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Were The Games A Success? Opinions Numerous, Varied

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A Tribune wire report

Published: August 25, 2008

BEIJING - The venues were great, the competition was exciting and no major international incident stained the Olympic Games that concluded Sunday.

Yet was that enough to call these games a success?

That question hung over the Olympics as hundreds of thousands of athletes, journalists and other visitors said goodbye to Beijing, concluding what was the most watched and most competitive Olympics ever.

The United States said it was disappointed the Olympics had not brought more "openness and tolerance" in China and pressed for the immediate release of eight American protesters as the games ended.

The New York-based group Students for a Free Tibet said the eight Americans were deported during the Olympics Closing Ceremonies but there was no immediate confirmation from U.S. or Chinese officials.

The eight Americans were sentenced to 10 days in jail. They were among small groups of demonstrators who have sought to oppose China's tough rule in Tibet and its human rights record among other issues during the games.

Ambassador Clark T. Randt Jr. had pressed the Chinese government to immediately release the eight.

"We encourage the government of China to demonstrate respect for human rights, including freedom of expression and freedom of religion, of all people during the Olympic Games and beyond," a U.S. Embassy statement said.

"We are disappointed that China has not used the occasion of the Olympics to demonstrate greater tolerance and openness," it said.

Everyone agreed that the games were a technical success, but debate continued about whether the International Olympic Committee had honored the Olympic spirit by awarding the games to a country led by an authoritarian government with little taste for dissent or transparency.

Since the 2001 decision by the IOC to bring the games to Beijing, IOC President Jacques Rogge has repeatedly said the Olympics would open up China and usher in a new era of respect for human rights and press freedoms.

Journalists, human rights activists and even some sporting officials had called such hopes misguided. Sunday, Rogge confronted those concerns right off the bat at a closing-day IOC session.

"It has been a long journey since our decision in July 2001 to bring the Olympic Games to China," Rogge said in an IOC transcript. "But there can now be no doubt that we made the right choice. The IOC and the Olympic Games cannot force changes on sovereign nations or solve all the ills of the world. But we can - and we do - contribute to positive change through sport."

Not everyone, however, was repeating that upbeat message this weekend, especially in the wake of what some said was the Chinese government's failure to honor promises made to win the games to allow more freedoms.

In a Saturday editorial titled "Beijing's Bad Faith Olympics," The New York Times slammed increased Chinese government repression of political dissent in the run-up to the Olympics and criticized China's refusal to allow protests even in three designated protest zones in Beijing.

The editorial cited two Chinese women who were sentenced to a year each of re-education through labor last week for applying for a permit to use the protest zones.

"Beijing got what it wanted out of this globally televised spectacular," the editorial read. "It reaped a huge prestige bonanza that it will surely use to promote its international influence and, we fear, further tighten its grip at home."

David Wallechinsky, vice-president of the International Society of Olympic Historians and a frequent television commentator, said the Beijing Games had not lived up to the Olympic charter, which condemns "discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise."

"What was the goal of bringing the games to Beijing?" Wallechinsky asked. "If they wanted to bring the games to the most populous nation in the world, they succeeded.

"If they wanted to help the Communist Party issue propaganda to its own people, they succeeded. If it was to improve human rights, they failed miserably."

Wang Wei, executive vice president of the Beijing Olympic organizing committee, said the games revealed to the world a modern, harmonious picture of the country. The Chinese spent some $40 billion on venues and infrastructure for the games.

Chinese officials were congratulating themselves Sunday not just for a good job pulling off the massive event but also for the stellar performances of the country's athletes, who earned a first-place finish in total gold medals.

"The Olympic Games staged in China provide a good window and a good showcasing for the real China," Wang told reporters. "History will show what China is really like and how China is on the right path. And history will show how correct the decision the IOC took in 2001 was to award the games to China."

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