IOC president tells world leaders to stop using Games as political platform
IOC president accuses politicians concerned about gay rights in Russia of using Winter Olympics as a platform to serve their own agendas
The president of the International Olympic Committee has accused world leaders of using the Sochi Games as a political platform “on the backs of the athletes”, and of snubbing the Winter Olympics without even being invited.
Ahead of tomorrow’s opening of Russia’s first Winter Games, Thomas Bach said politicians were making an “ostentatious gesture” serving their own agendas. Without naming any individuals, Bach’s comments appeared directed at US President Barack Obama and European politicians who have taken a stand against Russia’s law banning gay “propaganda”.
The Olympics, Bach said, should not be “used as a stage for political dissent or for trying to score points in internal or external political contests”.
“Have the courage to address your disagreements in a peaceful direct political dialogue and not on the backs of the athletes,” he said on Tuesday at a ceremony attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin. “People have a very good understanding of what it really means to single out the Olympic Games to make an ostentatious gesture which allegedly costs nothing but produces international headlines.
“In the extreme, we had to see a few politicians whose contributions to the fight for a good cause consisted of publicly declining invitations they had not even received.”
The build-up to the Olympics has been overshadowed by Western criticism of the anti-gay law and Russia’s record on human rights and other issues, making Sochi among the most politically charged Games in years.
Obama had planned to send a delegation to Sochi made up of three openly gay athletes – tennis great Billie Jean King, 2006 Olympic hockey medallist Caitlin Cahow and figure skater Brian Boitano. Yesterday, King said she would not attend the opening ceremony because her mother was ill.