By OWEN GIBSON
The Guardian
The British Olympic Association has admitted that organisers of the first European Games in Baku, under attack from human rights groups following a crackdown on freedom of speech, had effectively paid for its team of athletes to compete.
The BOA will send 160 athletes to the inaugural European Games in Azerbaijan in June, three times as many as went to the Sochi Winter Olympics last year. The Team GB chef de mission, Mark England, who will perform the same function at the Olympics in Rio in 2016, said the cost of sending the team would be largely covered by the organisers. “There’s participation grants that we’ve received from the organising committee. The net cost we’re hoping will be neutral for Team GB,” he said.
Preparations for the games, which will feature more than 5,000 athletes in 18 Olympic and non-Olympic sports, have been overshadowed by criticism of Azerbaijan’s ongoing attempt to quell critical voices. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch renewed their criticism of President Ilham Aliyev’s regime in the past week.
On Wednesday an alliance of human rights organisations wrote to the International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach, to call on him to ensure the human rights record of host countries remained on the agenda at an IOC executive board meeting in Rio de Janeiro this week.
“At the Beijing and Sochi Olympics, the exploitation of migrant workers, repression of critics, and corruption cast a long shadow over the sports,” said Minky Worden, the director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch. “The IOC is at a crucial moment to signal to would-be hosts that rights abuses, corruption and repression have no place in the Olympic movement.”
Around 100 political prisoners are held in Azerbaijan,including dozens of journalists and democracy campaigners held on what are considered to be trumped-up charges.
England said he was aware of the criticism over human rights but denied the athletes were being used to help burnish Azerbaijan’s image.
“As a leading national Olympic committee, we’re aware of that. We read your column. It’s a sports event and as a chef de mission it’s not our responsibility to comment,” he said. “Our responsibility is not for human rights or the political aspects. Whether Azerbaijan and Baku are using the European Games to mask some of that, it’s not really for me to understand or comment at this stage.”
Jade Jones, a taekwondo Olympic gold medallist in London in 2012, is acting as an international ambassador for the games. “Jade’s job is to get the ranking points and get over the line for Rio de Janeiro,” said England. “My job is to take circa 240 people out and back, give all the athletes a positive experience and learn some lessons on the road to Rio.”
Jones said her focus would be on gaining the ranking points required for qualification for the Olympics. “We go to different places. Some places are better than others. I’m just going there to do my job and perform,” Jones said.
England said he believed the European Games would thrive as more federations decided to use it as a qualifying event for the Olympics. The EOC has said up to half a dozen cities are interested in hosting the 2019 Games but will not say who they are. “It’s the genesis of a very interesting concept, one that we’ll support and will grow and grow,” he said.