LAUSANNE, Switzerland: Olympic Chief Juan Antonio Samaranch said on Thursday he ‘would, meet) Soviet leader) Mikhail Gorbachev soon in an attempt to head off a threatened communist boycott of the 1988 Seoul Summer Games, “Mr. Gorbachev and I have exchanged letters planning a meeting in the near future but I can’t tell you the date”, Samracanch told a news conference The President of the Lausanne based International Olympic Committee (IOC) was speaking after a ceremony to mark the mailing of invitations to a record 167 countries to compete in the Seoul Games, set to ‘open in exactly one year.
‘Communist North Korea, demanding a share of the Games awarded ‘exclusively to capitalist South Korea in 1981, threatens to call for a Communist boycott.
It would be the fourth consecutive politically inspired boycott of the Sumer Game sand would mean generation of athletes from the east and west blocs never faced each other in Olympic competition. E
Samaranch said he would seek 10 enlist Gorbachev’s support of resolve the crisis before January 17, the deadline for replying to invitations.
The would be “very, very difficult” to ‘organize the transfer of any events to, Pyongyang after January, he said,
Samaranch noted that he would ‘meet socialist sport ministers at their annual conference next week in Sukhhumi, near the Black Sea in the Soviet Union. But he added he would not see Gorbachev during that trip.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 25, 1987
