Firstpost
  • Home
  • Video Shows
    Vantage Firstpost America Firstpost Africa First Sports
  • World
    US News
  • Explainers
  • News
    India Opinion Cricket Tech Entertainment Sports Health Photostories
  • Asia Cup 2025
Apple Incorporated Modi ji Justin Trudeau Trending

Sections

  • Home
  • Live TV
  • Videos
  • Shows
  • World
  • India
  • Explainers
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Cricket
  • Health
  • Tech/Auto
  • Entertainment
  • Web Stories
  • Business
  • Impact Shorts

Shows

  • Vantage
  • Firstpost America
  • Firstpost Africa
  • First Sports
  • Fast and Factual
  • Between The Lines
  • Flashback
  • Live TV

Events

  • Raisina Dialogue
  • Independence Day
  • Champions Trophy
  • Delhi Elections 2025
  • Budget 2025
  • US Elections 2024
  • Firstpost Defence Summit
Trending:
  • Charlie Kirk shot dead
  • Nepal protests
  • Russia-Poland tension
  • Israeli strikes in Qatar
  • Larry Ellison
  • Apple event
  • Sunjay Kapur inheritance row
fp-logo
IOC chief Thomas Bach pleads for no boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics, 'athletes would suffer'
Whatsapp Facebook Twitter
Whatsapp Facebook Twitter
Apple Incorporated Modi ji Justin Trudeau Trending

Sections

  • Home
  • Live TV
  • Videos
  • Shows
  • World
  • India
  • Explainers
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Cricket
  • Health
  • Tech/Auto
  • Entertainment
  • Web Stories
  • Business
  • Impact Shorts

Shows

  • Vantage
  • Firstpost America
  • Firstpost Africa
  • First Sports
  • Fast and Factual
  • Between The Lines
  • Flashback
  • Live TV

Events

  • Raisina Dialogue
  • Independence Day
  • Champions Trophy
  • Delhi Elections 2025
  • Budget 2025
  • US Elections 2024
  • Firstpost Defence Summit
  • Home
  • Sports
  • IOC chief Thomas Bach pleads for no boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics, 'athletes would suffer'

IOC chief Thomas Bach pleads for no boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics, 'athletes would suffer'

Agence France-Presse • March 13, 2021, 10:45:52 IST
Whatsapp Facebook Twitter

Bach batted off talk of a potential boycott, claiming the International Olympic Committee’s political neutrality and saying it was up to governments to live up to their responsibilities.

Advertisement
Subscribe Join Us
Add as a preferred source on Google
Prefer
Firstpost
On
Google
IOC chief Thomas Bach pleads for no boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics, 'athletes would suffer'

Lausanne: Olympic chief Thomas Bach on Friday pleaded that there be no boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Games over China’s treatment of its Uighur minority, saying it would only punish athletes. Beijing has come under increasing fire from rights groups and some governments amid claims that actions towards the Uighur and other minority groups in the northwestern region of Xinjiang amount to genocide. Campaigners believe that at least one million Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking, mostly Muslim minorities are incarcerated in camps in Xinjiang, where China is also accused of forcibly sterilising women and imposing forced labour. After initially denying the existence of the Xinjiang camps, China later defended them as vocational training centres aimed at reducing the appeal of Islamic extremism. US ski star Mikaela Shiffrin, who would be one of the pin-ups for the Beijing Games, said earlier this month that “legitimate proof” of rights abuses in some Olympic host countries forces athletes to choose between their job and their morals. But Bach batted off talk of a potential boycott, claiming the International Olympic Committee’s political neutrality and saying it was up to governments to live up to their responsibilities. The IOC president said “people must learn from history. The boycott of the Olympic Games has never achieved anything”, citing a boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. “The Soviet army withdrew in 1989, so it really served nothing but punishing their own athletes and led to a counter-boycott in Los Angeles (in 1984). “Athletes would be the ones suffering,” said Bach, who was a spokesman for West German athletes contesting the 1980 Moscow Games boycott - a move which meant he was unable to defend his Olympic team fencing gold. Taking it seriously Bach was talking at the end of the three-day IOC Session which saw him re-elected for a second and final four-year term and IOC members approve all 15 recommendations of Olympic Agenda 2020+5, the IOC’s vision for the future of the Olympic Movement. Based on five trends (solidarity, digitalisation, sustainability, credibility, and economic and financial resilience), the new Agenda embraced human rights. And Bach, underlining the political neutrality of the IOC, enshrined in the Olympic Charter and acknowledged by all 193 member states of the United Nations, was adamant that the IOC was addressing the rights issue “within our remit”. “Within the remit of the IOC we are taking this very seriously, this means, with everything that is related to the Olympic Games: human rights and labour rights and others are and/or will be part of the host city contract and on this we are working very closely with the organising committee,” he said. “We are also monitoring… for instance, supply chains, labour rights, freedom of press and many other issues. “This is our responsibility… and this we are taking very seriously. We are not a super world government where the IOC could solve or even address issues for which not the UN Security Council, nor the G7, nor G20 has a solution. “This is in the remits of politics. We have to live up to our responsibilities within our area of responsibilities and governments have to live up to their responsibilities in their remits.”

Tags
IOC Xinjiang Winter Olympics Thomas Bach 2022 Winter Olympics 2022 Winter Olympics China Mikaela Shiffrin 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 Uighur Muslim detention camps
End of Article
Latest News
Find us on YouTube
Subscribe
End of Article

Impact Shorts

WWE SummerSlam 2025 Night 2 results: Cody Rhodes beats John Cena in wild title match

WWE SummerSlam 2025 Night 2 results: Cody Rhodes beats John Cena in wild title match

Brock Lesnar's return headlines Night Two of WWE Summerslam Cody Rhodes defeats John Cena to become the Undisputed WWE Champion Becky Lynch defeats Lyra Valkyria to stay Women’s Intercontinental Champion.

More Impact Shorts

Top Stories

Charlie Kirk, shot dead in Utah, once said gun deaths are 'worth it' to save Second Amendment

Charlie Kirk, shot dead in Utah, once said gun deaths are 'worth it' to save Second Amendment

From governance to tourism, how Gen-Z protests have damaged Nepal

From governance to tourism, how Gen-Z protests have damaged Nepal

Did Russia deliberately send drones into Poland’s airspace?

Did Russia deliberately send drones into Poland’s airspace?

Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages: Qatar PM after Doha strike

Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages: Qatar PM after Doha strike

Charlie Kirk, shot dead in Utah, once said gun deaths are 'worth it' to save Second Amendment

Charlie Kirk, shot dead in Utah, once said gun deaths are 'worth it' to save Second Amendment

From governance to tourism, how Gen-Z protests have damaged Nepal

From governance to tourism, how Gen-Z protests have damaged Nepal

Did Russia deliberately send drones into Poland’s airspace?

Did Russia deliberately send drones into Poland’s airspace?

Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages: Qatar PM after Doha strike

Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages: Qatar PM after Doha strike

Top Shows

Vantage Firstpost America Firstpost Africa First Sports
Latest News About Firstpost
Most Searched Categories
  • Web Stories
  • World
  • India
  • Explainers
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Cricket
  • Tech/Auto
  • Entertainment
  • IPL 2025
NETWORK18 SITES
  • News18
  • Money Control
  • CNBC TV18
  • Forbes India
  • Advertise with us
  • Sitemap
Firstpost Logo

is on YouTube

Subscribe Now

Copyright @ 2024. Firstpost - All Rights Reserved

About Us Contact Us Privacy Policy Cookie Policy Terms Of Use
Home Video Shorts Live TV