Olympics Topics

Democracy Now! stories, posts and pages that relate to Olympics

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  • Vancouver2010

    Vancouver Activists Greet Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony with People's Summit, Protest

    The 2010 Winter Olympic Games are opening today in Vancouver. Large-scale protests are planned over the weekend. The Olympic Resistance Network has organized a people’s summit to coincide with the Games’ opening ceremonies. Franklin Lopez of the Vancouver Media Co-op filed this report. [includes rush transcript]
    Feb 12, 2010 | Story
  • Goodman_web

    Amy Goodman Detained at Canadian Border, Questioned about Speech...and 2010 Olympics

    While traveling to Vancouver, Canada, to speak at the Vancouver Public Library at a benefit for community radio stations, Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and her two colleagues were detained by Canadian authorities. Amy was questioned extensively about the speech she intended to give, their car was gone through by armed border guards, and their papers and laptop computers were scoured. The armed interrogators were particularly interested in whether...
    Nov 30, 2009 | Story
  • Chicago2016-web

    Sportswriter Dave Zirin on Obama's Olympic Error

    As President Obama lobbies the International Olympic Committee to choose Chicago for the site of the 2016 Summer Olympics, Dave Zirin looks at why Chicago may not want to be the host city. Zirin argues Olympic Games have economically hurt cities in the past. And he writes, "To greater or lesser degrees, the Olympics bring gentrification, graft and police violence wherever they nest." [includes rush transcript]
    Oct 02, 2009 | Story

  • Naomi Klein and Christian Parenti on How Beijing Olympics Highlight Globalization of Police State, Inequality

    The equipment and integrated security systems used to detain Olympic protesters will remain long after the Olympics, to be used, many fear, on China’s own population. And some of the biggest beneficiaries of this surveillance boom are US hedge funds and corporations, including Cisco, General Electric and Google. We speak to journalists Naomi Klein and Christian Parenti, both of whom have recently reported from China. [includes rush transcript]
    Aug 15, 2008 | Story

  • Chinese American Writer & Activist Helen Zia on the Olympic Games, the Role of Protest and President Bush's Visit to Beijing

    In a piece called "Why I Will Carry the Olympic Torch," Helen Zia wrote earlier this year, "A peaceful and better world is possible through friendly engagement and mutual understanding, not violent confrontation and polarization. It’s an Olympic message, a possible dream that our global civilization and everyone who is a part of it can aspire to — and for which I am proud to carry a torch." [includes rush transcript]
    Aug 12, 2008 | Story

  • Summer Olympic Games Open in Beijing, Pro-Tibet Protester Deported to US

    The eyes of the world are focused on China today as the Summer Olympic Games open in Beijing. One big question centers on whether the Olympic Committee and the Chinese government will allow any public protests during the Games. We speak with an activist who was arrested in China and deported after unfurling a Tibet independence banner close to the main Olympic stadium. [includes rush transcript]
    Aug 08, 2008 | Story

  • "This is the Olympics the West Wanted" - Dave Zirin on US Corporations Entering China, Athletes Speaking Out and the Games from '68 to Today

    As the 2008 Summer Olympic Games open in Beijing, we speak with sportswriter Dave Zirin. "This is the Olympics the West wanted: games where the grandest prize is not a gold medal but a glittering entree to China’s seemingly endless army of potential consumers," writes Zirin. "This is the reason that George W. Bush will attend the opening ceremonies, the first U.S. President to do so on foreign soil." [includes rush transcript]
    Aug 08, 2008 | Story

  • China's Great Leap: Human Rights Watch on the Beijing Games and Olympian Human Rights Challenges

    Thousands of protesters turned out in San Francisco to protest the Olympic torch relay and this year’s Beijing Games. Similar protests condemning China’s human rights abuses have attempted to disrupt the torch along its earlier stops in Athens, Istanbul, Paris and London. We speak with Human Rights Watch’s Minky Worden, who is editor of a new book, China’s Great Leap: The Beijing Games and Olympian Human Rights Challenges...
    Apr 10, 2008 | Story

  • Silent Gesture: Gold-Medalist Tommie Smith on His Historic Black Power Salute at 1968 Olympics

    The raised fists of two African-American Olympic medal winners at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, is one of the most iconic images of our time. The man standing on the podium in 1st place, Tommie Smith, talks about that moment and his new autobiography, "Silent Gesture." [includes rush transcript]
    Feb 21, 2007 | Story

  • What's My Name, Fool?: Sports and Resistance in the United States

    As London prepares for the 2012 olympics in the aftermath of the July 7 bombings, we look at the history of crackdowns in olympic cities over the past century. Sports writer Dave Zirin chronicles a history of athletes who have stood up to war and racism in the United States, from Muhammad Ali to Pat Tillman. His new book is "What’s My Name, Fool?: Sports and Resistance in the United States." [includes rush transcript]
    Jul 21, 2005 | Story