Continued: Olympic athletes carry added burden of political tension

During his long, solitary training runs, Jason Lehmkuhle doesn't think about China's human rights record or the protests along the route of the Olympic torch relay. Like other Minnesotans hoping to compete in the Summer Olympics, he's focused on the athletic side of the Games rather than the political one.

Lehmkuhle, who lives in Minneapolis, is following the news just closely enough to be dismayed that China's international affairs could generate more noise at the 2008 Olympics than the fans in the bleachers.

"I can't imagine trying to use that forum to make a political statement,'' said Lehmkuhle, an alternate for the men's Olympic marathon who also is in contention for an Olympic berth in the 10,000-meter run. "When we're working for our one big shot every four years, it bothers me to have it co-opted by a larger political movement."

Since the Games were awarded to Beijing in 2001, activists have decried China's record on human rights, its presence in Tibet and its ties to Sudan. As the rhetoric around the Olympics heats up, some Minnesota athletes said they feel disappointed that politics is again casting a heavy shadow over the world's premier sporting event.

A few are wondering whether there could be a U.S. boycott of the Games, and some who were sidelined by the boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics are disheartened that the idea has arisen again.

The Olympic torch was met with massive protests again Wednesday in San Francisco, its only U.S. stop on a 22-nation tour. Minnesota athletes continued to run, swim, backflip and leap toward their Olympic goals, trying to keep the emphasis on the Games rather than the gamesmanship.

"I'm not surprised the Olympics have gotten so political, but I don't think it should be that way,'' said Michelle Lilienthal, a member of the Team USA Minnesota distance-running group who will participate in the Olympic women's marathon trials on April 20. "We're all in this because we love sports. When that's overshadowed by politics, it's just sad.

"In the running community, we haven't talked about it much. People are kind of scared the U.S. might decide to boycott, but unless that discussion gets more serious, I don't think it's weighing on anyone. We're just going to keep doing our thing."

'Oh, no, not again'

A few dozen athletes with Minnesota ties will compete for spots on the U.S. team that will participate in the Olympics Aug. 8-24 in Beijing. Most of the trials will be held over the next three months.

The uproar over China's role as host promises to grow during that time. Protests have increased in volume and number as the Games draw nearer, and China's recent crackdown in Tibet has sparked demonstrations all along the torch route.

Wednesday's relay in San Francisco was shortened and rerouted as thousands of pro-China and pro-Tibet activists clashed amid heavy security. The International Olympic Committee will discuss this weekend whether to cancel any of the remaining stops on the torch's 85,000-mile journey.

U.S. Olympic Committee officials remain steadfastly opposed to a boycott. The U.S. government has not called for one, but athletes grounded by the U.S.-led boycott of the 1980 Games understand what it feels like to be blindsided by the intersection of politics and sport. President Jimmy Carter ordered the boycott that year to protest the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.

"When I see the news, I think, 'Oh, no, not again,'" said Lynne Anderson, a University of Minnesota assistant track coach who made the 1980 Olympic team in the discus throw, only to miss those Games. "Every time we have a problem in the world, are we going to have this?

"[A boycott] is not going to make a difference. We know it can happen, and I remember how sad everyone was. I feel badly for the athletes, because this is just another thing distracting them."

Anderson is working with current and former Gophers athletes who plan to compete at the Olympic track and field trials, including javelin thrower Ruby Radocaj and hammer thrower Liz Alabi. She said they try not to talk about the intrusion of China's politics into these Games, because energy spent worrying about such things is energy wasted.

Like Anderson, Dan Chandler also is training Olympic prospects while hoping they are not ensnared in the net that caught him in 1980. A Greco-Roman wrestler, Chandler competed in the 1976 and 1984 Games and stayed home with his teammates in 1980. He remembers laughing at the idea a boycott could happen when it was first mentioned during a wrestling tournament in Hungary.

The concept seemed so incredible, Chandler said, that athletes held out hope of competing until a month before the Moscow Games. Now he knows it is not an idle threat.

"After 1980, you'd like to think politicians would have learned something, but who knows?" said Chandler, an Anoka native who coaches top Greco-Roman wrestlers in Olympic and international competition. "The last boycott was a huge mistake, and I hope it doesn't happen again.

"Unless things really spiral out of control, I don't think it will. But the Chinese could dig themselves a huge hole."

Politics -- as usual

Politics have been part of the Olympics for decades. At the 1972 Munich Games, 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team were killed after being taken hostage by a terrorist group. U.S. track athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists on the medal stand at the 1968 Games in Mexico City to support equal rights for black Americans. Adolf Hitler tried to use the 1936 Berlin Games to advance the racist tenets of the Nazi Party, but in a triumph of athleticism over politics, American track star Jesse Owens foiled Hitler's plan by winning four gold medals.

The International Olympic Committee mandates that athletes refrain from making political statements at Olympic venues such as competition arenas and the athletes' village. They are not banned from speaking freely elsewhere, but in February, the British Olympic Committee said its athletes would have to sign an agreement not to comment on "politically sensitive issues'' during the Games. It later reversed field under pressure.

About 10,500 athletes from about 200 nations will participate in the Beijing Games. Given the numbers and diversity, Lehmkuhle said, some are certain to have strong views on China's policies. Should he make it, he plans to make his only statements with his running shoes.

"I think most athletes will put politics aside and focus on the competitive aspect,'' he said. "The athletes I know, we wouldn't take the opportunity [to talk politics]. The Olympic ideal is that the Games should transcend politics."