Problems confront Olympic movement

Press, 11 October 1976, Page 17

Problems confront Olympic movement

From

GEOFFREY MILLER,

of the Associated Press, through NZPA

Barcelona The Olympic movement starts its long, hard march from Montreal to Moscow this week with a series of meetings in Barcelona and some sharp nails sticking into its boots. ■ What is to be done about i the African countries that [walked out of the twentyI first Olympic Games at Montreal last July? How can the Olympics of the future be shaped to save them from becoming too expensive for any city to handle? Who will represent China at the 1980 Games in Moscow — sportsmen from the mainland or those from the' island fortress of Taiwan? , “The first thing to do,” said Lord Killanin, president 1 [of the International Olympic I [Committee, “is to listen i I carefully to the International i Federation’s reports on Mon-i treal. I want to know ex-j actly how they saw the; Games and some of the un-. fortunate things that happened there.” The 26 federations that control Olympic sports meet together at the start of the week and will then go into session with the nine-man executive board. Jean-Claude Ganga, secre-tary-general of the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa and the man who organised the African boycott in Montreal, is expected to be present. He will play a key role in the most immediate problem of all. SANCTIONS SOUGHT

One federation, the World Soccer Federation, is likely to press for strong sanctions against the Africans, according to Olympic sources. Most other federations may tend to let bygones be bygones.

Thi r t y-one countries walked out of the Montreal Games, some of them at a few hours notice, in protest against New Zealand’s decision to send a rugby team

to South Africa. The Olym-I pic committee refused to take any actions because! rugby is not an Olympic' I sport | Ihe boycott hit soccer [most of all games involving [African teams. Games for iwhich all tickets had been’ 'sold had to be cancelled [without prior warning. Africans were strongly’ 'represented in the entry lists 1 in track and field and in [boxing. But in these sports i it was possible to reschedule fight programmes and track ; heats without too much inconvenience to spectators. I The Africans have threatened to boycott the Commonwealth Games, scheduled for 1978 at Edmonton, Canada, unless New Zealand sings a new tune over South Africa. “The (Olympic) committee does not give its patronage to the Commonwealth Games,” Lord Killanin said. “But there is a lot of worry over the threat to the Games. Many of the federations have a direct interest in them.” The future programme of the Olympics is due to be decided at the committee’s annual assembly at Prague next June. The inner com- . mittee of the Programme Commission, headed by Dr Arpad Csanadi, of Hungary, l is coming to Barcelona to , talk with the federations.

“It is possible that some sports will lose their places in the Olympics in 1984,”

Lord Killanin said. “It is also possible that some new ones will be added. But we have not yet received the programme commissions re “The programme will be unchanged tor the Moscow Games in 1980.” CHINA QUESTION China is not on the Barcelona agenda, but it cast such a long shadow over Montreal that it is certain to be discussed. Olympic committee leaders have to find a solution to the China problem before 1980. At present they recognise Taiwan but not the mainland. The Canadian Government, which has strong trade links with , Peking, refused to admit ! Taiwanese athletes under their chosen name of the Republic of China, and they pulled out of the Games. No final decisions will be taken on any of these problems at Barcelona. That will be left to the full session of the Olympic Committee next summer, but by the end of this week the Olympic leaders and the federations should have given some signs of the way things are likely to go. The Olympic < ommittee executive board will make one firm decision — whether to disqualify five more Montreal weight-lifters who have been accused of taking anabolic steroids, the banned body-buildine drugs. Three weight-lifters were

thrown out during the Games, the committee's medical commission has since made public charges against five more — Valentin Khristov and Blagoi Blagoyev, of Bulgaria, Zbiniev Kacmarek, of Poland,

Philip Grippaldi, of the United States, and Arne Norrback, of Sweden. Khristov and Kacmarek won gold medals at Montreal and Blagoyev won a silver. They will be stripped of their medals if the Olympic Committee executive board confirms the charges.

Boxing.—Mexico’s Gutv L.pxdas, after knocking the flyweight champion. Alfonao Lopez, of Panama, to the canvas five times tn the final two rounds, took the World Boxing Assoiation fly-weight title in Los Angeles.