A LOOK at politics and the Olympics:

1906: At the Athens Olympics, Irish athlete Peter O'Connor scaled the flagpole to tear down the British Union flag that was flown for his second place in the long jump. In its place, he waved an Irish flag.

1936: German dictator Adolf Hitler used the Berlin Olympics as a propaganda tool as well as to showcase what he believed was the supremacy of the Aryan race and the inferiority of ethnic Africans. Famously, he did not shake the hand of African- American runner Jesse Owens - who won four gold medals at the Games - although later stories surfaced that Hitler did not shake the hands of many other athletes as well.

As the national anthem played, they lowered their heads and raised a black-gloved fist each to protest against unequal rights for blacks in the United States. They were dropped from the team, packed home and banned from the Mexico Games.

1972: A group of eight Palestinian terrorists belonging to the Black September organisation broke into the Olympic Village in Munich and killed 11 Israeli athletes.

1976: Twenty-eight African countries boycotted the Montreal Games as they were upset with New Zealand for continuing to play rugby against South Africa, which was under apartheid rule.

1980: To protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the US led a boycott of the Moscow Games. In all, 64 nations sat out the competition.

1984: In retaliation, 14 Soviet-led countries boycotted the Los Angeles Games.

2000: Australian and aboriginal runner Cathy Freeman celebrated her win in the 400m race in the Sydney Games by draping herself with the Australian and Aboriginal flags.

2008: Director Steven Spielberg pulls out as artistic adviser for the Beijing Olympics' opening and closing ceremonies, saying that China has not done enough to stop the conflict in Darfur.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on February 24, 2008

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