PM and Coe against Sochi boycott

PM and Coe against Sochi boycott

David Cameron and Lord Coe are wholeheartedly against a British boycott of the Sochi Winter Olympics in response to Russia's controversial new anti-gay laws.

In June, president Vladimir Putin signed a law making it illegal to give under-18s information about homosexuality.

It is a move that has been widely condemned, varying from figures like United States President Barack Obama to broadcaster Stephen Fry.

As a result, the latter called for next year's Winter Olympics to be taken away from Russia in a strongly-worded open letter to International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, the Prime Minister and Coe.

Rogge said his organisation is awaiting further clarification over the translation of part of the law, and on Saturday Cameron seemingly ruled out a British boycott.

"Thank you for your note @stephenfry," he posted on Twitter. "I share your deep concern about the abuse of gay people in Russia.


Fry compared the situation in Russia to the decision to hold the 1936 games in Nazi Germany, and the issue was a major talking point as the World Championships in Moscow got under way.

Despite the widespread condemnation, British Olympic Association chairman Coe was quick to play down talk of a boycott.

Returning to the Luzhniki, scene of his famous 1,500 metres Olympic win in 1980, the vice-present of international athletics' governing body, the IAAF, said he did not want athletes pulling out of Sochi.

"I am against boycotts," Coe said. "I don't think they achieve what they set out to do. They only damage one group of people and that is the athletes.

"I am a profound believer that international sports and relationships developed through international sport are often in the infancy of social change.

"I believe that coming to Moscow in 1980 was the right thing to do and 10 years later we see those changes.

"International sport is not an inhibitor of social change, it actually has quite strong catalytic effects.

"It is an issue that needs to be addressed but not an issue that is one of a boycott."

IAAF president Lamine Diack said on Thursday he had "no problem whatsoever" with Russia's laws, while Russia's sports minister Vitaly Mutko said people needed to "calm down" about the issue.

"The question was answered fully by my federation president and Jacques Rogge from the IOC," Coe added.

"We will wait for the full interpretation through the International Olympic Committee before, as chairman of the British National Olympic Committee, any judgements will be made."

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