Olympic diplomacy move in Lausanne

Press, 19 May 1984, Page 10

Olympic diplomacy move in Lausanne

NZPA-AP Lausanne As Poland joined the Kremlin-led boycott of the Los Angeles Olympics, a new round of Olympic diplomacy began in Lausanne. Juan Antonio Samaranch of Spain, the president of the International Olympic Committee, convened an emergency meeting of the 1.0.C.’s nine-member executive board with top American and Soviet Olympic officials to attempt a reconciliation, two weeks before the deadline for team entries expires. Peter Ueberroth, president of the Los Angeles Organising Committee, and Maralt Gramov, president of the Soviet Olympic Committee, met face-to-face on Thursday for the first time since the Soviet Union an-

nounced its boycott on May 8, later followed by nine other Soviet bloc nations — the latest being Poland. Accompanied by other Los Angeles and Soviet officials, the two men conferred privately for more than an hour, but made no headway towards ending the boycott.

Mr Gramov made no comment afterwards, but Mr Ueberroth told reporters: “There is obviously a great division in our thinking. It would be misleading to suggest that we came even an inch closer to a solution.” Mr Ueberroth had said he wanted to meet Mr Gramov and other Soviet officials before the full meeting gets under way, “to let them know our thoughts in priv-

ate” and to give them an opportunity to ask questions they might have on the Los Angeles Games. Communist Rumania, alone among Moscow’s Warsaw Pact allies, kept American Olympic organisers guessing • yesterday over its participation in the Games.

Opinion among most Rumanian officials and many Western diplomats in Bucharest was that Rumania would break ranks with its Communist allies and send a team to the Olympics. The State-controlled news media yesterday maintained a total news blackout on the Soviet-inspired boycott of the Olympics and made no mention of Poland’s pullout.