Olympic boycotts

I have a huge problem with the nations of the world boycotting the Olympic games. But at the same time I have a huge problem with the Chinese doing what they are doing with Tibet. But as far as the Olympics goes it is not going to do anything to the nation as a whole if other nations do not show up to compete. The only people that suffer and pay the price are the athletes. For many of them they have worked their entire lives to get to that point and now that it is so close it could be ripped away from them. And at the same time for many of these athletes they are only going to get one shot at this dream of theirs. And diplomatically this is not going to solve any of the problems that the Tibetans are having. A slap on the wrist with a "we’re not coming" sign will serve no purpose in getting the point across. This is going to have to be solved through government meetings or some kind of UN sanctions. Just don’t punish the athletes they have nothing to do with this. Lets separate sports form politics and let fair competition proceed as planned.