On the athletic field, Chinese and Japanese football teams may meet again if each survives the elimination rounds. Women's softball and field hockey teams from China and Japan are scheduled to meet early in the games.
Despite the pleas of athletes, politics have long plagued the Olympics. Adolf Hitler, used the 1936 games to flaunt his Nazi supremacism. An African-American sprinter, Jesse Owens, the grandson of slaves, stole Hitler's thunder by winning four gold medals.
China boycotted the 1956 games in Melbourne after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognized Taiwan and stayed out until the winter Olympics of 1980. The Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland sat out to condemn the Soviet Union's oppression in Hungary, while Lebanon, Iraq, and Egypt withdrew to protest Israel's incursion into the Sinai Peninsula.
In 1972, Muslim terrorists killed 11 Israeli athletes in Munich. To demonstrate against South Africa's racial apartheid, 26 nations boycotted the 1976 Montreal games. The US boycotted the 1980 games in Moscow after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.
The Soviets retaliated in 1984 by staying away from Los Angeles.
Given the conduct of the Chinese during the Asia Cup, it seems fair to ask whether they will organize an apolitical Olympics four years hence.
Richard Halloran is a freelance writer based in Honolulu.
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