Turning the other Cheek

BEIJING -- In 2006, the U.S. Olympic Committee chose Joey Cheek to be its SportsMan of the year, in recognition of his winning gold and silver medals in long-track speed skating, as well as for his selflessness in donating his $40,000 in winnings from the Turin Games to the charitable organization Right to Play to help kids in Darfur.

By Wednesday Cheek, who co-founded Team Darfur, an organization that hopes to end China's support of Sudan and Sudan's repression of human rights in Darfur, had become merely "a private citizen" in the eyes of the USOC. A citizen the USOC seemed unwilling to help after Chinese officials revoked the visa that would have allowed Cheek to leave Washington, D.C., to attend the Beijing Games.

Two years ago Jim Scherr, the USOC's chief executive officer, praised Cheek for exemplifying "great sportsmanship and strength of character both on and off the field."

On Tuesday, when asked about Cheek's visa being revoked by Chinese officials, Scherr said it was "unfortunate that he will not have that opportunity but that's between this government and Joey as a private citizen who's trying to make his way to these Games."

Wednesday's news conference was not one of the USOC's finest hours. In addition to essentially disowning Cheek, the USOC did a remarkable tap dance around the problems athletes may face because of the still-oppressive humidity and hazy air.

Perhaps they figured the hot air they generated would stir the heavy, gray skies that pressed down on the city all day Wednesday.

USOC officials also publicly and emphatically scolded the four cyclists who wore masks as they arrived at the Beijing airport, conscious that China would interpret the masks as an insult to its efforts to clean up the air before the Games.

Scherr, in an acerbic tone, said that "since it wasn't late October it really wasn't the best and most opportune time for the athletes to wear those masks."

Yet Scherr, an Olympic wrestler in his youth, acknowledged that "some athletes, knowing that hundredths of a second may be the difference between a gold medal and a fourth-place finish, are obviously looking to take account for anything they can that might give them a competitive advantage."

If they felt safeguarding their health would give them that advantage, why scold them for wearing the masks? Or has the USOC sacrificed its principles for the sake of winning international votes for Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid?

Michael Friedman, Sarah Hammer, Bobby Lea and Jennie Reed later dutifully issued a collective public apology and said they did not mean their action "to serve as an environmental or political statement."

It's becoming less and less clear what anything means here. Maybe it's the air.

-- Helene Elliott

Photos: Some members of the U.S. Olympic delegation arrive wearing masks at Beijing's Capital Airport on Tuesday. Credit: Valery Hache / AFP/Getty Images. Insert: USOC Chief Executive Jim Scherr attends a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday. Credit: Jonathan Ferrey / Getty Images.

Comments

[earl lawson]

When will we all stop worrying about hurting China's feelings as if theirs are the only feelings that matter? We coddle and enable these people and they continue to slap us in the face by denying a great sportsman like Joey Cheek a visa.

Now today we hear that they may have faked their torch ascent of Mt. Everest. What next? Go visit blogdai and see for yourself. The argument is credible.

earl L.

[Chan]

The air pollution in Beijing is bad. If it wasn't bad, Beijing would not have tried to clean it up in the first place. Can anyone blame an athlete for trying to protect their lungs? The USOC is blowing the mask out of proportion

[Tom H]

The USOC is a joke. First, its members rob us blind leading up to Salt Lake City. Now they are spineless.

It is time for Americans to admit that all this running and jumping is just a game, but human rights are for real.

We should have nothing to do with this ridiculous spectacle in China.

[Daniel]

The world is empty of Character. There are no more decent leaders.

[Ryan]

TROUBLEMAKERS STAY AWAY FROM CHINA.

[Terry]

The best thing about these Olympics is they might embarrass the Chinese government and populace to face the fact that their country is grossly polluted and its killing their population and life quality.

China has the opportunity to learn by the rest of the "developed" world's mistakes, but instead they are following un-green, un-clean practices in their race towards "modernization". China needs clean air and water and they are slowly poisoning and depleting both.

Thanks for the continuing photos of air quality conditions. More please!

[peter]

Americans have been so brain-washed by our corporate media.
Everything regarding China in the papers revolve around a couple
of simplistic issues while there are a thousand things going on
there every day that are news-worthy, some positive and others
negative. The fact that so many Americans are so quick to judge
and hate shows a problematic trend of the racism that has pervaded
our country from its very inception. And the irony is, if you look
at the complaints lobbed towards China, they are many of the
things that the U.S. is guilty of as well. I mean, Tibet? At least
there are still Tibetans alive; most of the natives of our country
have been exterminated and their land stolen completely from them.

[Miki]

The Olympics were created for athletes to compete to be the best of the
best. While today's athletes go to the games representing their
country, they are hardly selfish to think of themselves winning as a
personal goal. These athletes and their families work hard and make
sacrifices to be recognized as among the best at what they do. The
Olympic games are for recognizing the efforts that have been put in to
become a top competitor in their field of sport. The Oscars, the Emmy
Awards, etc., are for public recognition of top actors in their field,
and they include films/actors from outside this country. The same holds
true for the Miss Am!erica, Miss World, or Miss Universe pagents. So why have the Olympics been thrown into the world of politics, protests, and even killings?
The athletes work hard for the chance of winning the honor of wearing a
gold medal, that medal respresents their personal efforts, not their
country's efforts. Our country did nothing to get the athletes to
the Olympics, the country is simply where the athlete is from. They
deserve the opportunity to show what they can do without pressures from the rest of the world to use the Olympic games as a platform for making a statement. We need to support the athletes, and not connect what they do to the problems of the world. The athletes did not create the world problems,
and they are not going to solve them. Give them their day of triumph,
don't negate their efforts with world issues that cannot be resolved in this arena..

[Qi'anna]

The idea of masks being an affront to China is absolutely ludicrous. Anyone who lives in Asia is used to seeing people wearing such masks in public during flu season! They might be weird to wear in America, but they're hardly noticable there. You lose, USOC!

Peter, I think I understand what you're saying--it's true that we are very quick to judge. But I don't think that the situation in Tibet is relatively comparable to American history; injustice is injustice regardless of the quantifiable amount of suffering. (Btw, just for the record, I'm both Chinese and Native American.) I don't think that holding China's negative issues to the light equals judgmentalism or hatred, although there are some who 'hate' on China I'm sure. At first I was upset when China's bid won, but then I was happy about it because it would create an opportunity for some accountability and dialog. I think that the press bringing to light these human rights issues are simply doing their job.

I do find it unfortunately, though, that Tibet certainly gets way more limelight than other groups undergoing oppression (probably due to the fact that celebrities have made Tibet into a 'hip' cause over the years) when there is very little reporting done on the gross human rights violations against the scores of Chinese Christians that have changed little in the past 3 decades. The government likes to pretend that they're cool with religious freedom and touts their state-run 3-Self churches as proof, but just talk to any house church members (those who choose not to register with the very political 3-Self churches) and you'll hear about the reality of getting hounded by officials, thrown in jail, tortured, etc. I hope some reporters will have the chance to at least meet some of these people, even though their cause is not as popular as Tibet's tragic situation.

[Jason]

The new Beijing airport terminal is ten times better than LAX and JFK and way out of the downtown’s pollution, wearing a mask is ignorant and snobblish

[Lotus Blossom]

First, I’m a Chinese and I don’t care about these athletes wore mask at all, if they want to protect themsevles from the polluted air or whatever they want.
But unfortunately, they chose a black one and also take a look at the T-shirt,”Beijing” is also in black.
From chinese culture, it seems that he’s going to a funeral, it’not polite at all from my point of view.
So, I have to say, choose a correct way to protect yourself without hurting other people’ feeling because of these culture diffences.

[Bill Baldwin, Jr.]

The first picture I saw was of Michael Friedman, inside the terminal and he looked ridiculous. And when he opened his mouth (ah, since he was wearing that black mask, maybe it was a recording or an alien life force in control, he SOUNDED ridiculous.

Yes, lots of people in China and other countries like Japan can be seen wearing masks. I was in Tokyo from mid 1968 to early 1970. The custom of mask wearing was done out of consideration for others, since the wearer almost always had a cold or other ailment that could be passed on through the air.

I'm sure Beijing won't be confused with Seattle for air quality anytime soon, but these athletes have an obligation as representatives of our country not to come off looking aloof, self centered or, let's face it, wussy.

The stellar leadership of the USOC was on display as you can see above with Jim Scherr pulling off the double accomplishment of tossing Joey Cheek AND the Masked Cyclists under the nearest Beijing bus. This from the organization that PROVIDED the masks to the athletes in the first place. Didn't the USOC give these kids any guidance or instructions as to when and if to whip out the garments in question? Obviously, there was no communication of this kind, or any supervision of the cyclists either.

However, I'm sure the plastic bag the masks came in had the usual PC-absurd warning labels, like "don't put this plastic bag over your head and seal it up," and I'm pretty sure in a small tag hastily added by Scherr and cohorts was this caution:

"Wearing this mask indoors could be cause for derisive comments, limit your ability to be taken seriously and announce your presence as "Dork Breathing on Board"