Tibetan activists protesting the Chinese invasion of Tibet held their own torch-lighting ceremony at Mt. Olympia in Greece before the police stopped them.
Can you really take politics out of the Olympic Games? Didn’t the U.S. boycott the Moscow Olympics in 1980? Didn’t Steven Spielberg quit as ‘artistic director’ (or is it ‘adviser’?) of the 2008 Beijing Olympics to protest China’s support of Sudan? China’s accused of selling arms to Sudan which have ended up in Darfur.
Thing is, the international spotlight on the Olympic Games always makes it a perfect venue for political protests.