Joel Connelly, New York Times Service columnist, has an article here about the Olympics.

Among other things he reports that Steven Spielberg cancelled his commitment to help stage opening and closing ceremonies in Beijing.

He also says that the British Olympic Association had planned to require that "British athletes sign a gag order prohibiting them from criticizing China's human rights record" during the games.

I don't know if the BOA followed through.

I didn't know - or had forgotten - that Jesse Owen and Ralph Metcalfe, both Black, were inserted into the 1936 Olympics competition in Nazi Germany to replace Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, both Jews and evidently considered by the US to be too incendiary.

Hurray for Jesse Owen! Hitler got a real pie in the face that time.