Olympic Games 
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
4/3/2023
The Beneficiary of Hosting the Olympics is the Police State
by Jules Boykoff
The extreme circumstances surrounding the international spectacle of the games justifies "states of exception" that remain part of law enforcement practices after the games end, stifling civil liberties and democratic dissent.
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7/3/2022
Excerpt: INAUGURAL BALLERS: The True Story of the First U.S. Olympic Women’s Basketball Team
by Andrew Maraniss
“Win this game,” Billie Moore told her team, “and it will change women’s sports in this country for the next twenty-five years.”
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
2/14/2022
The Public Will be the Ultimate Judge of Whether the Olympics Soften China's Image
by Michael J. Socolow
China is doing all it can to use the winter games as a statement of its belonging in the world community. It will be up to the viewers to ask critical questions about the media coverage and spectacle.
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2/13/2022
A Tale of Two Olympics: Changed China in a Changed World
by Joe Renouard
Since the 2008 Beijing games, the People's Republic of China's vastly increased global economic power and the COVID pandemic have changed the core narrative around the current winter games. It remains to be seen whether the Olympics will signal a turn back to openness or the intransigence of a confident world power.
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
2/4/2022
Will the Diplomatic Boycott of the Olympics Have any Effect on China?
by Meghan Herwig
After Tiananmen Square, it became clear that American foreign policy was limited by other Asian nation's growing dependence on China. Today, as regional relations shift, will a more effective human rights advocacy be possible?
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
1/19/2022
The Existential Crisis of the Winter Games is a Long Time Coming
by Bruce Berglund
Avery Brundage of the International Olympic Committee had many faults, but he understood that the Winter Olympics were increasingly out of step with a sporting world less focused on Europe and North America and less tolerant of the massive expenditure needed to host the games.
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SOURCE: Forward
12/3/2021
The US Must Not Repeat the Error of Allowing at Totalitarian Regime to Use the Olympics for PR
by Rafael Medoff
Despite the famed victories of sprinter Jesse Owens, the 1936 Olympics were a victory for Hitler, polishing his regime's image as concerns rose about the persecution of Jews. Amid Chinese persecution of Uyghurs, the US should reconsider participation.
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SOURCE: Resist Programming
10/17/2021
Howard Cosell Rejects the Backlash to 1968 Olympics Protest
In the face of public backlash and USOC punishment, Howard Cosell defended the protests of Tommie Smith and John Carlos, perhaps more directly than any sports media figure would dare do today.
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8/22/2021
Rule 50 and Racial Justice: The Long History of the IOC War on Athletes' Free Expression
by Debbie Sharnak and Yannick Kluch
"The recent rise of athlete activism brings the IOC’s claim that sports are a neutral space into direct conflict with athletes’ increasingly vocal demands for freedom of expression and the right to use their platform to advance human rights and social justice issues."
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
8/2/2021
Simone Biles is the Latest Olympian to Withhold Her Labor for Change
by Johanna Mellis
Simone Biles' decision not to compete in several gymnastic events is part of a legacy of athletes' refusal to compete dating back to Hungarian athletes' protests of Communist repression in 1956.
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
7/28/2021
It's Impossible to Separate Politics and the Olympics
by Michelle Sikes
The Supreme Council for Sport in Africa was a collaboration of 32 nations to pressure international sporting authorities to seek to bar the white supremacist regimes of South Africa and Rhodesia from major competition, most notably through a boycott of the 1976 Montreal games.
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
7/23/2021
The IOC May Not Like it, but the Games have Always Been a Forum for Protest
by Harry Blutstein
"Baron Pierre de Coubertin, believed that Olympiads were a way to communicate “love for concord and a respect for life.” So it was not surprising that activist athletes saw the Olympics as a legitimate forum to promote those values whenever they saw them violated."
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
7/29/2021
Simone Biles has Courageously Exposed the Blurred Line between Medicine and Abuse
by Wendy Kline
Simone Biles has worked to ensure that Dr. Larry Nasser's abuse of gymnasts under his care is not forgotten. This abuse was enabled by the authoritarian culture of both medicine and sports which keep women from exercising bodily autonomy.
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
7/27/2021
How the Budding USA-France Basketball Rivalry Developed
by Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff
"Basketball diplomacy at the Olympics exposes the hidden ties that bind the United States and France together."
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SOURCE: Smithsonian
7/26/2021
A History of Gymnastics from Ancient Greece to Tokyo 2020
From classical civilization to Olga Korbut to Tokyo 2020, here’s what you need to know about gymnastics’ evolution over the past two millennia.
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Amateurism, Sneaker Money, and the Forgotten Protest of the 1968 Games
by Harry Blutstein
Tommie Smith and John Carlos are remembered for their gloved-fist protest of American racism at the 1968 Mexico City Games. But they also demonstrated against the hypocritical and exploitative rules of amateurism and opened the door to endorsement payments for Olympians.
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SOURCE: Perspectives on History
7/21/2021
Why Japan Forfeited Hosting the 1940 Games
by Paul Droubie
Japan's forfeiture of the games amid rising international and internal tensions shows that the Olympics have always been a vehicle for the promotion of national elites' agendas, often at the expense of popular domestic concerns.
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SOURCE: The New Republic
7/12/2021
Abolish the Olympics
Natalie Shure argues that the Games impose too many costs on their host cities to justify a short-lived athletic spectacle.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
1/13/2021
‘World’s Greatest Athlete’ Jim Thorpe Was Wronged by Bigotry. The IOC Must Correct the Record
A fellow Olympic winner contends that the IOC must restore medals and recognition stripped from Jim Thorpe; his violation of amateurism rules was encouraged officials of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School and the American Olympic Committee who made the Native American athlete a fall guy.
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SOURCE: Texas Monthly
11/4/2020
Olympic Protester Tommie Smith Reclaims His Legacy in a New Documentary
"There’s a lot of people out there who lived the history I lived way back then. That history is not gone, and it will never die."
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