Alan Turing and the 2012 Summer Olympics

Seems like one Olympics finishes, and anticipation for the next one immediately begins. And so it goes, from Vancouver in 2010 to London in 2012, where the next Summer Olympics will be held. It's the first time the Summer Olympics have been held in Great Britain since 1948.

Back then, an English mathematician and computer scientist decided to try out for the games. He was a marathon runner, and though he didn't quite qualify to represent his country in those games, he finished fifth in trials -- only eleven minutes slower than a British athlete who took the Silver Medal at the games. This English mathematician's name? Alan Turing.

Turing is one of the unsung heroes of the history of World War II. During the war, he worked as a code breaker and was largely thought to be responsible for helping to decipher Nazi codes, eventually shortening the war and helping bring down Hitler's regime. How did his country repay him in later years?

By chemically castrating him and experimenting with drugs on him to cure him of his homosexuality. Yes, seven years after World War II ended, and four years after he tried out for the British Olympics, Turing was arrested by British authorities for being a homosexual -- a crime at the time. He was given a choice: receive treatment to cure your homosexuality, or spend time in prison. Turing did not opt for prison.

Instead, he was forced to take injections of estrogen. He was also robbed of his job at the time, where he was doing computer consultancy for a British intelligence agency. All because he was gay.

In 1954, after numerous rounds of chemical castration therapy, Turing is thought to have taken his own life by ingesting an apple poisoned with cyanide. A man who helped bring an end to the most brutal dictatorship the 20th century saw, ended up being driven to suicide because his government criminally convicted him for being gay.

Now, as Britain again gets ready to host the world's biggest sporting event, a campaign is under way to get Turing recognized by his country. It follows on the heels of an official apology made by the British government last year, during which Prime Minster Gordon Brown admitted that Turing should never have been arrested in the first place, and that the treatment he experienced to cure his homosexuality was "appalling."

John Graham-Cumming has an article in the Guardian this week where he urges the 2012 Olympics to recognize Turing in some fashion. It would be a great moment to honor a man who was unjustly treated by his government six decades ago.

"As Britons, we live in a world Turing helped create: computers have permeated our lives and his work at Bletchley Park with thousands of others helped bring the war with Nazi Germany to an end," Graham-Cumming writes. "What better way to honour Turing than by naming the 2012 marathon the "Turing marathon" and inviting his surviving nieces to witness the event?"

There's also a sense of timeliness to the call, given that Turing would have turned 100 years old in 2012.

Naming an Olympic event after Turing is hardly a move that could compensate for the gross injustice that was done to him in 1952. But it is a way of keeping Turing's legacy fresh in the minds of not only Britain, but the entire world community. Turing's actions paved the way for a 20th century free from Hitler and the Nazi regime.

Literally, the least we can do is name a marathon after him.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons