Fun & Games?

Beijing Sees Small Protests Before Start Of Games

"So, this is how it’s going to go.” So writes one columnist about Beijing after a flurry of headlines that would concern anyone closely following the Games. There’s Joey Cheek’s visa being revoked by the Chinese government, there are new obstacles emerging for media outlets looking to report from Tiananmen Square and there are early accounts of demonstrations and media being harassed in trying to get details. But that’s not all -- four members of the U.S. cycling team apologize for wearing air masks -- ones given to them by the USOC -- as Peter Ueberroth says they are “causing embarrassment.” The Games have not even begun, but it is clear that the tensions around these Games are thicker than ever. And what can the IOC do? In the words of one columnist, nothing, as the Chinese government “has broken new ground by removing the Games from the clutches” of the IOC, which now, “like the rest of us, can only watch."