The Olympics: Invitation Withdrawn

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"Why should these innocent people be penalized?" Captain Asbury Coward, a U.S. Olympic Committee member, demanded last week. Coward suggested that such athletes should be permitted to compete as independents—under, say, an Olympic flag instead of their own national banner. In fact, the Olympics might be better off if everybody competed as an independent. That, after all, was the idea in the first place.