Politics and sports compete at Olympics.

While the Olympics are meant to stand above politics, politics always has been a part of these Games, points out a sports historian from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind. "Even the 1896 revival of the modern-day Olympics, thanks to Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin, had a political agenda," points out Randy Roberts, professor of history.

"De Coubertin was trying to raise the profile for France after its loss in the Franco-Prussian War more than two decades earlier. His interest in sports and the Olympics was to encourage the development of French masculinity and international collaboration."

Since then, the Olympics have been the site for demonstrations and the occasional boycott. In 1972, for instance, South Africa and Rhodesia were banned from the Games because many African countries spoke out against the apartheid in those nations.

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The Summer Olympics are slated for Aug. 8-24 in Beijing, China. The ongoing controversy surrounding these Games has focused on China's human rights record. There have been protests as the Olympic torch travels through countries on its way to the host...