Sending a Signal to Apartheid

Zola Budd competes today in the final women's 3000-meter race at the Los Angeles Olympics. A white native of South Africa, the 17-year-old runner will represent Great Britain, her grandfather's birthplace. The objections raised this spring when Budd relinquished her South African affiliation have faded, edged out of the spotlight by larger considerations. The International Olympic Committee has ruled that Budd's hastily-acquired British citizenship satisfies its requirements, and in the shadow of the Soviet-bloc boycott of the Games, interest in Budd's bid for Olympic gold has focused on today's showdown with American Track star Mary Decker, and on whether or not Budd will run barefoot today and in tomorrow's 1500-meter final.

The fact that the soft-spoken teenager's presence on the British squad may have kept one or two native Britons off the team has gone almost overlooked in this country, but not there--and certainly not in South Africa. Budd's presence in Los Angeles, combined with naturalized citizen Sydney Maree's spot on the U.S. track team, indicates that natives of South Africa can overcome the barriers erected by the apartheid state's exclusion from international competition.

The lamentable combination of politics and sports that has marred Summer Olympiads for two decades can almost be excused in this situation. Whether or not Zola Budd's decision to leave South Africa was her own--indications either way have been unclear--the action serve's as a message: South African athletes while and Black, must and will leave their country to get the recognition they want and deserve. Maree, who is Black, could hardly have represented South Africa's government properly in any case. Budd would have been a credit to the racist government, even if her astounding times could never be made official, but she would never have had the opportunity to prove herself the best in the world.

And as this competition and others like it make abundantly clear, opportunity is all a good athletic really needs. Thousands of potentially brilliant Black athletes are denied this opportunity in South Africa because of their race: hundreds of whites are denied the chance to showcase their talents because of their citizenship. Maree and Budd have shown their countrymen alternatives that could even be taken a step further. If Black and white South Africans can compete at the same Games, perhaps they could also be on the same team, a squad composed of South Africans who would rather pursue their sports in the world arena than be overlooked--perhaps even those who would rather be seen as athletes first, before victims or supporters of apartheid.

But the time has not yet come, and may never come for such a team. For the moment, these two will have to suffice, and they will surely not sway the racist government in Johannesburg from what it sees as its appointed course. But their presence sends a clear signal that if their country cannot participate, its native-born athletes can and will, drawing attention to their adopted nations, and to the abhorrent nature of the South African government.