The year was 1969. The track meet was the qualifying event for the city championships. Aden Bowman Collegiate owned the city title in those days.

I remember being enthralled watching a girl, as we said in 1969, in Grade 12 compete. Diane Jones, who later became Diane Jones-Konihowski, was the one exhibiting her talents that day.

Diane is regarded — or should be — as one of Canada’s best athletes ever. She was the “it” girl at the 1976 Olympics. I seem to recall a celebrity hitting on her. It might have been Mick Jagger, a serial hitter with a high batting average, I’m guessing.

Diane finished sixth in the pentathlon at those Games. She had finished 10th in 1972. The winner of the pentathlon, which comprises seven track and field events, is considered to be the best female athlete in the world.

Of the five that finished ahead of her in 1976, three were from East Germany and two from the Soviet Union. I can’t recall if the five had beards from using performance enhancing drugs. I doubt they were clean.

For Diane, her best was yet to come. She won gold medals at the 1978 Commonwealth Games and 1979 Pan Am Games. She was likely to win a medal at the 1980 Olympics in the Soviet Union.

Then, the governments of many countries, including Canada’s, decided to boycott the Games after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. We were going to teach those Communists a lesson.

How did that turn out?

Now, there is talk of Canada boycotting the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China. We would be teaching those Communists a lesson. Living under Communism rule must be horrific, and unimaginable for most of us.

The current reports of genocide in China are abhorrent. But there is no place for politics in sports.

A number of federal politicians have signed a letter to have the Olympics moved. With the Games less than a year away, that is unlikely to happen. Among those to sign is Kelly Block, the MP for Carlton Trail-Eagle Creek. Conversative Leader Erin O’Toole lent his voice to the cause last week.

Their reasons for asking for the move are easily justified. It would be a win-win. China is sent a message, which it will ignore, and our athletes get to compete.

Why the International Olympic Association chose China over Kazakhstan, which is not exactly nirvana, should be a point of discussion. That said, it is difficult to find countries which will shell out billions of dollars to host the Games. Six countries bid, with four withdrawing.

With the call for boycott growing louder in some quarters, the Canadian Olympic Association felt compelled to write a piece which was published in the Globe and Mail.

“China’s troubling human rights record, the oppression of the Uighur Muslims and the continued detention of two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, are deeply concerning for us,” the piece states. “In no way are we, the Canadian Olympic Committee and Canadian Paralympic Committee, trying to minimize what is happening in China. But a boycott is not the answer.

“Yet, critics are calling for us to stop Canadian athletes from participating, as the first order of business to reshape our relationship with China. We believe that this amounts to little more than a convenient and politically inexpensive alternative to real and meaningful diplomacy. Boycotts don’t work. They punish only the athletes prevented from going, those they were meant to compete against, and those who would have been inspired by them.”

Denied the chance to compete at a third Olympics, Diane won the gold medal at the Liberty Bell Classic, which was an alternative competition to the Olympics. Just two weeks after the Olympics, she beat every single one of the medallists at a meet in Germany.

“I can’t dwell on the fact I didn’t get on the podium or I don’t have an Olympic medal,” Diane told the Saskatoon StarPhoenix a few years ago. “But I have other performances that tell me I was No. 1 in the world, twice. It’s not about the hardware; it’s about the journey. And I had a great career. I feel very blessed.”

I think a bad political decision cheated her. Canadian athletes should compete in Beijing a year from now.

Let’s not make the same mistake we did in 1980.

-Cam Hutchinson