Two Koreas unable to set aside politics at the Games

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BEIJING -- Most disappointing about the parade of athletes at the Olympic opening ceremony was that South Korean and North Korean athletes did not march together.

They had reached an accommodation in 2000 and 2004 that enabled them to march in as one delegation.

It is difficult at times not to be cynical about the Olympic movement, considering the politics, corruption, over-commercialization and drugs, but the united delegation marches marked moments when you could remember what it was all supposed to be about.

In 2000, the Koreans marched in together only 12 years after North Korea refused to even send its athletes across the demilitarized zone to compete in the Seoul Games. This year, there was even discussion about them competing as one team.

The decision made by political leaders this week in Seoul and Pyongyang was met with regret by International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge.

He called it a ‘setback for peace and harmony and reunification.’’

Tension between the two sides has escalated in recent months.

-- Randy Harvey

Update: Photo added at 12:04 p.m.