IOC bans Iraq from the Olympics.
 

ATHENS, June 4 (Reuters) - The International Olympic Committee said on Wednesday it provisionally suspended the Iraqi National Olympic Committee because of government interference, putting Iraq’s presence at the Beijing Games at risk.

“The (IOC) executive board decided today to provisionally suspend the Iraqi National Olympic Committee as a consequence of the on-going political interference by the government within the sports movement in Iraq,” the IOC said in a statement.

The executive board started its three-day meeting in Athens on Wednesday.

“This culminated two weeks ago in the Iraqi Council of Ministers dismissing the NOC and its member federations and appointing an interim committee chaired by the Minister of Sport, a clear breach of the NOC’s autonomy.”

The Iraqi government had said the committee was illegitimate because it lacked a quorum and had failed to hold new elections.

The IOC, which had urged the government last week to reinstate the old NOC, said it would invite government authorities for talks to find a solution.

“The IOC will continue to look for ways to help Iraqi athletes, although the situation created by the Iraqi government authorities makes the task very difficult,” the IOC said.

It said it did not recognise the “interim committee” and only recognised the disbanded NOC whose office bearers “were legitimately elected.”

It was not immediately clear when the discussions would be held and how the small Iraqi team preparing for the Beijing Games would be affected by the decision.

The Beijing Games open on Aug. 8 and Iraq planned to send a small team despite violence that has killed more than 100 athletes in the country since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

(Reporting by Barney Spender and Karolos Grohmann; Editing by John Mehaffey and Justin Palmer)



http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/new...ters&type=lgns



slightly stunned.....

The olympics are political bullshit

I don't think having Iraq there is putting the Olympic games at risk.

Having a crapload of people there and a chance of a televised catastrophe is what puts the Olympic games at risk. If someone seriously wants to do something "terror-wise" they will do it regardless of who is/isn't there.

They might as well ban the U.S. too b/c just about all the countries hate the U.S. :rolleyes:

Something in China is not right... I feel like they are using the Olympics as an excuse to do certain things.

I'm confused.

I don't see anything in the post to indicate that a "chance of a televised catastrophe" has anyting to do with the suspension. The passing mention of athletes being killed in Iraq at the end of the link has nothing to do with the decision -- rather it is a problem with the Iraqi government interferring with the Iraqi Olympic Committee.

It also doesn't seem to have anything to do with whether a country is "liked" or not.

I do agree with Phi Gam that the Games are heavily politicized which flies in the face of the stated goals of the Games and the Olympic movement.

The thing that I find most distressing is that the lions share of the athletes from the major participants are anything but amateurs.

We used to piously point at the (former) Soviet Union players, many of whom just happened to be "border guards" which was the way the USSR managed to pay their people for training. Then came "The Dream Team" and using NHL players for our hockey team, etc. But even during the famous 1980 "Miracle On Ice" between the US and USSR, while the rest of the team was composed of college players, the captain, Mike Eruzione, was a minor league hockey player -- which in my mind made him a professional. As Al Michaels said in his famous call of the game, "Do you believe in Miracles?" I might have some years ago, but not now. How about the Williams Sisters? Are they "professional" tennis players? Won't the US Women's Basketball team be made up entirely of WNBA players -- with the exception, of course, of WNBA runner-up MVP Becky Hammons who was spurned for whatever reason by the US coaches and will play for Russia.

Of course China is making a statement. Everywhere else where the Games are staged does, too.

Far from being amateur athletic events with the highest standards of integrity and sportsmanship, the Olympic Games are a strange combination of nationalism and capitalism -- strange bedfellows in many cases.

I just can't wait for this Olympics to blow up in China's face. In my opinion, it's going to be a public relations disaster on a large scale.

If anything bad happens, you know they'll do their best to cover it up -- which could just make it worse.

The weather/pollution alone could be enough to ruin it.

It's interesting - when we talk about the Olympics being highly-politicized, we tend to forget that it's been that way for a while. Didn't the defeat of the Soviets have a political angle to it? The boycott of the games in the early 80s? Even going back to the games involving Germany and the Nazis in the 30s, there has been a political angle.

Looks like Iraq's going to the games after all!

2 athletes are better than 0 athletes, IMO.