Olympian sour at 'blackmail'

Press, 11 August 1980, Page 1

Olympian sour at 'blackmail'

PA Auckland Politicians were called a “blackmailing bunch of hypocrites” by the canoeist, Alan Thompson, a member of the New Zealand ■ Olympic'- team which returned home yesterday, in an attack on Government and overseas political leaders who did their best to keep New Zealand out of the Olympic Games at MOSCOW^■ While other members of, the team would not openly criticise the Government, all of them were soured by their- experiences of the last two months.

The New Zealand Olympic team manager, Mr Tay Wilson, said that Thompson was speaking as an individual. However, he said he was disappointed at the case developed by both the politicians and the news media regarding the boycotting of the Olympic Games. ■ The two groups had done a disservice to sport in New Zealand. “One needs

regular reminding that all people, no matter - what race, colour, or creed, are similar and are not different, in the. things that they do and want,” Mr Wilson

said. The Olympic Games had shown this. “It would have been a lot nicer if the rest of the team could have been there,” said Geoff Walker, who paddled with Thompson in the K2 500 m and 1000 m events. Team members were convinced that the decision to withdraw from the Grimes, .by all but two of the sports which originally planned to compete, was a

futile one. The virtual New Zealand boycott of the Games went largely unnoticed by the other nations who went to Moscow.

“Only the British and Australians seemed :< to know our full team was not there,” said Walker. “It was only in the athletics, when our top runners were not competing, that anybody noticed.” i • Mr John Clark, the manager of modern pentathlon competitor, Brian Newth, was even more forthright. “The boycott Was _ a waste of time,” he said. Newth’s poor performance — he finished fortieth in a field of 42—was not a result of the pressure exerted on him not to attend the Games before he left New Zealand, -said Mr

Clark. “The malfunction of a pistol spoiled his chances.”

Mr Clark said the small New Zealand Modern Pentathlon Association had “paid a high price” so that that Newth could attend the Games, but he declined to elaborate on his statement'.

Although the canoests and Newth were pressured not to go to Moscow, they were under no political pressure once they arrived there., “The only pressure was to do well in competition,” said Thompson.