Rogge Admits Games In Crisis

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday April 12, 2008

Jacquelin Magnay

THERE has been big Olympic news out of China this week about boycotts and human rights and small news about beds, water quality and tickets.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said yesterday the worldwide protests about China's human rights prompted him to declare the Olympic Movement was facing a "crisis". He indicated, for the first time, that the Olympic mandarins were having serious second thoughts about their decision seven years ago to award the Games to Beijing.

But for the national Olympic Committee bosses from nearly 200 nations who gathered in Beijing earlier in the week, the deliberations were far more detailed, with the most robust discussions with the Beijing Olympic Organising Committee about the extent of the Chinese subsidies to underwrite the cost of athletes' travel to and from the Games. Australia is one of the countries disputing the calculations, but for Australian IOC president, John Coates, the big win was getting more tickets to the swimming finals to distribute to athletes' families.

"We have been pushing very hard on the basis that we are the No.2 swimming nation, and I am increasingly confident that we will be able to access enough swimming tickets so that each swimmer in a final can have two family members present," Coates said. "On some nights, we have been able to get a few more so other siblings can come too, but we have been focusing on making sure that the competing swimmers will have support in the stands."

Coates said he was happy with the Olympic village arrangements and was not concerned about the threat of terrorism. He said presentations from Chinese organisers showed they were very serious about protecting the athletes. He was also hopeful the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, would attend the flag-raising ceremony in the Olympic village on the eve of the Games opening ceremony on August 8 and then attend the formal reception downtown to address the full Australian team - expected to be about 460 athletes.

"I have not yet had any formal acceptance, but Mr Rudd would be very well received by our team. He is our patron, and I hope that may influence his decision," Coates said.

The British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has declined to attend the opening ceremony, and stated that position months ago. The Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, will not attend, and the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, has also threatened to miss the ceremony.

Meanwhile, Rogge predicted the IOC would weather the China Games crisis, claiming the challenges of the past - the deaths of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics and the 1976, 1980 and 1984 boycotts - had steeled the Olympic movement.

"The history of the Olympic Games is fraught by a lot of challenges," he said. "This is a challenge but you cannot compare to what we had in the past."

But when Rogge was asked whether he had second thoughts about awarding the Games to Beijing, he deviated from his usual diplomatic response.

"I've said that it is very easy with hindsight to criticise the decision," he said. "It's easy to say now that this was not a wise and a sound decision."

He said Beijing's bid was clearly the best over Toronto's and Paris's during the vote, and Beijing bidders had given a "moral engagement" about improving human rights and using the Olympics to advance social change. "I would definitely ask China to respect this moral engagement," Rogge said.

Rogge met the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, earlier in the week but did not disclose the "very frank and open discussions" . However, he confirmed athletes would be allowed to express political opinions as long as they were conducted outside official Olympic venues in Beijing and that athletes used common sense.

"I'm very clear on the fact that athletes have ample opportunities to express themselves without hindrance, but just by respecting the sacred environment of the Olympic village, the Olympic venues, the podium and so forth. There is absolutely no problem for an athlete to express his or her views in an interview with media people. The only thing we ask is there should be no propaganda or demonstrations of political, religious and racial origin."

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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