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Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.Home > Blogs > Through the Arch > Archives > 2008 > August > 08 > Entry
Blog: Feeling the Heat at Opening Ceremonies
BEIJING — We’re an hour into the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games. I’m sitting in the upper deck of the aesthetically wondrous, but poor ventilated Bird’s Next Stadium — alongside similarly drenched Mexican, French and Mongolian writers — and we’re all melting.
The roof is partially open, the soupy night has come in and, well, the only thing I can compare it to is that hot box the jockeys at River Downs sit in when they need to sweat off five or six pounds right before a race.
It’s brutal — puddles on my computer keyboard, no lie — but I figure a breeze will kick in sometime and as the show continues to unfold down on the arena floor, where the Chinese are putting on the best opening spectacle I’ve seen in the 12 Games I’ve covered, we’ll forget the heat.
But I think the thermostat will turn up a little on the Chinese government officials here in their private box when the Parade of Athletes begins and the U.S. team is led in by flag bearer Lopez Lomong, the 1,500-meter runner who was one of the Lost Boys of Sudan.
He’s exactly what China didn’t want put on stage here. The country is under fire for its compliance with a Sudanese government that’s backing genocide in Darfur.
China buys two-thirds of Sudan’s oil, so it’s a big financial backer. It also sells arms to the country in violation of a UN ban. Those weapons end up in the hand of militia goons — Janjaweed they’re called — and they are responsible for hundreds of thousands of killings and deadly starvations. They kidnap kids, rape little girls, enslave them and kill them. The boys are either turned into soldiers or they often die, too.
As my story will tell you in Saturday’s paper — we spent an hour with him Friday — Lomong escaped from the Janjaweed clutches, ended up in a Kenyan refugee camp for a decade and finally came to the U.S., thanks to Catholic relief workers and an upstate New York family who became his foster parents.
Now he’ll march into this stadium with a unbelievable back story that encapsulates everything people are criticizing China about.
The Chinese brass are so thin skinned, they denied visas to some athletes — including U.S. gold medal speedskater Joey Cheek — because as Team Darfur members, they have been vocal about what is happening in Sudan.
I hope the Chinese people have a glorious night tonight — so far they have been gracious hosts, giddily enthusiastic and so very proud — but if some of their government officials feel uncomfortable when Lomong marches out — well, good.
They should.
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Comments
By JIMI
August 9, 2008 6:03 AM | Link to this
T’is more important to meet on the playing field so that we can all get a good look at each other and realize that we are very much alike. They’re—like—almost real people, even. That’s what the big “O” is all about, and it is as appropriate today as it was way back when.
By LC
August 8, 2008 9:19 PM | Link to this
Thanks Tom—truly have enjoyed all your Olympics coverage over the years. Thanks for always giving us the “real” story—real stories of real people. (p.s. LOL at the River Downs “hot box” analogy!!)
By Glen
August 8, 2008 3:38 PM | Link to this
JC, that is one of the more uneducated lines of reasoning I have seen in some time. The US is not enslaving children, raping/murdering them, and then signing the rest up to be marines. You, clearly, are ignorant.
By DUH!!
August 8, 2008 1:09 PM | Link to this
JC, Not even the same thing. Move to Iraq!!! GO USA!!!!
By jc
August 8, 2008 11:12 AM | Link to this
To be consistent, you should write another article to suggest boycotting the 2012 London games and discouraging any US city from bidding for future games, because of the human loss that we have brought to Iraq.
By ICR
August 8, 2008 10:34 AM | Link to this
Great article. Way to call them out.
By Michael
August 8, 2008 9:36 AM | Link to this
It was a shame the Olympics were awarded to China. No one is unhappy with the Chinese people, but no one should reward the Chinese government.