A Threat to the Olympics

Will the Soviet Union send its athletes to Los Angeles this summer to compete in the Olympic Games? Until recently, U.S. officials believed the answer was yes. They assumed that the Soviets and their East bloc allies were so eager to do well on America's home ground that they would overlook the fact that the U.S. boycotted the 1980 Moscow Games in protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Now, after a Soviet propaganda barrage against U.S. handling of the Games, there is less certainty about the decision. Even Peter Ueberroth, president of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, thinks the chances of Soviet participation have declined, dropping from 95% to 70%.

The Soviet blasts began last month after the U.S. denied a visa to Oleg Yermishkin, a suspected KGB agent whom the Soviets wanted to send to Los Angeles as their Olympic attache. Almost immediately, Moscow began to complain not only about the Yermishkin case but about a statement by the U.S. embassy in Moscow that Soviet athletes needed American visas rather than the special identity cards called for in the Olympic charter. Soviet newspapers denounced the "uncontrollable commercialization" of the Games and the "exorbitant" cost of the services to be provided to the teams in Los Angeles. They charged that there were "reactionary political, emigre and religious groups" in the U.S. that were "teaming up on an anti-Olympic basis." Furthermore, said the Soviet press, the Reagan Administration was "trying to use the Games for its selfish political ends." Late last week the International Olympic Committee called a special meeting, to be held in Lausanne, Switzerland, on April 24, to discuss the Soviet complaints.

The Administration was caught off guard by the intensity of the barrage and was uncertain as to what it meant. Were the Soviets getting ready to boycott the Games? If so, their East bloc allies would almost certainly follow the leader, although some first-class teams, like East Germany's, would be dismayed at the prospect of forfeiting their virtually assured bushel of medals. For the moment, the Administration believes the Soviets are merely exploiting the situation for propaganda purposes, possibly hoping to extract some concessions from Olympic officials in Los Angeles. The U.S. argues that it has lifted, for the period of the Games, an existing ban on Soviet airliners carrying passengers into the country and has granted permission for a Soviet ship to be used as a floating hotel. Administration officials maintain that they were justified in denying a visa to a suspected KGB official but insist that they would grant "unhindered entry" to accredited athletes. Privately, some officials acknowledge that the U.S. embassy in Moscow made a mistake in stating that Soviet athletes needed visas instead of identity cards, but they emphasize that the matter could have been sorted out quickly and quietly.

The Soviets have a real concern over groups like the Ban the Soviets Coalition, a band of California activists that has vowed to stage anti-Communist demonstrations during the Games and do what it can to encourage Soviet athletes to defect. It is presumably this group that Moscow had in mind last week when it expressed the fear that at the Games, "the civil rights of athletes may be infringed and their dignity outraged."

Ueberroth said last week that he hopes to fly to Moscow shortly to discuss the whole range of Soviet concerns. As for the Ban the Soviets Coalition, he added, "I don't know the group. There are a lot of nutty groups; that's one. It's a wonderful thing about freedom in this country. People can like or dislike anything they want." Perhaps the best hope for Soviet participation is that Chernenko would not wish to cause the uproar and ill will in the East bloc countries that would be the consequence of a pullout from the Summer Games.