Olympic move unthinkable

Press, 8 February 1980, Page 20

Olympic move unthinkable

NZPA-Reuter Lake Placid. New York.

The Olympic chief. Lord Killanin. declared last evening that he still regarded calls to move the July games out of Moscow as unthinkable and added lhat the Olympic committees should not. be dictated to by governments.

The president of the International Olympic Committee (1.0. C. said on arrival in New York for the winter games that the world sports movement was facing the most critical period in its history because of developments stemming from Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.

But at a brief press conference. he refused to predict what action the 1.0. C. would take on President Carter’s call for a boycott of the Moscow Games.

A few hours earlier, the State Department in Washington said that nearly 50 countries had told the United States they favoured moving the games out. of the ■Soviet capital. In Moscow, the Soviet organiser of the games said that they would open on schedule. Meanwhile, world sports (leaders gathered in Lake (Placid for the winter games. I sadly aware that political [problems would again overshadow athletic feats. ; I The 1.0. C. session, which! precedes the formal opening of the winter sports festival next Wednesday, will again show that Olympic leaders have failed to achieve their aim of avoiding political pressure, which now threatens the whole future of the Olympics, Lord Killanin said: “I would say that our session

here will be the most critical since the formation of the 1.0. C. at the Sorbonne (in Paris) in 1894. It will be critical because it could lead to disunity.”

The Irish peer said that the 1.0. C would hear reports from the United States Olympic Committee, which had been asked by President Carter to press for the games to be transferred from Moscow, or cancelled or postponed, unless the Soviet Union withdrew its forces from Afghanistan by February 20.

“1 am fully sensitive to the feelings in the United; States.” he said, ‘'but I am also sensitive to what can and cannot be done by the 1.0. C.”

The 1.0. C executive board will begin its study of Olympic problems today. Lord Killanin said he

wanted the delegation from the United States Olympic Committee to appear next week before the full 1.0. C. session, which is expected to muster an unusually large attendance of the 89 members, many of whom traditionally avoid the cold weather session preceding the winter games. • While, refusing to prejudice what (he proudly independent 1.0. C. members would decide, Lord. Killanin repeated his view that it would be unthinkable, morally and legally, to bow to government pressure by moving the games.

“There are certain areas where governments may make suggestions to Olympic committees, but I think it is very important that we should not be dictated to by governments on where we go to.” he said.