Many groups say China's human rights abuses shouldn't allow them to join their name with the Olympic rings. The State Department this week backed away from a suggestion that U.S. boycott the games. Sports Attorney and College Professor Walt Champion says this is nothing new. "Politics has been involved in the Olympics for ever and ever and ever. For example, there was the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and the 1980 U. S. Boycott of the Moscow Olympics because Russia was in Afghanistan." Champion says politics has also influenced American sports from Jackie Robinson joining the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 to moving the 2021 All-Star game . "Olympics for years would not allow Apartheid-South Africa to participate. So, politics in this arena has been around for a while."
There was the U.S. and Russia had a mutual boycott. "We boycotted them in 1980 and they boycotted us in 1984." Many people think sports and the Olympics especially should be void of politics, but Champion says that's not likely to happen any time soon.
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