* The most brutal example of Olympics-related repression came in Mexico City in 1968. The capital city had been the scene of months of university students striking and protesting for greater rights for themselves and workers. As the date of the Games approached, the Mexican government increasingly took a hard line. On Oct. 2, 10 days before the opening of the Summer Olympics, Mexican security forces fired on thousands of student demonstrators and workers gathered in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas, killing hundreds of them. Kate Doyle, director of the Mexico Documentation Project, an organization seeking to shed light on the lethal crackdown, wrote in the group's 2006 report that "when the shooting stopped, hundreds of people lay dead or wounded, as army and police forces seized surviving protesters and dragged them away."
Gold medals, iron fists
A heavy, sometimes brutal, clampdown in advance of the Olympics is nothing new.
As shocking as the Tlatelolco massacre, as it came to be known, was the coverup. "Eyewitnesses to the killings," reported Doyle, "pointed to the [Mexican] president's 'security' forces, who entered the plaza bristling with weapons and backed by armored vehicles. But the government pointed back, claiming that extremists and communist agitators had initiated the violence." Mexican authorities also spoke of "making their country secure" for the Games.
China's aim in Tibet in 2008 may be the same as Mexico's in 1968 -- a preemptive strike to ensure that the Beijing Games do not become a platform for protesting the Chinese government.
The irony then was that although the Mexican government succeeded in crushing any sign of protest outside the Olympic venues, it couldn't stop American Olympic athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos from raising their black-gloved fists to protest racism and the muzzling of dissent, defining the 1968 Games as a stage for discontent rather than athletic excellence.
It's a lesson that the Chinese may want to consider now.
