Olympics 08: EU declines boycott over Tibet

[Mr Epee]

Article on ESPN.com

I've been hearing a few rumors about this sort of thing, but I can't imagine any major boycott effort gaining traction.... although it sounds like France is making some noise.

I didn't know that Claudia Bokel (german women's epee fencer) held such a high position in the European Olypic Committee. Great to see such high profile representation for the sport*.

Claudia Bokel, head of the athlete's commission of the European Olympic Committees, said that standing aside has nothing to do with political disinterest.

"We are very concerned as athletes, but we have been working on the qualification for the games for a long time. It is our existence," the Olympic team fencing silver medalist said. "We, as athletes, think we should have the time to do our sport and not get involved as a tool for politics."

by "sport" of course I mean epee fencing. :-)

[bunbury]

Good response. Most of the damage was done by the Tibetans, not by the Chinese military, according to the BBC. I love hearing about Buddhist monks burning police calls.