DENVER — Sticking with a stance its taken all along, the U.S. Olympic Committee reiterated that an American boycott of the Beijing Olympics is completely out of the question.

Calls for a boycott date to 2006, and though none has been heeded the recent violence in Tibet has brought a new wave of protests over China's handling of the situation.

The U.S. boycotted the Moscow Olympics in 1980 in protest of the Soviet Union's occupation of Afghanistan. That was a low point for the modern Olympics, though most view the next Olympics, in Los Angeles in 1984, as the key turning point.

With the tragedy of Munich, the financial disaster of Montreal and the Moscow boycott still fresh, nobody wanted to bid for the 1984 Olympics. Los Angeles did, however, and with the Soviet Union leading a boycott of Communist nations as payback, it was China's refusal to join that helped make the 1984 Games a moneymaker and turn the Olympics into modern-day success.

In Brdo Pri Kranju, Slovenia, the message was clear: "Let the games begin."

European nations and Olympic committees said they opposed a boycott of the Beijing Games over China's handling of the unrest in Tibet. And most everyone else who spoke out, from Russia to the United States to Australia, echoed that approach.

The EU sports ministers and Olympic committees said sports should not be linked to such a political issue and that previous Olympic boycotts had limited impact.