Olympic heads resolved to go on with Games

Press, 23 April 1980, Page 8

Olympic heads resolved to go on with Games

a NZPA-Reuter Lausanne ® Olympic leaders will today mount a joint effort to produce a formula aimed at restricting damage to future world sport from the United States-led boycott of the Moscow games this (northern) summer. Heads of the international federations governing the 26 Olympic sports will present the executive board of the International Olympic Com- . mittee with a resolution ■ which federation sources' I said confirmed their determi--1 nation to go ahead with the ' Games in Moscow even if only half of the eligible ‘ countries took part. ' The United States Olympic ( Committee voted earlier this 1 month to keep its powerful team away from Moscow in line with appeals from President Carter that Soviet mili- j : tary intervention in Afghanistan rendered it unfit to . be host of the world sports festival. 1 Top Olympic leaders ; admit privately that they are . all but reconciled that West j Germany will not compete ( and that such a decision j would put even more pres- ( sure on Olympic committees ( in France and other Euro- j pean nations, r Canada is . expected to be < next to announce that Gov- g ernment pressure has compelled sports leaders .to pull I, out. \ Reliable sources said X

e sports federations would today press the 1.0. C. to y make every effort to permit i- any athlete to compete at - Moscow or in future Games e as individuals, even if his I national Olympic committee 3 decided to pull out. The 1.0. C. director, Monique Berlioux, said this I would require changes in ; Olympic rules which could t only be achieved by'calling > a special session of the ' whole 88-member body in , the few weeks before the ; Games. “Whatever happens, there , will be Games in Moscow and we are optimistic that! ! they will be representative of a fairly wide part of the : . world,” one senior 1.0. C. j member said. i I “They will not be tile uni- j J versal Olympic Games we i have known, but they will , not be only a glorified Spar- 1 , takiad (Soviet national 1 , games) as some political 1 ; leaders have predicted,” the < ' member said. 1 Western European 1 national Olympic committees s agreed yesterday to meet in i Rome on May 3 to seek a I common position in the best < interest of future sporting r contacts, even though many of them will stay away from c Moscow because of govern- i ment and public indignation c over the Soviet action in Af- C ghanistan. b On the first day of the 1.0. C. meeting yesterday the tl West German Olympic chief, G Willi Daume, said that the S

d Soviet Games organisers had o told him a boycott could it turn international sports it into a wasteland for years is to come. s Mr Daume, after meeting e the chairman of the organising committee, Ignaty >- Novikov, and Soviet 1.0. C. s vice-president. Vitaly Smirn nov, said they expressed 1 very strongly the problems g that would arise if West e German officials prevented 1 their team from competing, e Mr Daume told reporters: “They said there had been j many difficulties in the past /in restoring friendly relations between the Soviet ; Union and the Federal Re--3 public. They would not want . to see these relations harmed because the German - N.O.C. was forced to follow : the U.S. political line.” 1 They told the Russians ■ that his committee was I totally free but that “we 1 have to consider the wishes ; of the Government, the Parliament, and public opinion i before we make our deci- ; sion.” German public-opinion i is about 80-20 in favour of a . boycott. The Cabinet will de- : cide the question finally tomorrow. Meanwhile, the 1.0. C. has decided to accredit journalists for the Olympics from countries whose national Olympic committees are boycotting the Games. American journalists will thus be eligible to cover the Games despite fhe United States boycott.