Whether speaking to a group of young softball players or plying her teammates with literature, Jessica Mendoza, a 27-year-old outfielder on the United States Olympic softball team, does not hesitate to speak her mind about the killings in Darfur.
But Ms. Mendoza stops short of publicly condemning China, which has close ties to the government of Sudan, because she says it is impolite to criticize her Olympic hosts and because one of her sponsors, Nike, has a major marketing presence in China.
With growing protests in Tibet and pressure mounting on Olympic sponsors to denounce China for its policy on Darfur, socially conscious athletes said they were struggling to figure out how to honor their beliefs while also respecting the purpose of the Olympic Games — the celebration of athletic excellence.
“I feel like there’s no one out there who would think that it’s a controversial issue to talk about 400,000 people being killed in Darfur right now,” said Ms. Mendoza, who helped the American team win a gold medal in Athens in 2004. “But I’m not about to go into China and tell their government what to do.”
This week, Ms. Mendoza said she would let her Nike representatives know about her participation in Team Darfur, a coalition of more than 200 athletes seeking to raise awareness about what Congress and President Bush consider genocide in Darfur. “I want them to know what my role is,” she said. When she is not in uniform competing, Ms. Mendoza plans to wear her Team Darfur wristbands around Beijing, and she hopes to visit the Darfur region after the Olympics.
Brad Greiner, the cofounder of Washington-based Team Darfur and a former water polo player for U.C.L.A., said these personal and business considerations had kept some well-known athletes from joining the coalition. Many are wary of speaking out, he said.
Last year, the basketball star LeBron James, of the Cleveland Cavaliers, would not sign a letter written by a teammate, Ira Newble, criticizing China for its Darfur policy, according to news reports. Mr. James, who is expected to play for the United States team in Beijing, said at the time that he needed more information. He has a $90 million endorsement contract with Nike.
The decision of whether to be an advocate carries risks for lesser-known athletes as well.
“This is their one time every four years to make money for a lot of sports,” said Mr. Greiner, 24, who added that the group would intensify its push to sign up top athletes in the months leading up to the Summer Games. “So they need to take that into consideration when making a decision about whether or not to speak about Darfur.”...
The United States Olympic Committee permits athletes to express their opinions, provided they do not violate the charter, according to Darryl Seibel, a U.S.O.C. spokesman...
Giselle Davies, a spokeswoman for the International Olympic Committee, said athletes would not be punished for answering reporters’ questions honestly.Some athletes said they were willing to do whatever it took to draw attention to their cause, even if it meant getting expelled from the Olympics. Emanuel Neto, who expects to make the Angolan national basketball team, said he grew up surrounded by war and famine and, as a result, has empathy for the people of Darfur. “I’ve seen what those kids are going through and it’s really, really bad,” said Mr. Neto, 23, a senior at Stony Brook University and a member of Team Darfur. “It doesn’t matter at this point what will happen to me. What matters to me the most is that something has to be done.”...
The U.S.O.C. requires all American participants to attend a two-day “ambassador” training course on topics like Chinese culture and Olympic values, but only minimally addresses speaking to the news media, Mr. Seibel said. He said athletes were taught that “when you go to the Olympic Games, you go as a representative of our country, as a representative of your sport, as a member of the worldwide Olympic family, and as a guest of the host country.”
“And every one of those roles carry with them some important responsibilities and expectations,” he added...
Athletes have often used the Olympics to advance their political beliefs, said David Wallechinsky, an Olympic historian. In 1906, the Irish athlete Peter O’Connor, angered that he had been placed on the British team, climbed a flagpole and waved the Irish flag after winning a silver medal. In Berlin in 1936, two Korean athletes complained to the news media that the Japanese — who then occupied Korea — had forced them to take Japanese names and wear the Japanese uniform.
Perhaps the best-known examples are the American sprinters John Carlos and Tommie Smith, who at the 1968 Games in Mexico City raised their clenched fists on the medal podium during the playing of the national anthem in a salute to black power. The action enraged the Olympic organizers, and Mr. Carlos and Mr. Smith were soon ushered out of the country. Now, 40 years later, their action is celebrated as heroic.
“I just don’t see how you can separate the Olympics from politics,” Mr. Wallechinsky said. “The Olympics is part of the world, period.”
