Olympic leaders go on attack to save Games

Press, 24 April 1980, Page 8

Olympic leaders go on attack to save Games

NZPA-Reuter Lausanne Olympic leaders are today ex pected to take the offensive in their battle to ensure maximum participation in the Games in Moscow in the face of a mounting United States-led boycott campaign.

With a firm, statement of support from sports federations, the International Olympic Committee’s president (Lord Killanin) and his executive board are expected to announce plans to keep enough top athletes in the Games to ensure they keep the world spotlight. The eight executive board members hope to conclude the crucial three-day meeting today after reviewing . developments since President Carter’s call for a boycott because of Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan. With the powerful American team definitely absent from the Moscow Games, the 1.0. C. is now reconciled to the almost certain loss of world-class athletes from Canada, West Germany, France, and Kenya. The Canadian Government yesterday announced its support for a boycott and urged its athletes not to go to Moscow. The External Affairs Minister (Mr Mark MacGuigan) told reporters in Ottawa he expected West Germany to join the boycott soon. He said the government would not confiscate athletes’ passports but would not give financial assistance to any who tried to take part.

The Canadian Olympic Association is due to meet this week-end to take a final decision on whether to go to Moscow. Association officials have said that while they want Canada to compete in Moscow, they would be prepared to reconsider their stand if the Government urged a boycott. Lord Killanin has indicated he will wage a tough battle in the 12 weeks before the Games open to persuade as many national Olympic committees as possible to resist government pressures for a boycott. A statement ..from the International Sports Federation yesterday protested energetically against such pressure and said “the boycott of a sports event is an improper method to use in trying to Obtain a political end and the real victims of any such action, are the sportsmen and

sportswomen of the world.” The International Federations called on national affiliates to take all legal action to persuade their own national Olympic committees to see that all qualified competitors get a chance to go to Moscow.

The 1.0. C. executive will today hear a report from the United States Olympic Committee president (Mr Robert Kane) on the circumstances behind the American vote last week to withdraw from the Games. The 1.0. C. will determine whether any sanctions need to be taken against the Americans for violating the Olympic charter by bowing to government pressure.

President Carter yesterday sent a personal message to the International Olympic Committee that the American campaign for a boycott of the Moscow Olympics arose solely out of the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan and did not imply lack of support for the Olympic movement.

The message said that the United States would continue “our adherence to the principle that national and international amateur sports should be administered by private bodies and not by governments.” The French Equestrian Federation, following the lead of the United States, Britain, and West Germany, has announced that it will not send its horsemen to the Moscow Olympics. Christian Legrez, president of the Equestrian Federation, said the French decision was “essentially on sporting grounds” and not based on political questions.

The Gambian Olympic Committee has said it will not take part in the Moscow Olympics unless there was a significant change in the situation in Afghanistan before May 24.

The Gambian Olympic leader, Omar Sey, said that most African countries had in the past used sport to gain political concessions. The committee therefore called upon all African coun-

tries to put pressure on the Soviet Union to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. In ’ Britain a row has blown up over what some newspapers see as the ambivalent attitude of the Duke of Edinburgh over the Games.

The Duke yesterday said in Lausanne that he would not be going to the Games. However, when asked would he like to have gone, he said, “That’s beside the point, isn’t it?” And a spokesman for the International Sports Federation said that the Duke had put the finishing touches to the federation’s resolution to the 1.0. C. condemning government pressure for a boycott.

Thomas Keller, president of the International Rowing Federation and spokesman for the meeting, said delegates had difficulties in agreeing on the wording of the resolution. He added that “the finishing touches were made by Prince Philip and it was approved unanimously and with applause.” The Queen’s husband attended as president of the International Equestrain Federation.

The “Daily Express,” in its main story headed “Philip raps Games ban,” said: “The Olympic organisers were clearly delighted by Prince Philip’s decision to join the fray. But his action coul' 3 lead to friction with Prime Minister Mrs Thatcher’s Government, which is backing President Carter’s line.”

Another popular newspaper, the “Daily Mail,” started its lead story, “in the only way a British royal can publicly rebuke a Prime Minister, a defiant Prince Philip yesterday-' informed Mrs Thatcher that he finds her Olympic boycott campaign ‘improper’ and that it could have ‘disastrous consequences’.”

While many countries are pulling out of the Moscow Games the new nation of Zimbabwe is fighting against time in a bid to attend. Frank Lincoln, president of the Olympic Committee of Zimbabwe has gone to

Lausanne with documents aimed at proving the country’s right to return to the Olympic movement. As Rhodesia, the territory competed in the Olympic Games up to 1968, but they were expelled on the eve of the Munich Games of 1972. Mr Lincoln said Zimbabwe could send a racially mixed team of about 23 competitors in athletics, shooting, and yachting to the Moscow Games.