Diplomatic Boycott, IOC Ensures 90 NOCs Attend Beijing Olympics

Winter Olympics Illustration (Twitter @Beijing2022)

JAKARTA - International Olympic Committee (IOC) president, Thomas Bach, said the majority of the governments of the 90 countries participating in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics would not carry out a diplomatic boycott.

The United States, Britain, and Australia are among the countries that recently announced a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics, which will be held from February 4-20. The boycott came after citing China's human rights record which they called a "political position".

"There are countries such as the United States, Britain, and Australia that has made that decision", Bach said as quoted by Antara, Wednesday.

"Several other countries, and not a few, if we say there will be 90 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) attending the Games, there will likely be more than 70 or even more than 80 NOCs whose governments have not made such a statement."

"They all have one thing in common and that is that they support their Olympic teams so their athletes can fulfill their Olympic dreams", Bach said.

Human rights groups have long criticized the IOC for conferring the right to host the Olympics on China for a second time after China's human rights situation did not improve after the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

Last week, Tibetan students chained themselves to the Olympic ring outside the Swiss IOC headquarters in Lausanne to call for an international boycott of the Olympics.

Similar protests took place during the Beijing Olympic torch-lighting ceremonies in Olympia and ancient Athens in Greece in October.

"What happened in those years is not politically within our sphere of influence", Bach said. "You can't blame the IOC and hold it accountable for what a generation or two of politicians haven't been able to do."

"We are responsible for this Olympics", concluded Bach.