Beijing 2008: Party Goers and Party Poopers

Is your country’s leader attending the Beijing Olympic Games? What about your athletes? We’re asking because of news reports that some world leaders are boycotting the opening ceremonies to express their displeasure for China’s human rights record in general and its recent conduct in Tibet in particular. Some athletes have also expressed support to the boycott idea.

The boycott calls prompted us here at The Olympian Blog to come up with the following list of party goers and party poopers. See where your President/Prime Minister, some athletes, and some famous personalities stand on this issue.

The Party Goers
1. Finland: Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen will go to the party. Turns out that Finland has a policy of keeping politics and sports separate so PM Vanhanen is free to go.

Do you think the Finns have the right idea? To end the endless debate on how to deal with the issue of sports and politics, maybe each country should come up with its policy of either mixing sports and politics or keeping them in separate realms.

2. Mongolia: President Nambaryn Enkhbayar will attend the opening ceremony. On top of that he will also watch some matches. No doubt he’ll be cheering for Mongolia’s 13 athletes who are hoping that they can bring home a medal for their country.

3. Algeria: President Abdelaziz Bouteflika will attend the opening ceremony. According this source, he will be the first Algerian President to attend the Olympic Games.

4. Cambodia: King Norodom Sihamoni will attend the opening ceremony according to this report.

5. Singapore: Ex-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew is attending the opening ceremonies according to a report by Bloomberg.

The Party Poopers
1. The European Parliament: It passed a resolution urging a boycott by European Union (EU) leaders.

2. Gold medalist Yvonne Boenisch (Judo, Germany): She will skip the opening day festivities to “send a signal.” However she does not endorse a general boycott of the Games because “participating in the Olympics is every athlete’s biggest wish and a [general] boycott now would shatter thousands of athletes’ dreams.”

3. Poland: Prime Minister Donald Tusk “questioned whether world leaders should attend, given China’s conduct“.

4. Czech Republic: President Vaclav Klaus will boycott the event and adds that those who voted to give the Games to China should now not be surprised by the recent troubles in Tibet.

5. Germany: Chancellor Angela Merkel earned the distinction as the first world leader to decide not to attend the opening ceremonies.

6. Canada: Prime Minister Stephen Harper won’t attend but stated that his absence has nothing to do with a boycott and that he planned to skip the ceremonies long before the unrest in Tibet.

7. U.K.: Prime Minister Gordon Brown will not attend the opening but insists that it’s not a boycott. He will attend the closing ceremonies as head of the nation to host the next Olympics, the London 2o12 Olympic Games.

Pooper Leaning (a.k.a. Those Who Might Boycott)
1. France: President Nicolas Sarkozy became the first world leader to suggest that he might boycott the Beijing Olympics. Hey, Nicolas, enough with this “might” thing. Decide already so we will remove this “Pooper Leaning” category.

Okay. This is it for now. But visit this thread again because we will be regularly updating it.