American athletes jeered at Rio games - Chicago officials weigh impact of anti-U.S. sentiment on city's bid to host Olympic Games
American athletes jeered at Rio games - Chicago officials weigh impact of anti-U.S. sentiment on city's bid to host Olympic Games
By Oscar Avila
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune
July 26, 2007
RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazilian engineer Mariana Bacelar is no fan of President Bush and his global policies, but she rarely has a chance to voice that opinion directly to an American. So, watching a volleyball match last week at the Pan American games, she expressed her mind by booing U.S. team member Cassie Busse.
"She represents the American culture and politics," said Bacelar, 27. "They act like they are the center of the world. She would get this [boos] in many places."
Backers of Chicago's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics have been taken aback by the anti-American hostility they have witnessed during the Pan Am Games here this month, from catcalls at the Opening Ceremonies to cheers when a U.S. gymnast fell during the vault.
The booing has fed the concerns of U.S. and Chicago officials that anti-U.S. political sentiment, driven mainly by the war in Iraq, could emerge as a wild card in the city's campaign to land the games. While many around the globe have a complicated love-hate attitude toward the U.S., recent opinion surveys have found declining support for it in many countries, even in typically sympathetic regions such as Eastern Europe.
Ordinary fans won't get a say when the International Olympic Committee chooses the 2016 host two years from now. But many IOC members are top officials with governments that don't see eye to eye with the U.S. on Iraq and other issues, such as France, and some governments that are even hostile.
Officials say the IOC generally is guided by a candidate city's merits in selecting the best games host, regardless of political considerations. And Chicago officials, like some Olympic experts, note that the decision is still two years away and that any number of global developments could affect world opinion, including the results of the 2008 U.S presidential election.
Startled by reaction
"We still have 26 months," said Patrick Ryan, chairman of 2016 Chicago, who said civic leaders have considered the possibility that Chicago will have to contend with anti-U.S. sentiment. "Things change."
The sour welcome in Brazil was startling for Donna Strauss, a gymnast who marched with the U.S. team into the Opening Ceremonies at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. She recalls the affection from Korean fans, many of whom remembered the U.S. military intervention to protect their country from invasion in the 1950s. In Rio, the gymnastics team that Strauss helps coach received the brunt of boos during a raucous finals competition. At the politically tinged volleyball match between the U.S. and Cuba, fans from Mexico, Uruguay, Brazil and other nations led a chant, "Go to hell, USA!"
Although Strauss said fans often root against the Americans because of their athletic prowess, she attributed the recent animosity directly to the Iraq war. She has been forced to reassure her athletes, many of them teens, to ignore the hostility.
One Brazilian watching the Pan Am games, a waiter named Jorcelem Castro, said fans were booing U.S. athletes because of "American imperialism and arrogance." Others interviewed at the stadium and other events echoed that description. The games end Sunday.
A survey released in June by the Pew Research Center found that, in 33 major nations with clear trends, 26 had seen support for the U.S. decrease since 2002. In general, the surveyed nations were evenly split between positive and negative views of the U.S.
Mayor Richard Daley, who visited the Rio games earlier this month, downplayed the role that anti-U.S. sentiment could play in the IOC selection process. Chicago is competing with cities including Madrid, Tokyo, Rio and Doha, Qatar.
"I really believe the Olympic movement sets aside politics," he said. "Otherwise, we would never have an Olympic movement. They'd be caught up in politics."
But others disagreed with that assessment, noting that the Olympics has always been entwined with global politics, including three summer games in the 1970s and 1980s that were hit by major political boycotts. Robert Livingstone, producer of the GamesBids.com Web site, said global politics will be part of the 2016 Games selection process, just as it has in the past. But he said the equation is more complex than simply focusing on anti-U.S. feelings.
'Compelling plan' needed
In an e-mail interview, Livingstone said anti-American sentiment probably will sway at least a few votes against Chicago, but he noted that other competing cities might also have IOC members predisposed against them.
He said U.S. officials can neutralize anti-U.S. sentiment "if Chicago comes up with a compelling plan and can beat their [bid] opponents on a level playing field."
Another Olympic expert, Kevin Wamsley of Canada, said New York probably suffered slightly from anti-U.S. sentiment in bidding for the 2012 Games, which went to London in the 2005 decision, but he said that financial considerations are more important. Chicago, he said, could benefit if major sponsors push hard on the point of bringing the Summer Games back to the U.S. after a 20-year absence.
Manuel Laborde of Illinois, the executive who leads the U.S. athlete delegation in Rio, said U.S. Olympic officials are not taking any chances. The trilingual Laborde, who grew up in Colombia and Germany, said he believes his appointment was designed to present a culturally sensitive spokesman to prove the U.S. is not oblivious to the world.
That attempt to craft a new public image also explains why the U.S. sent home a staff member photographed next to a sign in a Rio office of the U.S. Olympic Committee that read: "Welcome to the Congo!" The sign was viewed as having racial connotations and received unfavorable headlines throughout the Brazilian media.
Likewise, officials with the Chicago bid committee begged U.S. journalists not to follow Daley around hotel lobbies with television cameras out of fear that the spectacle would put off their Brazilian hosts.
"The humbler our approach becomes when we engage our neighbors and friends, the stronger our relationships will be," Laborde said. "I think the USOC is executing that commitment to develop a friendlier international profile for the U.S."
----------
oavila@tribune.com
By Oscar Avila
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune
July 26, 2007
RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazilian engineer Mariana Bacelar is no fan of President Bush and his global policies, but she rarely has a chance to voice that opinion directly to an American. So, watching a volleyball match last week at the Pan American games, she expressed her mind by booing U.S. team member Cassie Busse.
"She represents the American culture and politics," said Bacelar, 27. "They act like they are the center of the world. She would get this [boos] in many places."
Backers of Chicago's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics have been taken aback by the anti-American hostility they have witnessed during the Pan Am Games here this month, from catcalls at the Opening Ceremonies to cheers when a U.S. gymnast fell during the vault.
The booing has fed the concerns of U.S. and Chicago officials that anti-U.S. political sentiment, driven mainly by the war in Iraq, could emerge as a wild card in the city's campaign to land the games. While many around the globe have a complicated love-hate attitude toward the U.S., recent opinion surveys have found declining support for it in many countries, even in typically sympathetic regions such as Eastern Europe.
Ordinary fans won't get a say when the International Olympic Committee chooses the 2016 host two years from now. But many IOC members are top officials with governments that don't see eye to eye with the U.S. on Iraq and other issues, such as France, and some governments that are even hostile.
Officials say the IOC generally is guided by a candidate city's merits in selecting the best games host, regardless of political considerations. And Chicago officials, like some Olympic experts, note that the decision is still two years away and that any number of global developments could affect world opinion, including the results of the 2008 U.S presidential election.
Startled by reaction
"We still have 26 months," said Patrick Ryan, chairman of 2016 Chicago, who said civic leaders have considered the possibility that Chicago will have to contend with anti-U.S. sentiment. "Things change."
The sour welcome in Brazil was startling for Donna Strauss, a gymnast who marched with the U.S. team into the Opening Ceremonies at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. She recalls the affection from Korean fans, many of whom remembered the U.S. military intervention to protect their country from invasion in the 1950s. In Rio, the gymnastics team that Strauss helps coach received the brunt of boos during a raucous finals competition. At the politically tinged volleyball match between the U.S. and Cuba, fans from Mexico, Uruguay, Brazil and other nations led a chant, "Go to hell, USA!"
Although Strauss said fans often root against the Americans because of their athletic prowess, she attributed the recent animosity directly to the Iraq war. She has been forced to reassure her athletes, many of them teens, to ignore the hostility.
One Brazilian watching the Pan Am games, a waiter named Jorcelem Castro, said fans were booing U.S. athletes because of "American imperialism and arrogance." Others interviewed at the stadium and other events echoed that description. The games end Sunday.
A survey released in June by the Pew Research Center found that, in 33 major nations with clear trends, 26 had seen support for the U.S. decrease since 2002. In general, the surveyed nations were evenly split between positive and negative views of the U.S.
Mayor Richard Daley, who visited the Rio games earlier this month, downplayed the role that anti-U.S. sentiment could play in the IOC selection process. Chicago is competing with cities including Madrid, Tokyo, Rio and Doha, Qatar.
"I really believe the Olympic movement sets aside politics," he said. "Otherwise, we would never have an Olympic movement. They'd be caught up in politics."
But others disagreed with that assessment, noting that the Olympics has always been entwined with global politics, including three summer games in the 1970s and 1980s that were hit by major political boycotts. Robert Livingstone, producer of the GamesBids.com Web site, said global politics will be part of the 2016 Games selection process, just as it has in the past. But he said the equation is more complex than simply focusing on anti-U.S. feelings.
'Compelling plan' needed
In an e-mail interview, Livingstone said anti-American sentiment probably will sway at least a few votes against Chicago, but he noted that other competing cities might also have IOC members predisposed against them.
He said U.S. officials can neutralize anti-U.S. sentiment "if Chicago comes up with a compelling plan and can beat their [bid] opponents on a level playing field."
Another Olympic expert, Kevin Wamsley of Canada, said New York probably suffered slightly from anti-U.S. sentiment in bidding for the 2012 Games, which went to London in the 2005 decision, but he said that financial considerations are more important. Chicago, he said, could benefit if major sponsors push hard on the point of bringing the Summer Games back to the U.S. after a 20-year absence.
Manuel Laborde of Illinois, the executive who leads the U.S. athlete delegation in Rio, said U.S. Olympic officials are not taking any chances. The trilingual Laborde, who grew up in Colombia and Germany, said he believes his appointment was designed to present a culturally sensitive spokesman to prove the U.S. is not oblivious to the world.
That attempt to craft a new public image also explains why the U.S. sent home a staff member photographed next to a sign in a Rio office of the U.S. Olympic Committee that read: "Welcome to the Congo!" The sign was viewed as having racial connotations and received unfavorable headlines throughout the Brazilian media.
Likewise, officials with the Chicago bid committee begged U.S. journalists not to follow Daley around hotel lobbies with television cameras out of fear that the spectacle would put off their Brazilian hosts.
"The humbler our approach becomes when we engage our neighbors and friends, the stronger our relationships will be," Laborde said. "I think the USOC is executing that commitment to develop a friendlier international profile for the U.S."
----------
oavila@tribune.com
posted by Carlos T Mock at 9:37 AM
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