Georgia and Russia stay in Olympics, despite threat of war

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After the women's air-pistol competition, the Russian silvermedalist, Natalia Paderina, shared the podium with Salukvadze, thebronze medalist from Georgia. The women, who are friends, gave eachother a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
The decision by Georgia and Russia to remain in Olympic competition"reflects the Olympic spirit and the value of the Games," saidGiselle Davies, a spokeswoman for the International OlympicCommittee.
The two countries will meet Wednesday in women's beach volleyball.But no one expects the kind of animosity that occurred at the 1956Summer Olympics in Melbourne, when the Soviet Union met Hungary inmen's water polo three weeks after invading Budapest.
The game, known as the "blood in the water" match, became soconfrontational that it was halted before time had expired, withHungary ahead by 4-0. News reports at the time said angryspectators crowded the pool deck, shouting and spitting on theSoviet players, prompting the police to intervene.
But these are different times. The Soviet Union is no more. Andwhile their governments were on the brink of war, athletes fromRussia and Georgia mingled during the opening ceremony.
There are complicating layers to the story. Two weightlifters onthe Georgian team are from South Ossetia, as reportedly are some ofthe Russian wrestlers. Allegiances, like the milky sky here, arenot so clear.
"For the Olympics, unfortunately, this is not a big deal," DavidWallechinsky, a leading Olympic historian, said of theRussia-Georgia conflict.
Georgia, which first competed as an independent nation at the 1996Atlanta Olympics, does not field a big enough Olympic contingent tobe a force in team sports. Instead, it seeks medals in individualsports like boxing, judo, weightlifting and wrestling. That willblunt any potential tension when athletes from the countries meetat the Beijing Games, Wallechinsky said.
"When it's individual against individual, you probably wrestledagainst the guy before in the European championships or the worldchampionships," he said. "You don't see him as a Russian whoinvaded your country; you see him as a guy who beat me 3-2 lasttime. If it was team sports, it would be more volatile. But I'm notworried about beach volleyball. What are they going to do, say,'Here's sand in your eye'?"
The timing of the conflict could not have been more embarrassingand inopportune for the International Olympic Committee, which hasjoined with the United Nations since the 1990s in calling for aso-called Olympic truce during the Winter and Summer Games.
The idea was spawned by the dissolution of Yugoslavia, and thebombing of Sarajevo, the host city of the 1984 Winter Games. Butthe truce is only a recommendation and is nonbinding. Contrary to awidely held belief, war did not stop during the ancient Olympicseither, Wallechinsky said.
"It's a nice idea, but really it was safe passage," he said. "If awar was going on, they would stop and let athletes and spectatorsgo to Olympia. Then they would fight again. When the Olympicsfinished, they stopped again and let everyone leave."
By Sunday evening in Beijing, the Georgian Interior Ministry saidit had withdrawn its troops completely from South Ossetia, leavingit under Russian control, in an attempt to stop further bloodshed.Russian reports were contradictory.
"Our athletes are nervous; they are thinking about their families,"said Giorgi Tchanishvili, a spokesman for the Georgian OlympicCommittee. "But we are together with more passion and feeling.Maybe athletes can show somehow that you should be fighting onlythe sports arena. We can show all of the world that we want peace."