Athletes reject calls for boycott, protests in Beijing

Athletes from national Olympic Committees on Thursday rejected any boycott of the Beijing Games and said sport should be kept separate from politics despite China's poor human rights record.

"We are all of the wholehearted belief that boycotts are pointless and senseless -- and only hurt the athletes," the 15 members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)'s Athlete Commission said in a statement.

"With so many issues and conflicts in our world, if we allow our event to be the place to raise them, this would change the essence of what we are there to do -- to compete athlete against athlete in a spirit of respect, friendship and fair play," the statement said.

The Athlete Commission held their meeting in a Lausanne hotel to discuss how to respond to what they called the "challenging international backdrop into which the Olympic Games have been drawn in recent weeks."

Commission member and former Soviet pole vault champion Sergey Bubka told journalists he still rued being forced to miss the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles due to Cold War tensions between Washington and Moscow.

"I missed in '84 but for me it's still more painful than 20 years ago because it's not freedom of speech, it's not freedom of expression, and you're finished, no-one cares," he said.

"I honestly don't want to see that any athlete will be punished for such a decision," Bubka said.

China's human rights record in Tibet and its support for authoritarian regimes such as Sudan and Zimbabwe have been the target of sustained protests by rights groups in the run-up to the August Olympics.

The Olympic Torch relay has drawn protests and sparked diplomatic rows amid chaotic scenes in London, Paris and San Francisco, when protesters scuffled with police and Chinese "escorts" assigned to protect the flame.

The Athlete Commission said the relay "has not had the peaceful passage it deserves."

"Violent protests around the Olympic Torch are totally counter to the values the Torch stands for," the statement said.

The idea of a Torch relay ahead of the Olympic Games was first introduced by the Nazi regime in Germany, when they hosted the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.