Minding Ps and Qs at the Games

America’s Olympic jocks are being instructed in how to behave on the world stage.

They’re being asked by some high-profile past Olympians not to horse around on the medals podium and not to drape themselves in the American flag or make it into a turban or a toga -- as medalists have in the past. They’re being urged to turn the other cheek if they’re heckled, to walk away from a jeering crowd.

There is a reason for all this concern. The United States’ image abroad is hardly stellar, given, among other things, the occupation of Iraq and the graphic photos of abuse that have come out of Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison. U.S. Olympic Committee officials know that given the high disapproval rating of U.S. policy around the world, American athletes, who are expected to dominate the Games, could get a hostile reception, as they have on other recent occasions. And though America-bashing is nothing new, the intensity of feeling has spiked upward in recent months.

At a U.S.-Mexico soccer game in Mexico City several months ago, thousands of fans booed during the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and many of them chanted “Osama, Osama” during the game. At the world championship meet in Barcelona this year, the American women’s synchronized swimming team was heckled while they were preparing to begin their program.

There have been transgressions on the part of Americans in the past, notably the posturing and preening of members of the men’s 400-meter relay team after they won the race four years ago at the Sydney Olympics. They wrapped themselves in the U.S. flag, made turbans of it, then aroused more ire by clowning on the medals podium.

Their actions were a source of displeasure even among some of the American athletes, prompting sprinter Nanceen Perry to denounce her own teammates.

“How do you expect anyone to respect our flag if you don’t?” she complained at the time. “Foreigners think we’re rude, anyway, so it just confirms the whole image they have of us.”

And then there were the antics of sprinter Jon Drummond at last year’s World Track and Field Championships when he refused to leave the track after being disqualified for a false start.

In a recent commentary on National Public Radio, Sports Illustrated’s Frank Deford cited the silliness of then-basketball superstar Charles Barkley during the 1992 Olympics as something to be avoided. Said Deford, “He mugged a skinny basketball opponent from an African team and then chuckled that he couldn’t be too sure that he wasn’t carrying a spear.

“We all laugh, if nervously, but obviously we can’t afford to truck with that sort of supercilious attitude. This summer in sports is probably a better time to accept our dominion graciously rather than to remind our neighbors of it.”

In an attempt to keep the theatrics and boorish behavior to a minimum, the U.S. Olympic Committee has enlisted the help of former swimming phenom Janet Evans, who won four Olympic gold medals, and Bob Beamon, who shattered the world long-jump record at the 1968 Mexico City Games. They’ve been staging sessions with athletes about the do’s and don’ts of the Olympics.

“The seminars are totally voluntary,” said U.S. Olympic Committee spokesman Darryl Seibel. “They aren’t lectures or anything like that. It’s an opportunity to really gain and benefit from the insight of two of the most respected Olympians we have.”

That may be so, but one of the major points of the seminar is about the use of the flag. It’s clear that the USOC doesn’t want American athletes showing off to the rest of the world with the stars and stripes.

“We want them to treat the flag with the respect and dignity it deserves,” Seibel said. “Wave the flag with pride and honor, but don’t use it in a disrespectful way to taunt your opponent, and don’t use it as a prop.”

Evans and Beamon said the sessions -- held mainly at the Olympic training center in Colorado Springs, Colo. -- were unscripted and that much of the time was spent answering questions.

So will this year mark a new high in Olympian dignity? All they can do is coach them, said Evans, who swam in three Olympics. In the end, “they have to all make their own adult decision about how to act.”

One film they use depicts good and bad ways of acting during the Games. Topping the bad list is the U.S. relay team, which included sprinters Maurice Greene, Bernard Williams, Brian Lewis and Drummond. (On Tuesday Greene announced to a press conference in Athens that he is “the best sprinter in history.”) Another on the bad side is swimmer Amy Van Dyken, who spat in an opponent’s lane before a race.

The good include swimmer Anthony Ervin, who tied for the gold with Gary Hall Jr. in the 50-meter freestyle, and tennis star Venus Williams. Evans said they both comported themselves well and were not overly dramatic.

Evans said each of the teams she met with reacted differently. The men’s volleyball team, for instance, are all veterans of the international sporting scene and kept the session short, politely thanking her for her time. “But the boxers were all rookies,” she said. “They were like sponges. They just soaked it all in.”

For his part, Beamon counseled the athletes that for many the Olympics is a once in a lifetime event. “These are great moments that you can’t take back,” he said. “It is probably the most exciting time of their lives and the key is to make it a memorable occasion.”

Beamon said he and Evans also underlined the fact that the American athletes in particular are under a microscope, even at times when they are simply wandering the Olympic Village while not competing.

“It’s most important how you carry yourself throughout the competition,” he said by phone from his home in Miami.

Having veteran Olympians give advice is not new. Tommie Smith, one of two athletes who raised a gloved fist on the Olympics medals podium in 1968, said the legendary Jesse Owens spoke to the athletes before the Mexico City Games.

“We listened to his spiel because we recognized that people like Jesse Owens had been there,” Smith said. “But times do change.”

Beamon said even with the seminars there was no assurance about how American athletes would comport themselves should a medal come their way. Once the adrenaline kicks in, athletes may have a hard time containing their exuberance.

Sports psychologist Stanley Teitelbaum, who has just completed a book on sports heroes and fallen idols, said athletes are primed to celebrate.

“When athletes are in a celebratory mood, this is what they’ve been revved up to do and they don’t just turn it on and off,” he said. “People are primed to celebrate and they celebrate by expressing their enthusiasm.”

But he also said they if the athletes behave cordially after their victories, it could be a plus for the American image.

“Sports is like a microcosm of our society,” he said. “This could be a blessing, in a way, if the athletes earn and garner the respect of the rest of the world. Can they tone it down? They don’t have to become mummies, but planted in the back of their head might be the thought of lowering their enthusiasm a peg or two.”