U.S. athletes grapple with China issues

CHICAGO -- When the International Olympic Committee awarded the 2008 Summer Games to Beijing, it placed its wallet above its conscience, ignoring China’s history of human-rights violations in the face of a vast untapped market for its sponsors’ soft drinks, cars and sneakers.

“Possibly today this opens a new era for China,” then-IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch said in July 2001.

It did not.

China’s link to the deaths and displacement of millions of people in Darfur is a topic of global debate and widespread condemnation. Because of that, the Beijing Games raise thorny issues for the athletes who will compete there this summer, including the 130 Americans gathered in Chicago this week for a media summit.

Athletes, by nature and necessity, are self-centered. Now, they are being asked to look past their lane in the pool or the touch line of the soccer pitch to the world beyond, whose face could be considerably changed by events that take place in Beijing from Aug. 8 to 24.

The issues are difficult for anyone to grasp, let alone gymnasts who are still in -- or barely out of -- their teens.

Darfur is in the western region of the African nation of Sudan. China, its top trading partner, relies on Sudan to satisfy its huge oil needs and has sold weapons that the African nation has used in what has been declared by President Bush to be a genocide in Darfur.

Human-rights activists have pressured China to use its economic leverage to end the violence in Darfur to little avail.

In addition, activists protesting Chinese repression in Tibet disrupted the Olympic torch runs in Paris, London and, last week, San Francisco.

U.S. Olympic Committee spokesman Darryl Seibel said American athletes are within their free-speech rights to comment on issues as long as they comply with the laws of the host nation and with Rule 51 of the Olympic charter, which prohibits “demonstrations and or political, religious and racial propaganda” in Olympic sites, venues and other areas.

“We won’t be introducing guidelines that are any more restrictive than that,” Seibel said. “We expect our athletes to compete in a manner that makes our country proud.”

Sadly, to some American athletes, Darfur is only a name they come across while channel surfing.

“We can’t fix these problems personally and we try not to deal with them or address them right now,” said gymnast Alicia Sacramone of Winchester, Mass.

Swimmer Michael Phelps of Baltimore, who won eight medals in Athens and is expected to challenge Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals in a single Games, dodged questions about Darfur and whether he feels responsibility to speak up as a marquee performer.

“For the athletes, it’s an Olympic year and that’s what we’re preparing ourselves for and that’s just what I’m preparing myself for,” Phelps said.

Soccer player Abby Wambach also said a gold medal is her primary concern.

“Are we human, do we also have consciousness in our minds and hearts? Yes,” she said.

To gain peace and unity, “bringing people together in Olympic movement is where we think we can do the best,” she said.

Jill Savitt, director of the Dream for Darfur campaign, said the group isn’t asking athletes to boycott the opening ceremony to help bring attention to Darfur, “only heads of state, because this is a failure of governments,” she said.

“The only thing I would really hope for from athletes is that they’re open-minded about this and understand that it’s legitimate to utilize the games to promote peace and international cooperation.”

Jessica Mendoza of Camarillo, an outfielder on the U.S. softball team, has dived into the issue as a member of Team Darfur, a coalition of athletes trying to raise awareness of the crisis there and end it.

A Stanford graduate with a degree in social sciences, she has always been interested in politics. Her father, Gil, a first-generation Mexican American, used football to rise above a rough upbringing in Watts and never failed to remind her how fortunate she is.

“I feel like as an athlete I do have some visibility and I feel like as long as it is in a positive non-controversial manner, there’s so much personally as an athlete I can do to help so many causes,” Mendoza said.

“As much as I love this sport, I also love other things, and humanity being one of them. So when I talk about Darfur, there’s nothing controversial in wanting to save human lives.”

Mendoza said she had a lively discussion with Wambach and understands why Wambach and other athletes won’t take a political stand.

“This is a dream I’ve had since I was 6 years old and we shouldn’t lose sight of yes, it’s a sport but it’s our lives,” Mendoza said.

“So I respect that some just want to focus on our training. I’d love to take them to dinner and talk about some other stuff, but they’ve got stuff to do and I respect that.”

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Helene Elliott can be reached at helene.elliott@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Elliott, go to latimes.com/elliott.