29.09 Interview: New IOC Chief Warns Against Sochi 2014 Protests
ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece, September 29 (R-Sport) In his first exclusive interview since his election as the president of the International Olympic Committee this month, Thomas Bach talks to David Nowak, the chief editor of R-Sports English service, about his expectations for the Sochi Winter Games.
Bach, who won a gold medal in fencing at the 1976 Games, spoke an hour ahead of his first official engagement as president the flame-lighting ceremony for the torch relay in Ancient Olympia.
- What a day for you.
- "It is an emotional day of course because its the first trip as IOC president. And being in Ancient Olympia is also very special because these are our roots. It is where it all started. Without Ancient Olympia there would be no Games, I would not be an Olympic champion, I would not be an IOC member. So its pretty emotional."
- Would you be sitting here as president if you had flown to Moscow in 1980 to defend your title as fencing champion from the 1976 Montreal Games? You have said that your countrys decision to boycott the Moscow Games prompted your move into sports administration.
- "I dont know. Because there the boycott and the discussion were a turning point for me. Before I was very much concerned with sports, I didnt really care about the IOC or sports politics. I did not even know who gave me the gold medal in Montreal. The only, lets say, the first approach to sports politics was one event in Montreal when I was looking out of the window of our apartment in the Olympic village and I saw that the African athletes had to leave the village and I saw the athletes in tears and having to leave. [Twenty-eight African nations boycotted the Montreal Games in protest at the IOCs decision to allow the participation of New Zealand, whose rugby team had toured Apartheid-ravaged South Africa. Some nations boycotted days into the Games with their athletes already there ed.] And there it was the first thought that there is something wrong in the relationship between sports and politics. After winning the gold medal this somehow disappeared. But then it came back with the boycott discussion. And after this I really took the decision that if I can help so that something like this does not happen to athletes in future generations then Im ready to help. So you may be right. If we would have gone to Moscow then maybe my life would have been totally different."
