Trouble at the Women’s World Cup

The Associated Press is reporting an interesting story from the Women's World Cup currently taking place in China. On the eve of a match with China, team officials from Denmark found two Chinese men spying on a strategy meeting they were holding. The men were recording the session with video cameras while hiding behind a two-way mirror. The men were taken away by local police, and have yet to be identified. Denmark lost to China 3-2 the next day.

While nothing has been proven (FIFA has said the Danish do not wish to pursue the matter), the circumstances look bad. Cheating in sports, as seen recently in many forms here in the US, happens. My concern, however, is that the Chinese might attempt and be caught doing such a thing at the 2008 Summer Olympics. The Olympics are not just a sporting event. They are a world event, with great symbolic power. Many see the Beijing Olympics as an opportunity for the Chinese to prove themselves to the world, to show how far they have come on the last 30 years, and to prove wrong criticisms from the West they see to be false or unfair. It would be unfortunate for such an opportunity to be missed.