring omissions than it was 30 years ago.

this has got to rank in the top 5 most poorly thought out arguments i've ever read on gamesbids.com, which is really saying something. you're going to have to at least try next time if you'd care to carry on a discussion.

switching camera angles? lol. i'm sure the 20,000 journalists in the city, who feast on the suggestion of scandal, will totally miss that one.

baron! come on.

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Boycotts do not essentially work in the end of things. Not to be a broken record, but look at Beijing's example. The 2008 Summer Olympics was just a "trophy" for the legitamacy of the Chinese Communist Party and no one else. Besides, with Sochi 2014, I better not see some overt "indoctrination" of some group(s) of people at the opening ceremony, like what happened at Beijing 2008. My taste for the Olympic Games went down moderately then, when the organizers of Beijing 2008 used children to do that "Nazi salute", when the Chinese national anthem was played. In the end of it all, China stayed the same, when it comes to many political, social, and economic issue it has to deal with. Turn the page.

However, things could get interesting at Sochi 2014. First of all, according to Transparency International for the latest data from 2012, Russia is the most corrupt nation to ever host an Olympic Games so far. Even China is considered "less corrupt" than it. Go figure.

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Since it got mentioned in the newswire section, certainly worth bringing up here..

IOC president Jacques Rogge still wants reassurances on Russia anti-gay law

So it sounds like this one is getting lost in translation. Not sure I buy that one, but at least they're still speaking out on the issue, as opposed to certain people here who think they should let bygones by bygones and forget the issue.

Probably also worth noting that the IAAF hasn't entirely let this all go unnoticed either.. IAAF calls on Russia to reconsider views on gays

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To my knowledge, the only times "back ups" have come in earnest is when London took over 1908 from Rome, and the 1940 games got shifted from Tokyo to Helsinki (before they were outright cancelled).

I would consider Innsbruck as the backup for the 1976 Winter Olympics. They had 4 years to prepare after Denver gave back the Games in 1972.

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oh please, krow. If it doesn't please u, too bad. It is what it is.

We don't agree most of the time. Maybe we should just leave it as is??

have you ever noticed how, in the entire history of the olympic games, there has never been a single scandal or fiasco? and how the host country always appears to win every gold medal? haven't you ever wondered the real reason why every olympics comes off so flawlessly? well, the secret is, apparently, the camera angles. you just switch to something else when you don't like what's going on. if someone breaks their leg on the slalom, focus on something else. if you don't like the gold medalist, just shoot the silver medalist from the neck up. so if something goes wrong, just pretend it didn't happen.

oh wait. did it even happen? hm, not sure anymore, we'll have to check the camera angles.

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I would consider Innsbruck as the backup for the 1976 Winter Olympics. They had 4 years to prepare after Denver gave back the Games in 1972.

They actually only had 3 years to prepare.. remember the Denver withdrawal came in November of 1972. Innsbruck wasn't installed as the replacement host until February 1973.

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I wonder how much of an Olympics you could put together in six months. The whole shebang? No.

But I don't see why you couldn't get one city to "host" with about half the events, spread the hockey tournaments over multiple cities, then farm out a few other groups to events to other nearby cities. Cut the number of spectators. Cut all the non-sporting stuff. Keep most of the press away.

Ideal? No. But if for some reason the host city *couldn't* host, it would beat cancelling.

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Not been on here in a while - hope y'all good?

Boycots don't work - Moscow & LA prove that - as did Edinburgh in 1986 (Commonweatlths). However I hope the West doesn't sit by and attend without hurting the Putin government & the Russian people in some way (after all this is a democratically elected government and represents the view of the Russian people - corruption aside)!

The best way is to boycot the ceremonies - these will be the money shots for Putin and his Russia - not attending and also only having Olympic flags and not national flags (as the BOA did in Moscow 1980) will hurt them much more - it will be two fingered message to them!

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I wonder how much of an Olympics you could put together in six months. The whole shebang? No.

But I don't see why you couldn't get one city to "host" with about half the events, spread the hockey tournaments over multiple cities, then farm out a few other groups to events to other nearby cities. Cut the number of spectators. Cut all the non-sporting stuff. Keep most of the press away.

Ideal? No. But if for some reason the host city *couldn't* host, it would beat cancelling.

That still sounds closer to impossible than merely difficult. You still need, among other things, a place to house athletes and media (can't exactly tell the press to stay away, especially broadcasters who are paying for the right to cover the Olympics), and all the usual security measures that they'd have otherwise spent years planning. That's too much to ask on this type of timetable.

If there were some sort of natural disaster to prevent a city from host, the better bet is to postpone the games. Maybe hold them the following winter after there's been a chance to plan everything out. 6 months is too little to rush into this type of planning, especially for something like the hockey tournament.

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I wonder how much of an Olympics you could put together in six months. The whole shebang? No.

But I don't see why you couldn't get one city to "host" with about half the events, spread the hockey tournaments over multiple cities, then farm out a few other groups to events to other nearby cities. Cut the number of spectators. Cut all the non-sporting stuff. Keep most of the press away.

Ideal? No. But if for some reason the host city *couldn't* host, it would beat cancelling.

Not been on here in a while - hope y'all good?

Boycots don't work - Moscow & LA prove that -

The 1976 Montreal Mess too was made even messier by the boycott of the African nations. But that was when Ethiopia was the only African nation who could bag a medal or two, so the others weren't too entirely missed midway through.

It's too late to move 2014 now. Even when LA was a possible standby for 2004, SCCOG said they would need at least 28 months' leadtime to stage a fairly streamlined Games. Yes, Winter is smaller but you have more variables of securing the right exterior venues, etc., etc. If the IOC and FIFA (also throwing fear of 2018 in the mix) gang up, then maybe something might happen. But it will probably be only while the 'vocal,hysterical, decadent foreigners' are in town. Once they're gone, it's back to business as usual.

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The games will not be moved! Can you imagine the fallout? Sergey Bubka, has been quoted as saying "all countries have their problems", brushing aside the criticism. While I don't agree with his somewhat soft stance, I do agree that the games should go on as normal. If the IOC want to become a more socially aware body, then by all means, let them be ethical in their future decisions. But as for 2014, its a done deal!

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Considering how Jacques Rogge was speaking up on the issue this morning, it seems then that I wouldn't consider this Bubka as a good successor to Rogge if he's just going to have such an indifferent response, to say the least. Not surprising, though, considering that the Ukraine is most likely not that much different from Russia on this issue. Carrion seems to have more of a backbone & a seeming quality of speaking out on what's right & fair, regardless if it may cost him a few votes or not with his candidacy. Those are the virtues of a good, strong leader, not an "it is what it is & all countries have their problems" brush-aside attitude.

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Considering how Jacques Rogge was speaking up on the issue this morning, it seems then that I wouldn't consider this Bubka as a good successor to Rogge if he's just going to have such an indifferent response, to say the least. Not surprising, though, considering that the Ukraine is most likely not that much different from Russia on this issue. Carrion seems to have more of a backbone & a seeming quality of speaking out on what's right & fair, regardless if it may cost him a few votes or not with his candidacy. Those are the virtues of a good, strong leader, not an "it is what it is & all countries have their problems" brush-aside attitude.

Neither can I. This is clearly a good test of what the IOC is all about, so maybe it's a good thing there will be a changeover in leadership in the IOC. If the IOC wants to continue to preach about ideals and what sport means in the grander scheme of things, then they need to speak out about this issue and at the very least tell the Russians that what they're doing will not be accepted from a future host. If a Bubka type or whoever else wants to leave this one alone and not try and sound political, then the IOC needs to re-think what they stand for if they're going to continue selling it to everyone.

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We haven't heard from the Greeks who started this whole bloody mess in the first place. Where are those studly Spartans now?? ;)

And is the Prometheus depiction in or "out" of the Opening Ceremony?? :lol:

you know, everyone says boycotts don't work, but i can't think of a single downside to everyone on earth ignoring you.

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Neither can I. This is clearly a good test of what the IOC is all about, so maybe it's a good thing there will be a changeover in leadership in the IOC. If the IOC wants to continue to preach about ideals and what sport means in the grander scheme of things, then they need to speak out about this issue and at the very least tell the Russians that what they're doing will not be accepted from a future host. If a Bubka type or whoever else wants to leave this one alone and not try and sound political, then the IOC needs to re-think what they stand for if they're going to continue selling it to everyone.

I have no faith that they will do anything of the sort, they've already shown successively that they don't give a F about their ideals, and only use them as window dressing in their further pursuit of the bottom line. If it's not now, then it certainly will be after this sham Sochi 2014 is over for them (the IOC and NOCs) to lose their non-profit status worldwide and start ponying up some tax payments on their rather large finances.

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you know, everyone says boycotts don't work, but i can't think of a single downside to everyone on earth ignoring you.

krow, the thing is.. you know how we all keep saying that a boycott wouldn't accomplish anything because it wouldn't get the Russians to realize what they're doing is not acceptable to much of the rest of the world and change their ways? Same logic probably applies here.

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The games will not be moved! Can you imagine the fallout? Sergey Bubka, has been quoted as saying "all countries have their problems", brushing aside the criticism. While I don't agree with his somewhat soft stance, I do agree that the games should go on as normal. If the IOC want to become a more socially aware body, then by all means, let them be ethical in their future decisions. But as for 2014, its a done deal!

So, no matter what, the games must go on??? So if Russia comes back and clarifes that, yes, they do intend to throw any athlete, spectator or media member in jail if they say anything about being gay... oh, well??

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We haven't heard from the Greeks who started this whole bloody mess in the first place.

You're not wrong there.

A Greek and Italian were arguing over who had the superior culture. The Greek says, "We have the Parthenon."

Arching his eyebrows, the Italian replies, "We have the Coliseum."

The Greek retorts, "We Greeks gave birth to advanced mathematics"

The Italian, nodding agreement, says, "But we built the Roman Empire."

They argue like this for hours until the Greek comes up with what he thinks will end the discussion. With a flourish of finality he says, "We invented sex!"

The Italian replies, "That is true, but we thought of having it with women."

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I have no faith that they will do anything of the sort, they've already shown successively that they don't give a F about their ideals, and only use them as window dressing in their further pursuit of the bottom line. If it's not now, then it certainly will be after this sham Sochi 2014 is over for them (the IOC and NOCs) to lose their non-profit status worldwide and start ponying up some tax payments on their rather large finances.

So, no matter what, the games must go on??? So if Russia comes back and clarifes that, yes, they do intend to throw any athlete, spectator or media member in jail if they say anything about being gay... oh, well??

The problem at this point is that what the Russians say and what they might wind up doing could bear no relation to each other. I have to imagine that the Russians know the value of good press and will do whatever they have to to ensure there isn't a big public incident. And even if they do guarantee that their anti-gay laws won't be enforced at the Olympics, we won't know if that's true or not until the Olympics start (although the IAAF World Championships this week could provide some insight).

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