The Saddest Medal of the 2008 Olympic Games

This Olympic Games was majestic, a coming out party for China with all of the bells and whistles. China won the most medals, including the most gold medals. China won a new respect for its status as a world power - confident, gleaming, and strong. Many view these Games as the best ever, a shiny superlative that masks what many thought were going to painful and controversial Games.

It saddens me to see the Olympic Games become the farce of 2008. It's distressing to see the media and the public placidly ignore China's remorseless oppression of civil, political and religious rights within its own borders and its Machiavellian support for dictators and genocidal regimes abroad (Sudan) in favor of focusing on the spectacle of Beijing and the "spirit of international cooperation".

One instance where Olympic glory is overshadowed by China's realpolitik is with the case of Sudanese track and field star Ismail Ahmed Ismail who took the country’s first medal, winning silver in the men’s 800 meters. In April, Reuters ran a story about a number of Sudanese athletes from Darfur with Olympic aspirations. Their inspiring story, of athletic determination and success in the face of a war-torn experience, is mitigated by the backdrop of the genocide going on in Darfur. Over 200,000 people have died since 2003 alongside the 2.5 million displaced by the conflict in the arid region of Western Sudan, an area the size of France with few roads, but many perils. Ismail fought his way out of this horrible existence to win silver in Beijing. Its an amazing accomplisment, but sad consolation to the millions of Darfuris who've died and been displaced by the stolid and fierce support China has offered the genocidal National Congress Party led by Omar al-Bashir.

The press coverage ahead of the Olympics was dominated by protests from human rights groups and Western leaders about China's economic, political, and military support for the Sudanese regime. People were supposed to use the "Genocide Games" as a medium to protest China's silence toward human rights both at home and abroad. These protests never materialized in any coherent form and were glossed over by the spectacle of the opening ceremonies and the glitter of gold medals and world records.

Ismail Ahmed Ismail's accomplishment is overshadowed by the genocide perpetrated against his people by the Sudanese government, and it must be. The country's longtime President Omar al-Bashir is facing charges of genocide from the International Criminal Court for the situation. Ismail was hailed as a national hero and his picture — wrapped in a Sudanese flag — was emblazoned across the front pages of the country's press. What should be a source of pride for Sudanese, and the world, is to me a sham and a shame.