Iraqi Olympians Going to Beijing

It is unfortunate that the Olympic Games is so marred by politics. For some of the Iraqi athletes, permission to participate was granted just on the last day of July:

“BEIJING — It ought to be welcome news that the International Olympic Committee has revoked a ban on Iraq’s participation in the 2008 Summer Games and allowed some few Iraqi athletes to compete in Beijing.”

link: Iraqi athletes again Beijing-bound

For Iraqi sprinter, Dana Hussain, these Olympic Games is an opportunity of a lifetime - in both a literal and figurative sense. She places the whole participation in the forthcoming Beijing Games into perspective: “”In this horrible situation,” she said, “who can say I’ll even be alive in 2012?”“. This is their moment, as athletes - and not as representatives of political regimes.

Catherine Forsythe