Government won't stop Games team

Press, 18 April 1980, Page 1

Government won't stop Games team

PA Auckland The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) reiterated yesterday that the Government would not intervene to stop the New Zealand Olympic team from going to the Games at Moscow. "The decision on whether’ to participate in the Olympics will be one for the New Zealand Olympic and Commomvealth Games Committee and the Government will abide by that decision in accordance with our general policy of non-interference in sport,” he said, in an address prepared for delivery at a “Yachtsmen of the Year” function in Auckland. The Government wished that the Olympic Games were held other than in the Soviet Union and would support any measures to change the venue and hold them elsewhere, even at a later date. However, this ■ proposal was unlikely to be taken up.

“I have made our position clear to our friends and allies and find complete understanding as far as their representatives and leaders are concerned,” said Mr Muldoon. Referring to the controversies in 1978 and last year when he approached the Soviet Ambassador in Wellington about invitations for New Zealand yachtsmen to compete at pre-Olympic regattas at Tallinn, he said the present situation was rather an anti-climax.

“Political events, boycotts, and threats of boycotts have reached a stage where the whole Olympic movement is threatened and it is to be hoped that time will enable the Olympic movement to move away from the spotlight of politics, as we believe should be the case with international sport generally,” Mr Muldoon said.