Olympic Conditions Rejected by Taiwan (Published 1979)
- ️Wed Nov 28 1979
Nov. 28, 1979
TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers.
About the Archive
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.
TAIPEI, Taiwan, Nov. 27 — Taiwan refused today to accept the conditions set by the International Olympic Cornmittee for Taiwan's participation in the Olympic Games next year and officials said the country would follow through on a lawsuit already filed seeking a reversal of the decision.
Shen Chia‐ming, president of Taiwan's Olympic Committee, said the organization “strongly protested” the International Olympic Committee's resolution adopted Monday demanding that Taiwan change the name of its Olympic committee and drop the use of the national flag and anthem by Jan. 1 in order to participate in future Olympic Games.
“The resolution has violated the Olympic charter both in procedure and in substance,” Mr. Shen said at a news conference today. “It is clearly unfair and illegal. We have no choice but to file the suit to settle the problem.”
The suit was filed Nov. 15 in a Swiss court in Lausanne, where the International Olympic Committee is based. It was filed at that time, according to Mr. Shen, “in order to protect the legal rights of our organization and the honor and wholeness of the I.O.C. charter.”
Taiwanese sports officials expressed hope that the court would rule in favor of their country and allow its athletes to participate in both the Winter Games at Lake Placid, N.Y., next February and the Moscow Games next summer. Taiwan will not participate in the Moscow Games if it loses the suit and is forced to make the change, Mr. Shen said.
However, Mr. Shen said Taiwanese athletes were currently under active training for participation in the Winter Games next year. A 15‐member Taiwanese winter sports team will depart for Austria Wednesday to train for competition at Lake Placid, even though Taiwan has deferred a decision on whether it will participate.
Mr. Shen said earlier that Taiwan did not object to China's admission to the Games and explained that Taiwanese athletes were looking forward to competing with the Chinese provided that Taiwan is treated on “an equal footing” with the mainland.
Despite opposition from the two United States Olympic delegates, the members of the Olympic Committee adopted the resolution Monday in a 6217 postal vote to grant full membership to China, but at the same time to impose conditions for Taiwan's participation.