WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — This clash of forces was unexpected. Quiet had been the order of this day, like most in Beijing, but when police saw the throng rushing toward them, they formed a human chain.
One way or another, they were going to stand their ground and secure Tiananmen Square.
Then, one by one, they shrugged. And smiled. And let in hundreds of thousands.
This was not 1989. There were no tanks, no angry students, and, most importantly, no fatal shots. The only loud pops came from high overhead.
Fireworks.
This was July 13, 2001. China had made an ironic choice in deciding where to celebrate its selection as host of the 2008 Summer Olympics. The Beijing government and the International Olympic Committee knew that the Olympics would pressure China to improve its record regarding human rights.
"We are taking the bet that seven years from now ... we shall see many changes," IOC Director General Francois Carrard said.
With the Games about a month away and the world debating just how much has changed within China, Olympic officials have reverted to a time-honored stance. Organizers say politics should be kept out of the Games, even though the two clash almost every time the caldron is aglow.
Jesse Owens and Adolf Hitler. The killing of 11 Israelis by Palestinian terrorists in Munich. North Korea and South Korea, temporarily marching as one. And countless cases such as that of the Korean marathoner who was forced to compete under the flag of Japan, which at the time occupied his country.
Even the motto of the Beijing Games — "One World, One Dream" — carries political overtones.
"The history of politics in the Olympics — it's long and deep and it's not going to go away," historian David Wallechinsky said.
Speaking their minds
Well aware of that, the IOC sent letters to each delegation reinforcing a bylaw prohibiting "political, religious or racial propaganda" on Olympic grounds.
"It's like a horse with blinders on," John Carlos, who with Tommie Smith staged the Black Power protest at the 1968 Summer Olympics, told ESPN.com. "They don't want the horse to look to the right or look to the left. ... That's what the Chinese government wants with these athletes."
For its part, the U.S. Olympic Committee is telling its athletes they're free to speak their minds but shouldn't feel pressured to do so by the media.
"Our position is there are organizations and governments that should deal with international problems and international relations, period," said USOC Chairman Peter Ueberroth, who was organizer of the '84 Los Angeles Olympics. "The United States Olympic Committee and our team and our athletes — it's not a burden which they are best equipped for, nor should they take."
The issue rarely is that black and white, even if the subject is Smith and Carlos donning black gloves for their Black Power salute in Mexico City. Smith and Carlos were immediately dismissed from the Olympic Village by the USOC.
The USOC asked Smith and Carlos to return their medals. They never complied, but Carlos worked under Ueberroth on the '84 L.A. Olympic Organizing Committee.
In 2005, San Jose State University — the alma mater of Smith and Carlos — erected a statue depicting their gesture. This month, they'll receive the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYs.
"It took them a long time to figure out these guys did nothing wrong," Olympic filmmaker Bud Greenspan said of Smith and Carlos, who wanted to bring attention to the plight of black Americans. "A lot of us were frowning on what they did. You take the position of being a guest in somebody's house. You go by their house rules."
Tyson Gay, the top U.S. qualifier in the 100 meters, is expressing his feelings on his chest, competing at the current Olympic trials in a 1936 replica Owens jersey.
Carlos said he would have preferred that his uniform not even carry USA markings.
"Why do you have to wear the uniform of your country?" Carlos said in Wallechinsky's book, "The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics." "Why do they play national anthems? Why do we have to beat the Russians? ... What happened to the Olympic ideal of man against man?"
Not even the earliest modern Olympics were that pure. At the 1906 Athens Games, Irish long jumper Peter O'Connor did not want to be listed as British, but his protests were ignored until he won the silver medal and responded to the sight of the Union Jack by climbing the flagpole and waving an Irish flag.
1936 full of controversy
At the notorious 1936 Berlin Games, Korean marathoner Sohn Kee-chung broke the Olympic record in just under 2 1/2 hours. He and the bronze medalist, countryman Nam Seung-yong, then bowed their heads in protest when the Japanese anthem was played.
Like Smith and Carlos, Sohn eventually was given his due. In 1988, he carried the torch into the Opening Ceremony to begin an Olympics credited with helping revolutionize South Korea politically. As a spry 76-year-old, Sohn joyously jogged with the flame while thousands dabbed their eyes.
Of course, the purpose of the Olympics is to bring the world together to compete on equal footing. Rivals often come to realize that their differences aren't nearly as great as their similarities, and unexpected friendships develop.
Certainly in 1936, no one could have envisioned a white long jumper from Germany, Luz Long, helping a black opponent from the United States, Owens, in full view of Hitler. Owens was on the brink of fouling out when Long's advice helped correct a flaw. When Owens clinched the gold medal, Long was the first to congratulate him.
"What was more powerful was that he posed for photos with Jesse Owens in the middle of the stadium, with everybody watching," Wallechinsky said. "He could have just quietly gone, 'Hey, Jesse, you could do this,' but he made a point of being seen with Owens."
As Jeremy Schaap writes in his book, "Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler's Olympics," Owens cited Long's help as the defining moment in his life. When war broke out between their countries and Long was obligated to join the military, he wrote Owens, clearly suspecting he might not return from battle. "If that is so," Long wrote, "I beg one thing from you: When the war is over, please go to Germany, find my son and tell him about his father."
Greenspan, who had become close to Owens, helped arrange that meeting.
"I found that fascinating because the kid turned out to be a top golfer and didn't know anything about his father," said Greenspan, 81. "Jesse was a very gregarious guy. He made the Germans love him immediately."
If such examples of the Olympic spirit triumphing over politics inspired voters to select Beijing over finalists including Paris, it was wishful thinking, Wallechinsky said. "There's no reason to give the Games to one of the dictatorships," he said. "It could have been a nice message to send to China: 'Yeah, we love you, we want you to be part of the Olympic world and host the Olympics, but what you're doing to your people is wrong.'"
Instead, seven years later, critics are dubious that China has fulfilled its promises.
"It's pretty clear that they were lying," Wallechinsky said. "They never had any intention of doing the human-rights changes or openness changes that they promised the IOC they'd do. But by the time the IOC woke up and dealt with it, it was too late. What are they going to do? Take it away from them?"
Rather than agreeing on benchmarks to measure progress, Wallechinsky said, the IOC got only "a vague promise" that conditions would improve.
As Schaap wrote, the United States and much of the world were naive to Hitler's intentions of turning the 1936 Games into a propaganda tool. USOC head Avery Brundage returned from a tour of Germany without asking why his encounters with reassuring German Jews were always in the presence of a chaperone. The world was told that Jews were free to try out for the German Olympic team; it wasn't told that to do so, they had to be members of sports clubs that discriminated against Jews.
"It is my duty to break the silence," conductor Arturo Toscanini said then, canceling plans to direct a festival in Germany. In 2008, it was Steven Spielberg throwing up his hands. Conflicted by China's ties to Sudan, he quit as artistic adviser to Beijing's Opening and Closing Ceremony.
Blood in the water
Walls — Great or otherwise — can come crashing down during the two-plus weeks of the Olympics. At the 1952 Helsinki Games, the Soviet Union competed for the first time. Its athletes initially set up their own compound before they were assured of being welcome in the Olympic Village. Despite the Red Army's invasion of Finland 13 years earlier, the Soviet athletes were cheered during the Parade of Nations.
Ill will can emerge just as easily. Four years later at the Melbourne Games, the Soviets were matched against the Hungarians in water polo. The timing could not have been worse: It wasn't until the Hungarians arrived in Australia that they learned the Soviets had invaded their country. "The water turned red," Greenspan said.
When Hungary's Ervin Zador emerged from the pool bloody from a punch to the eye, police were summoned to prevent a riot. The match was abandoned and Hungary, leading 4-0 at the time, was credited with a victory. The incident was the subject of a 2006 film, "Freedom's Fury," produced by Lucy Liu and Quentin Tarantino and narrated by Mark Spitz, in which the 13 surviving players were reunited, this time on friendly terms.
Without those political overtones, the match would have been long forgotten, just as a certain hockey game from 1980 required a Cold War backdrop to justify its "Miracle on Ice" status.
Once-common boycotts seem to have fallen out of favor. Ueberroth, grateful to the Chinese for breaking the Soviet boycott by showing up to his 1984 L.A. Games, called boycotts "misguided and stupid."
In an article for Huffingtonpost.com last year to mark the one-year countdown to Beijing 2008, Ueberroth called these Games "the most important sporting event certainly in my lifetime" and predicted they would be well-run socially, economically, environmentally, culturally and athletically.
"The story of China's emergence in all kinds of categories along with sports will be on the forefront," Ueberroth said. "As all the media settles into Beijing, you settle into China, and the world will be able to understand China in a very different way — both positively and in some cases, negatively."
Hal Habib writes for The Palm Beach Post. E-mail: hal UNDERSCORE habib AT pbpost.com.