From Lake Placid Proof of the Games By TOM MORRIS In an obvious reference to president Carter’s call for an Olympic boycott, International Olympic Committee president Lord Killanin addressed millions of Americans and millions more around the world when he closed the 13th Winter Games at Lake Placid, Feb. 24. “If we could all come together, it would be for a better world — and will avoid the holocaust which may well be upon us if we are not careful,”’ he said. ‘I feel these Games proved we can do something to improve mutual understanding in the world...” - Killanin’s words were met by enthusiastic cheers from the 9,000 people jammed into the arena and were followed by an impressive closing ceremony which served to add emphasis to his plea for the future of the Olympic movement. In the competitions the German Democratic Republic and the USSR virtually ruled supreme. Together they captured 19 of the 38 gold medals and, with their haul of silyer and bronze, easily were the best of the field. The GDR is a story initself. From one bronze medal won in its first attempt at the Winter Games in 1956, their magnificent sporting program has propelled them into first place with 9 gold, 7 silver and 7 bronze. The Soviet Union came a close second (they were first in 1976) with 10 gold, 6 each in silver and bronze. The third place was captured by the USA with 6 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze. In the case of the U.S., one -athlete, speed skater Eric Heiden was the star of the Games winning 5 golds. Canada came 14th with a silver (speed skater Gaetan Boucher) and men’s downhill skiing (Steve Podborski) winning a bronze. Gold medal hopeful Ken Reid was eliminated when his ski bindings came loose. A special place in the hearts of Canadian fans was won by 15 year-old Steve Collins with his gutsy effort on the 90-meter jump. * * * President Carter, obviously seeing some mileage in the U.S. hockey team’s gold medal victory, invited them and the other American athletes to dinner at the White House. The House of Representatives, too, is considering a bill to award Congressional medals to Heiden and the hockey team. F ‘However the scheme appeared to backfire when the athletes pre- sented Carter with a petition, signed by most members of the Olympic. team, opposing the president’s boycott call. ‘‘I don’t think a boycott is the right thing,”’ Heiden said. ‘‘I don’t like politics in sport. It’s hard on the people who have been training all their lives.”’ Carter is out on a shakey limb. Having reiterated the U.S. intention to proceed with a boycott, he now faces a double problem: first is the U.S. Olympic Committee and the U.S. team. They have still to con- sider what their reply will be to the invitation to go to Moscow. The second problem is to convince America’s “‘allies’’ to join a boycott, (and then to have them convince their national Olympic committees to go along). In this effort, the White House has come up with little success. The president is holding out some. vague promise of ‘‘alternate games” which he will knock together to make up for Moscow. Given the horrendous organizational foul-ups at Lake Placid, little faith can be put in America’s ability to do that. * * * Continuing support for the Moscow Games rolls in. Some of the most recent to go on record are the Olympic Committees of Argentina, Brazil, Cyprus, Denmark, Ethiopia, Finland, Guyana, Iran, India, Indonesia, New Zealand, Mexico, Sweden, Switzerland, Uruguay, Venezuela and Yugoslavia. The supreme African Council for Sports, the International Ice Hoc- key Federation, the International Football Association, the Interna- tional Weightlifting Association, the International Volleyball Associa- tion and the International Pentathlon Union have all spoken out against any boycott of the Moscow Games. ; While the response of China is yet to come, the International Olym- pic Committee’s decision to invite that country to the Games was welcomed by the USSR National Olympic Committee: ‘Since 1952,” its chairman said, *‘we have supported the recognition of China's sportsmen as the representatives of Chinese sport in the Olympic movement.” ig ' Cross country skiers Vasili Rochev silver medal winner and Nikolai Zimyatov who picked up three golds for the Soviet Union. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 7, 1980—Page 8 3 i cS | } 1 Eric Heiden of the USA skated his way to a gold in all five speed sk ; ing events. The GDR four-mal bobsled team broke the orm minute barrier on both its runs Canada’s Steve Collins failed 1 place in 90-meter ski jump but this 15-year-old holds promise. a Comment pocrisy and the By STEPHEN WOHL Fear of unfavorable compari- son with the Soviet Union is the real reason the United States government is pushing for a boy- cott of the Moscow Olympics. The pretext offered to justify a boycott would fall apart if any re- porter allowed into the presence of Jimmy Carter would have the guts to ask Carter to swear that the U.S. was not organizing forays into Afghanistan from Pakistan prior to 1980, and if Car- ter would be asked to swear that the CIA had never had liaison with Afghanistan’s General Amin, who was assassinated in December 1979. The anti-com- munist Amin had killed the leader of Afghanistan only three months earlier, and was then in turn killed by his own people. Amin never issued a plea for world help against a Soviet ‘‘invasion’’ be- cause he was already out of power before that “‘‘invasion’’ took place. Soviet troops were called into Afghanistan by the govern- ment of Afghanistan under terms of the Afghan-Soviet treaty of December 5, 1978, and helped Afghanistan resist the mounting pressure from U.S.-equipped raiding forces which have been dispatched out of dictator Zia’s Pakistan for the past two years (the U.S. also makes itself an enemy of Pakistan’s people by arming and propping up Zia, the brute who traitorously over- threw, jailed, and eventually murdered the Pakistanis’ elected president, Ali Bhutto). In any case, the U.S. certainly can have no objection to one country send- ing military assistance to another, having imposed 540,000 U.S. troops on Vietnam, having changed puppet governments in Saigon more than a dozen times during the U.S:’s long Vietnam occupation, and having napalmed daily the resisting population as witnessed on our television sc- reens. Jimmy Carter sees nothing wrong with maintaining 50,000 U.S. troops in South Korea to this day. His protestations reek with hypocrisy. In Korea, Guatemala, the Con- go, Vietnam, the Dominican Re- public, and Kampuchea, massive physical battle by the local citizenry against the entering U.S. soldiers was horribly plain to see; but all the many reporters in. Afghanistan, including numerous American camera crews at the turn of the year, have not been able to even catch a glimpse of such battle against Soviet soldiers because there is no such battle, ordinary Afghanistanis evidently being pleased by the riddance of Amin, by the opening of the pris- ons, by the return to programs re- distributing property and wealth, and by the new security against Pakistan-based marauders. See for Themselves As to the real motives for the boycott effort: the American Olympic athletes as a team would a boycott again lose, and probably would not even take second place. much more important, U.S. lead- ers fear what will follow if they allow great numbers of Amert cans — particularly youn Americans — to see, with thé Own eyes, an alternative soc! system that by contrast is wol* ing. Personal witness of the co™ stantly rising standard of living! the Soviet Union is dangerous the U.S. power structure at a timé when the American standard of living is collapsed to a level lowe! than in 1968, and is dangerous that power structure when the American people are gettin’ poorer each and every yea! (poorer because almost no-one > paper-dollar income is increasing as fast as prices). F How would U.S. leaders eX plain to shocked Olympic touristS and’ participants the high-ris¢ apartment buildings popping uP like mushrooms all around Mos cow and the movement of 11 milk ion Russians into brand neW homes in 1979, while U.S. hous ing starts fell from 2 million 1978 to 1.4 million in 1979? How would they explain why rent in the USSR, including all utilities, costs no one more than 5 percent of monthly income; why a ride on — the giant and expanding Moscow subway costs the same 5 kopecs as in 1935; why a loaf of bread costs the same"10 kopecs as in 1948; why medical care, dental e Continued on Page 9