2008 Beijing is believed to be one of the best editions the game has ever had. The world saw a different standard of the game because of the Chinese government's excellent management and determination for success. They made the whole world see that they organized the whole event in an excellent and very prestigious manner. With such a major and well-known event, such as the over enthusiastic 2008 Summer Olympics arrival, there is bound to be something that will go wrong. Because nothing ever runs smoothly, one could only assume that there would be several "bumps" in the "road." With the 2008 Olympics, there were, with anything, several of these "bumps" present.
Though the whole world has seen that the game was organized in an excellent manner, the government had to face problems too. There were loads of obstacles that came in the governments' way, however, the National Olympic Committee held strong and dealt with every such problem in an excellent manner.
There were various organizations that were against the Beijing 2008 Olympic because of the Chinese governments take on Tibet and that was one of the reasons there were many simultaneous protests going on all over against the Olympic competition. Uproars were created and protestors were executed all over the world. During the Olympic Torch Relay, the Olympic Torch was put in several hazardous situations such as at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, United States.
There were even intelligence reports of terrorism activity and even protests from internal turbulence groups as well as foreigners plotting to protest in China against the event of the 2008 Olympics. All these problems contributed a lot to take enough from the officials in terms of mental peace and if that was not enough there were NGOs to monitor closely.
One of the major problems, which surfaced during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, was the protest by the pro-Tibet groups and anti-American groups. Part of the propaganda was even the use of Tibetan antelope (chiru) as one of the five mascots for the game.
There was a lot of pressure from even the high profile community against the game and one of the examples is that of the famous celebrity, Richard Gere, who proposed to boycott the game all together because of his support of the Tibetan people's movement. Banners such as "Free Tibet" quickly flew up all over the world and in various Relay stops to put even more pressure on the Chinese Government to free Tibet.
Some of the high profile leagues are even calling the 2008 Beijing Olympic as 'Genocide Olympic" because of the active role of the Chinese Government in helping the Sudan regime. The political problem got raised to such a level that the British Olympic Association made all the British participants sign an agreement that they are not allowed to give any comments on any political and/or social issue.
The Olympics have always been a target and platform for all the international political drama and action, as well as a hot spot for someone to seek fame, because it's the biggest international sporting event in which numbers of countries participate. Any issue disturbing this event will definitely get into the limelight and be highlighted, hitting major newspapers and television stations.
A major political problem that the Olympic event has faced until yet was in the 1936 Berlin summer Olympics where 11 participants were murdered brutally. At one point in time, the Soviet Union denied to be a part of Olympic competition and started their own event called "Spartakiads".
There are numbers of other political, as well as management problems that Olympians face and there can be no end to this as there would always be a difference in opinion as well as a way of thinking, and even goals. The management problems are managed with the help of large family of staffs and direct or indirect help from the people working for Olympic Committees and, economically, there can never be a problem in the Olympics as it is the largest sporting event, as well as media event.