Plea to Soviets by rower’s mum

Press, 25 May 1984, Page 26

Plea to Soviets by rower’s mum

The mother of one of New Zealand’s champion oarsmen has appealed to the Soviet President, Mr Chernenko, to heal the

breach over the Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Mrs Juliet Johnston, of Christchurch, has taken up cudgels on behalf of her son, Greg Johnston, a member of the New Zealand rowing eight for Los Angeles, and “all other athletes around the world.”

She has dispatched a 350word letter to the Kremlin, asking Mr Chernenko to rectify the causes of dissatisfaction with the Games arrangements so that the true spirit of sportsmanship can flourish again. Mrs Johnston decided to write to the Soviet President — and send a copy to President Reagan, as well — because of the imminence of the closing date for entries for the Los Angeles festival. She felt the voice

of the public should be heard on the threatened boycotts by the Soviet Union and other Eastern bloc countries. “Athletes are not ones to blow their own trumpets, especially the rowers, and I think it is time that someone let the public know what sacrifices top athletes make in order to compete internationally,” she said yesterday. She felt it was an appropriate day to act, because yesterday was international women’s day for peace. Greg Johnston, an oarsman since 1975, and a member of New Zealand gold medal winning coxed four at the world championships in Duisberg last year, has felt the whiplash of Olympic wrangling before. He was chosen for the stillborn New Zealand rowing squad for the Moscow Games of 1980. Mrs Johnston said in her

letter that athletes had given up much to reach the standards which made them eligible to compete at the Olympics. She wrote of the friendships forged among competitors of many countries, and said this was her understanding of the ideals of the Olympic movement.

“If it is to be at the Olympic Games that athletes from ail over the world are brought face to face with the leaders of their countries promoting policies which are in direct contrast to these aims, it seems to me that we are letting our young people down very badly,” she wrote.

“They are willing to sacrifice their careers and their futures to achieve excellence in their chosen sports, and I feel that to deny them competition against all the world’s athletes is unjust and unfair.”