Should fans boycott the Olympics?

[laxfan25]

An interesting bit of torch trivia that I learned courtesy of Jon Stewart - the first Olympic Torch Relay was instituted by Adoph Hitler for the '36 games.

I'm assuming the Olympic flame tradition was in place, but that his innovation was having the relay with the torch?

Correct. I'm assuming you're excited about fencing taking the world stage again? I'm sure it won't be prime time, but it must be available somewhere on hte plethora of channels.

[KnoxVegas]

The flame was introduced into the modern Olympic Games at the 1928 Amsterdam games.

[Tim Whitehead]

The flame was introduced into the modern Olympic Games at the 1928 Amsterdam games.

TRU, but the torch relay was brought in by the Nazis....

From wikipedia:

The modern convention of moving the Olympic Flame via a relay system from Olympia to the Olympic venue began with the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany.

The relay, captured in Leni Riefenstahl's film, "Olympia", was part of the Nazi propaganda machine’s attempt to add myth and mystique to Adolf Hitler’s regime. Hitler saw the link with the ancient Games as the perfect way to illustrate his belief that classical Greece was an Aryan forerunner of the modern German Reich

[KnoxVegas]

I was not contradicting the man from the great state of UConn. I should have recited this with my previous post:

I'm assuming the Olympic flame tradition was in place...

Mea culpa!

[Tarzan]

Why don't we stop buying China's cheap goods instead? The US consumer is daily and directly supporting their polluting, human rights violating ways! Waving signs and boycotting sports is the best you can do?

BTW- Most lax equipment is made in China

[culax]

BTW- Most lax equipment is made in China.

I think all lacrosse balls are produced there. With the way my teams are shooting this season, a boycott would be difficult.

[Jana]

TRU, but the torch relay was brought in by the Nazis....

The Nazis also brought us the Autobahn, which Eisenhower admired, and as President, introduced legislation that led to our current super highways. ok, so the Nazis thought of 2 good things, but they were still fascist mass murderers.

[OAKS]

[KnoxVegas]

US Americans! Gotta luv'em!

[Gooseguy10]

Money trumps almost anything......that is why we still trade with China.

[FLALAX]

Boycotting the Olympics and Free Tibet are liberal, feel good, superficial causes at best.

People need to smell the toast!!!!

[Tim Whitehead]

I was in Berlin this weekend, and there was a big protest about the Olympics. I thought I'd stop and check it out for a minute to see the crazies getting all worked up, and to my surprise, it was a different kind of crazy. This protest was PRO China. The crowd (and it was huge) was chanting things about how Tibet is a part of China, and about how the "western media" was full of liars and spreading propoganda.

Lousy western media. Perhaps if they had the proper governmental controls on them, like the media in China, they would only print da TROOF.

[StrykerFSU]

...and Poland is part of Germany.

[Jana]

....and the Sudentenland and Austria are part of the 3rd Reich.

....and East Timor is part of Indonesia.

....and Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia are part of Russia.

[Tim Whitehead]

.... and California and Nevada are part of the United States.