The U.S. Olympic Committee and Paralympic Games (USOPC) see nothing in a boycott of the Beijing Winter Games next year. According to USOPC, human rights violation in China should be handled in a different way.
Several human rights organizations recently called for a boycott of the Winter Games in China, due to the situation in Xinjiang. The Uyghur population is persecuted there. A majority of the House of Representatives recently ruled it genocide.
“While we will not underestimate what is happening in China from a human rights perspective, we do not support boycotting the athletes,” said Susan Lyons, president of USOPC.
According to Lyons, it would not be helpful if American athletes avoided the Games, as happened at the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow. Then the United States, like many other countries, protested the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan by turning away from the Moscow event.
“We don’t think boycotts were useful in the past, especially in the 1980 Olympics,” Lyons said. “The goal of that boycott was not met at that time.” “The boycott mainly affects athletes who have trained all their lives to represent their country.”
“We believe these matters should be discussed with China at the governmental level,” he added. The USOPC is in talks on this matter with the White House and Congress.
Susan Lyons, president of the US Olympic Committee.
Susan Lyons, president of the US Olympic Committee.
Photo: ANP
