Olympic values not to be buried under politics: Vancouver Olympic chief
9/4/2008 18:04
President of the organizing committee for the 2010 Vancouver Winter
Olympic Games John Furlong yesterday condemned the attempt to politicize the
Olympic event.
"The Olympics should not be about politics, it should be about
sport," he said at an interview with Canadian newspaper The Global and
Mail.
"The torch relay is supposed to be about introducing the world to the
Olympic values," he said.
Noting the relay can have a good effect on people
from the world, Furlong said any attempt "to bury that message under other stuff
that has nothing to do with the Olympics is wrong."
He also criticized those
trying to sabotage the torch relay in London and Paris, saying the television
images on their moves made him both ill and angry.
In anticipation of the
2010 Games, Furlong said the Vancouver Organizing Committee has planned to stage
an "ambitious" torch relay which is expected to cover some 35,000 km within
Canada, the longest-ever torch relay within a host country in the Olympic
history.
He hoped that the 2010 relay will be used to bring the Olympic Games
"to the front porch of every child in Canada."
"The whole point is to take it
to places it was never expected to go," and it would be a shame if someone
attempts to sabotage these efforts, he said.
Xinhua
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