(no subject)

[petermarcus]

Iraq and sports:

Iraq is going to the Olympics in soccer/football for the first time in Iraqi history (clean article -- congrats to them!):
http://www.cpa-iraq.org/pressreleases/20040513_football.html

A Sports Illustrated article from a year ago, about the Iraqi sports program, headed (at the time) by Uday Hussein. The descriptions of the torture of losing athletes are not for the squeamish:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/si_online/news/2003/03/24/son_of_saddam/


(Edit: some descriptive wording added)

Comments

[teaser.livejournal.com]

I'm too scared to click on those links. I imagine they're playing soccer with a head or something.

[petermarcus.livejournal.com]

The first one is a great article. Nothing bad at all, they really are going and they're happy about it.

The second one doesn't have any pictures, but it very graphically describes the torture of Iraqi athletes under Sadam's kid Uday, including the soccor team, when they would lose.

I'd almost be smug that it is the non-tortured, free team would be the one to go to the Olympics...but the past history of sports in that country (among everything else) is just too chilling.

[teaser.livejournal.com]

I hope the Olympics goes off without incident. At least on the sports field the war is forgotten (if only for a few seconds).

[petermarcus.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Politics tend to get dragged in to the Olympics anyway, but the effort of avoiding them is so very noble.

[teaser.livejournal.com]

The recent bomb blasts in Athens worry me a little though. The Greeks haven't managed to complete all their stadiums yet...will they be able to provide decent security to the athletes and tourists? I'm a little sceptical.

[petermarcus.livejournal.com]

Me, too. I was living in Atlanta, though I was away, when the bomb went off during the Olympics in '96. At the time I wondered if there would be a city to come home to.