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A Survey of African Poetry in the London Times, Sunday Times, Financial Times, the Times Literary Supplement 1865-1985

Competitors' dreams destroyed by their governments (1976-07-19)

Type

News Report

Published

1976-07-19
The Times

Authors (0)

No Author

Citation

"Competitors' dreams destroyed by their governments", The Times, 19 Jul 1976, p. 6 The Times Digital Archive, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CS100892403/GDCS?u=linc74325&sid=GDCS&xid=9a20b857. Accessed 17 Dec 2019

Excerpt

[Excerpt]: "As the Olympic Games began today with the modern pentathlon participants climbing into their saddles at 8 am, more than one tenth of the competitors felt close to tears. They were the members of African countries whose governments, rather than sports federations, have forced them to withdraw, after having arrived here, in protest over New Zealand's rugby tour of South Africa. They were the young men and women, many of whom had never travelled abroad before, who were left, wandering disconsolately, in the Olympic village yesterday while the Queen formally opened the games in the glittering bowl of a stadium which they will now never enter... "Why couldn't they have put off the New Zealand rugby tour until after the Games were over?" [Michael Boit] asked. He must have known, in his heart, that such a dramatic move was never contemplated either by the New Zealand or South African rugby authorities. He must have known, too, that the ment who engineered this African boycott, Jean-Claude Ganga, Abraham Ordia, and Denis Brutus, were never seekign a compromise. They wanted, at whatever price, to use the Olympics as a publicity stage against the apartheid policies of South Africa..."

Related Events (1)

Related People (13)

  • Brutus, Dennis Vincent | Poet
  • Allen, Neil | Reporter
  • Boit, Michael Kipsubut | Athlete
  • Ganga, Jean-Claude | Politician
  • Ordia, Abraham | Politician
  • Akii-Bua, John | Athlete
  • Hemery, David | Athlete
  • Manley, Michael | Politician
  • Burnham, Linden Forbes Sampson | Politician
  • Quarrie, Donald | Athlete
  • Walker, John | Athlete
  • Foster, Brendan | Athlete
  • Bayi, Filbert | Athlete

Tags (7)

Repositories (1)

  • The Times