Elvis Speaks Out...

[Ladskater]

I recently heard that Elvis thinks our athletes should boycott the Summer Olympics being held in China. He says if he were in these games he would think about boycotting because of the controversy.

I wonder what Elvis is up to these days and if he is still involved in figure skating. That is the first I have heard his name mentioned in awhile.

 

[Antilles]

I wonder if he would be so quick to call for a boycott if it were actually his Olympic chance on the line, but that's me being cynical.

I admire athletes for caring about human rights, but I don't think any form of protest will actually change what the Chinese government does.

I know Elvis completely retired from skating. I think he's still involved in martial arts and dirt bike racing. I think he was also trying to release a music CD.

 

[moviechick]

Weren't his programs all like Chinese-martial arts themed? And its easy for him to tell others to boycott now. He already got to go to the Olympics, more than once.

 

[Tinymavy15]

I can see his point, but I agree that there would be mighty few athletes who would sacrafice thier chance for an olympic gold because of a wrong country. Why should honest, hardworking athletes have to pay for China's mistakes?

 

[eleonora.d]

Many athlets in Italy told their opinion about this. Most of them including Carolina Kostner said politics should be out of the Olympics, and it makes not so much sense to boycott it now.

The real tragedy was when Beijing was elected host city in 2001 and there has been no *real* will to compel China to respect human rights and recognize Tibet (for example). There were just huge economic interests, as we all know China is the economic world power of the future.

So, it is just so hypocrite to figure out only right now what's going on in China.
Tibet and Myanmar both can't have a regular democratic government, and this is directly and undirectly China's fault, but this is no news.

Boycotting the Olympics is no real help for them, but it is easy to show some commitment this way rather than by planning real politics against China's anti-democratic attitude, which looks "impossible" from an economic point of view.

Olympic spirit of Beijing 2008 has already been damaged and this edition cannot be compared to others like Turin 2006 or Sidney 2000 in which real feeling of joy and peace was caracterising the events.
Remember Moscow 1980? :disapp: up to 50 countries boycotted it,and even if Italy won much more medals, it is clear it was only "half Olympics". So sad.

Even the Dalai Lama,which I had the honour of watching live having a speech in my home town, told us not to boycott Olympics.
That may mean something..

ps. sorry for my poor english. But I wanted to post it anyways

 

[Mafke]

The mistake was choosing China in the first place. After that classic wrong-headed decision (part of a proud olympic tradition of making tyrannies like nazi germany and the soviet union feel good about themselves) what do you expect athletes to do?

Then I'm bored silly by the whole olympic concept and have been for years (it's a lot like Star Trek, it's time has come and gone and all things considered, good riddance) and planned on watching zero minutes of the Beijing olympics anyway. I'm currently finding the option of never watching olympic tv coverage again very tempting (the quicker to kill that sad beast).

 

[jennylovskt]

Then I'm bored silly by the whole olympic concept and have been for years (it's a lot like Star Trek, it's time has come and gone and all things considered, good riddance) and planned on watching zero minutes of the Beijing olympics anyway. I'm currently finding the option of never watching olympic tv coverage again very tempting (the quicker to kill that sad beast).

Good for you! I am working my plans around that time in order to watch the entire Olympics coverage on TV.

Elvis is silly to suggest such so called solution.

 

[Jaana]

Athletes from various countries have prepared for the Olympics for years, a boycott is never a good idea, because it only hurts those athletes whose work would go to waste. The Olympics were given to China, why was it selected? Not enough protests? Anyway, the right time for strong protests should have been before selection and not now, in my opinion.

 

[Ptichka]

I'll repost what I have earlier said on the subject of boycotting Olympics.

As to boycotts only hurting the athletes... I actually disagree (not that I think US should boycott the Beijing Olympics). I once asked my mom what it meant to her and her friends when the US boycotted the Moscow Olympics. She says it was an incredibly strong statement that they were not alone. That the "world" did care about the atrocities that the USSR was committing. She also says that there were a lot of people previously sort of "on the fence" about what to think about USSR's actions in Afghanistan for whom the boycott really changed their minds. I, for one, am of the opinion that the world has a mistake back in 1936 by not boycotting the Berlin Olympics, though I do not think it's anywhere comparable to the China situation now.

 

[antmanb]

I recently heard that Elvis thinks our athletes should boycott the Summer Olympics being held in China. He says if he were in these games he would think about boycotting because of the controversy.

Think about and doing are two very different things. Given his drive as an athlete i do not believe for even the tiniest fraction of a second that he would have boycotted an Olympics in which he stood a chance of winning.

Ant

 

[Winnipeg]

Disappointed to hear of Elvis' comment on this. In fact that he commented at all is odd.

The decision should have been made before the country was even allowed to compete for the Games.

Why should the athletes pay for something they have nothing to do with. If these are the views of the world, and I am not saying I disagree with the position re this matter, but where were they when the contenders were originally announced - why no protests then (or were there and I missed it?)? Why wait til now to protest??


Also, I highly doubt Elvis would have boycotted an OG unless the entire country boycotted and he had no say in the matter..............easy to make these statements now.............

 

[eleonora.d]

Why should the athletes pay for something they have nothing to do with. If these are the views of the world, and I am not saying I disagree with the position re this matter, but where were they when the contenders were originally announced - why no protests then (or were there and I missed it?)? Why wait til now to protest??

I absolutely agree. Athlets should never pay for this. Sport should not pay for this!
I wonder why no one is asking the olympic commettee what are they going to do now, what should have been done before, if they ever made inspections and controls about human rights, and if they changed their minds now about the election (finally).

Best thing could be for presidents and representatives from each National Government not to go there, but let the athlets compete, instead.

 

[Tonichelle]

whenever the government leaders of a nation boycott an olympics they make everyone... Carter did in the 80s...

Personally I think it should be a choice that only the athlete/individual should make, not as a whole. It's about sport, and the Olympics are supposed to bring nations together, not tear them apart.

It should be the IOC that makes better choices and the time to voice the opinion is during the election process. I don't remember a huge stink about the games until this year, and the human rights issues have been around for as long as I can remember when it comes to China.

To be honest I didn't even see a big outcry about the whole thing until the news broke that Spielberg and a couple of other celebrities denied China's request that they help with the ceremonies.

 

[Mathman]

Personally I think it should be a choice that only the athlete/individual should make, not as a whole.

I agree.

To me, standing up for what you believe in doesn't mean much unless it involves personal sacrifice. For a politician or government leader to say, I'm not going to the Olympics because I believe in human rights and a free Tibet -- yeah, OK, whatever.

But if an Olympic athlete were to give up his shot at competing because of alegiance to a higher principle -- Wow!