Coe: Boycotting Beijing Games over Peng case would be meaningless

Lord Coe has argued any form of Beijing Winter Olympics boycott over the case of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai would be “a meaningless gesture”, while controversially suggesting the Nazi-run 1936 Berlin Games was proof that sport can be a “powerful driver of integration and change”.

Thomas Bach, the International

Olympic Committee president, held a video call with Peng on Sunday, after which he released a statement saying the tennis player had “explained that she is safe and well”.

That second-hand information was greeted with widespread scepticism amid rising pressure for sporting bodies and governments to ditch their “quiet diplomacy” methods and not send senior figures to the Beijing Games, which start in little more than two months.

Coe, World Athletics president and an IOC member, said such actions would serve no purpose.

“That is a meaningless gesture and a damaging gesture,” he told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme. “No organising committee or national Olympic federation is going to miss a minister. But what does this mean and where does this leave our diplomatic mission? Frankly, I think that is a hollow gesture. I think it is far better that you have ministers there, that you maintain diplomatic relationships, and that you ask the tough questions.”

He added: “If you go back into the history of sport, whether it’s the 1936 Games of Jesse Owens or the Black Power salutes in 1968, sport is a very powerful driver of integration and change.”

Peng has not been seen in public since she made allegations of sexual misconduct against Zhang Gaoli, a former vice-premier of China.