Boycotts, and how they affect athletes

[Sciurus Rex]

Open for general discussion: boycotting fencing events?

I understand the emotional weight behind the decision to boycott a ruling body in *any* sport. And, yes, I'm sure that the boycotters believe that their actions will somehow prompt significant change somewhere along the way.
But is it fair to publicly ask each individual competitor on the day of the event, in front of everyone, to stand up or stand down in a boycott? It's sort of wacky, but some athletes actually show up for competitions to ... well, compete. Politics be damned. They work hard; they invest time, energy and money; they show up to be the best athletes they can be. And what happens? -- Wham! "For political reasons, you can't play today."

Worse yet, a boycott isn't even necessary when everyone knows that the deplorable situation (in this case, the limit of 10 fencing events instead of 12) is temporary anyway, and that it *will* be changed in the following years regardless of whether a boycott is held now. Where's the logic in that? Seems pretty darn spiteful and shortsighted to me.

[counter riposte]

Are you talking about the Israel v. Egypt thing? If you are, I agree with you. But sport, believe it or not is absolutely political. In the original olympics, wars were literally stopped so that the country could compete in the games. Today, games are cancelled due to war. What happened?

Politics. It is no longer about the glory of the sport, but that of the country.

Look at USA v USSR basketball in the 23rd olympiad. The US team has never accepted the Silver Medals from those games. To this day, they are still at the IOC Headquarters. The same olympics witnessed the deaths of several israelis at the hand of terrorism. The 1980 olympics were boycotted by US, the 1984 olympics were boycotted by USSR. There have also been some good changes as well, such as the black power salute after the 200 m dash. While I would love to see us go back to the time in which wars stopped for sport, the sad fact is that the desire for sport cannot override that of politics, not in todays world.

[Bebop and Rocksteady]

People need to biotch less and fence more

Well...

[MikeHarm]

I think the worst political fencing thing I heard of that happened was when Yuri Rabinovich had his fencing team assassinated and he only survived cuz he wasn't able to accompany them to the olympics.

[attila]

Boycotts by people who don't do the sport suck! Bocotts by atheletes are Ok. I Boycotted the US boycott of the Soviet Olmpics. I went and had a great time( as a tourist). If black market dealing was an olmpic sport I would have medaled. I came out of The USSR with more money than when I went in!!!!! Kapitalizm is good, no?!