Olympics Gymnastics Montage

Since the 2008 Beijing Olympics will be here in a matter of days, I thought I would add some Youtube videos of past and present Olympic gymnasts.

I start with some scenes of the highly controversial 1936 Berlin Olympics in which gymnastics was performed outdoors. These Olympics are currently the subject of a very moving exhibit that I saw at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, back in late May. The exhibit is still up, and is running until Aug. 24.

The second video is from my all-time favorite gymnast Svetlana Boginskaya, aka The Belarusian Swan. She was competing here for the USSR at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. She would also compete in 1992 and 1996. Boginskaya was still performing gymnastics at age 25 in 1998. At last report, I heard she was living in Houston with her family.

The third video is from Yvonne Tousek. She is competing herefor Canada at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. She would later compete for UCLA. I had the chance to meet her during an NCAA regional meet in Raleigh. Tousek now performs with Cirque du Soleil.

And, lastly, I posted a video from current U.S. Olympian Alicia Sacramone, who was up until recently competing for Brown University. Sacramone has been a competitive international gymnast for quite some time.

The Beijing Olympics, which might be the most political games since the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, should be quite interesting.

Former Olympic speed skater Joey Cheek has asked Olympic athletes to help China recognize that it must stop supporting economic ties with the Sudanese government which is responsible for the genocide in Darfur.

There is also the ugly matter of Tibet, and China's own highly controversial human rights record, which at one point included executing individuals for political disobedience.

And, a recent article in "The New Yorker" stated that the outside pressures on China to conform to western standards (as well as the protests in Europe over Tibet)  has lead to a nationalist movement there, particularly among young people.

I sympathize with the Chinese people as I realize they do not want to arbitrarily feel excluded from the rest of the world. But, at the same time, there are legitimate reasons why outside pressure must be placed on the country, including China's problems with pollution and child labor laws.

But, Chinese young people are opening up to western rock artists, including The Rolling Stones, Linkin Park and The Yea Yea Yeas.

One can certainly say it is a complicated issue, as China is fast becoming the world's main global economic power.

The games get underway on Aug. 8

Useful Links:

http://ushmm.org (Holocaust Museum site)

http://www.intlgymnast.com

http://www.collegegymfans.com

http://www.newyorker.com

Tags: Beijing, Olympics, China, Sudan, Yvonne Tousek, Svetlana Boginskaya, Alicia Sacramone, Joey Cheek