The Taliban's downfall means that athletes from Afghanistan can expect to be allowed to compete in the Olympics again ? but not in time for the 2002 Winter Games.
The International Olympic Committee banned Afghanistan from the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, Australia, because of Taliban-imposed restrictions on sports, including a prohibition against the participation of women.
The IOC's suspension of Afghanistan's national Olympic committee isn't likely to be lifted until the Taliban government is replaced. Afghanistan is the only one of 200 national Olympic committees around the world barred from competition.
"We would love to see an Afghan team in the next Olympic Games, but that would be possible only when there is a stable government in place," IOC President Jacques Rogge told reporters during a recent visit to the United States.
The Salt Lake Organizing Committee doesn't see that happening before February.
"I'd be a little surprised if that could be done in time for our Games," SLOC President Mitt Romney said. "It would be a wonderful thing for Afghanistan to become part of the Olympic movement. It would symbolize the end of repression in that country."
The Taliban rulers pleaded unsuccessfully with the IOC for permission to send athletes to Sydney, as Afghanistan had done for every Summer Games since 1936. The country has never earned an Olympic medal.
Nor has it ever competed in a Winter Games, according to Ajmal Ghani, who established the Virginia-based Afghan Sports Federation. Ghani, born in Kabul, fled his native country in 1978, shortly before the former Soviet Union invaded.
The Soviets retreated after a decade. Their failed attempt to take over Afghanistan led to an American boycott of the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow. Four years later, the Soviets retaliated by keeping their teams home during the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
Before the battles began, skiing was popular in the mountains surrounding Kabul, said Ghani, the son of an Afghan diplomat. One ski area had its own lift, and the government's ministry of education had sponsored ski teams at the high school and university levels.
Afghanistan was more competitive in summer sports, especially soccer, boxing and wrestling. The country's best show- ing in an Olympics was a fifth-place finish by a wrestler in the 1964 Summer Games in Tokyo.
Ghani said there's probably not a winter sports athlete from Afghanistan who could be ready to compete in Salt Lake City in February. "You've got to understand, we have been at war 23 years," he said.
Still, he would like to see some kind of recognition for the country's athletes at the 2002 Games.
"At least our name would be out there, even if we didn't compete," Ghani said. He said he hopes to come up with a proposal soon for Salt Lake organizers to consider. Romney said any effort to officially recognize Afghanistan at the Olympics would have to come from the IOC.
As of May, Afghanistan's national Olympic committee still had an office in Kandahar, run by soccer star Esmatullah Abidullah, according to the Toronto Star. Abidullah told the newspaper it was "an injustice to the Afghan people to link sports with political questions."
But after the Taliban took power, public executions were routinely held in the country's only major sports stadium. The few times soccer games were played there, Taliban patrols moved through the stands, whipping anyone in the crowd who dared to cheer.
When a team from Pakistan ventured across the border last year for a match in Kandahar, they were arrested by the religious enforcers for showing up in shorts, a violation of the Taliban dress code. Only a few players escaped their heads being as punishment.
Ghani, whose federation has organized soccer, volleyball and basketball teams in several U.S. cities, including New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, is waiting to see if the sports situation in his homeland improves.
"Hopefully, things will get better," he said. "They can't get any worse."
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