Speak up? Nobody minds

USOC voices its support to each athlete's choice

CHICAGO - Forty years ago in Mexico City, Tommie Smith and John Carlos gave a black power salute on the Olympic medal stand and promptly were sent home by the US Olympic Committee. This summer in Beijing, the five-ringed muzzle will be off. Whatever American athletes want to say - about China, about Iraq, about the price of gas - will be fine.

"The USOC has over and over again stated that they want us to speak our minds," said soccer player Heather O'Reilly, as 130 likely competitors gathered here for the customary media summit before the Games. "We appreciate that."

That doesn't mean the Americans will be standing atop star-spangled soapboxes with bullhorns, no matter how they feel about what their Chinese hosts are doing at home and abroad.

The question is, what's the most appropriate and effective way for the athletes to give voice to their concerns? Do they join Team Darfur, the organization co-founded by Olympic speedskating champion Joey Cheek to put pressure on Sudan and its biggest supporter, China, to stop the slaughter there? Do they display a Tibetan flag on the medal stand? Speak out during a press conference? Hold a teach-in at the Olympic Village?

"We're put in kind of a tough spot," said O'Reilly. "We are socially aware. We understand why people are using this as a platform for change."

But the athletes know enough about Olympic history to understand two things: They are the eternal pawns when politics come into play, and the boycott - the ultimate political weapon at the Games - never works. After the United States stayed home from Moscow in 1980, the Red Army remained in Afghanistan for another decade. After the Soviets stayed home from Los Angeles in 1984, Ronald Reagan was reelected in a landslide and went on to outlive the USSR by more than a dozen years.

There will be no boycott of Beijing, at least not by the Americans.

"I didn't feel that was even a question for any country, certainly not for us," said US Olympic Committee chairman Peter Ueberroth, who was in Beijing last week for the last major meeting of the world's top Olympic brass before the Games. "[The Chinese] know we've accepted and that we'll come."

And Uncle Sam's nephews and nieces, wearing parade uniforms designed by Ralph Lauren, will march in the opening ceremonies, as they always do. What they say will be left completely up to them, as long as they don't violate Rule 51 of the Olympic Charter, which says, "No kind of demonstration or political, religious, or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues, or other areas."

"We would prefer that the athletes do what they want to do," said Jim Scherr, the USOC's chief executive officer and a former Olympic wrestler. "If they feel compelled to stick their necks out and make a statement, they should do so. If they don't want to, they shouldn't be under pressure to be part of someone else's cause."

The consensus of the athletes here seemed to be that their role is to represent their country honorably at the Games, try their best to win a medal, and serve as living models of the Olympic spirit.

"That's where we can speak the loudest," said US soccer player Abby Wambach.

The soccer players compete in China more than any other US athletes. They were there for last year's World Cup (where coach Pia Sundhage was an assistant for the Chinese team) and again in January for the Four Nations Tournament.

"The beauty of the sport is, you meet people," Sundhage said.

The point of the Games is to assemble athletes from 200 countries and let the world see that they can compete fiercely as friends.

"The Olympics is a great time for everybody to come together and unite in sport," said Alicia Sacramone, the Winchester, Mass., gymnast whose teammates will be battling the Chinese for the gold medal. "We can't fix these problems personally."

What the athletes can do to change the world is limited, even if they'd like to.

"I don't feel it's my place to tell China what to do," said softball player Jessica Mendoza, a Team Darfur member who plans to wear a symbolic bracelet at the Games. "It's more my place to tell people what's happening."

That's what Smith and Carlos were trying to do in Mexico City, using their moment on the global stage to bring attention to civil rights issues at home. If he had it to do again, Carlos said this week, he would do it again. But he understands why others would not.

"It's a very personal choice," Carlos told Le Monde, the French newspaper. "The athletes make many sacrifices to go to the Games. Once on the podium, they have the liberty to make their own decision, to do what seems right to them.

"Simply, everyone must do what he thinks he should do."

The most important point may already have been made. Mendoza and her fellow Olympians can say whatever they please because they are Americans.

"We're a free society," Ueberroth said. "We hold ourselves as an example to the world. Free speech is the best thing in our country."

John Powers can be reached at jpowers@globe.com