TOKYO — A promising Myanmar swimmer is asking on the Worldwide Olympic Committee to ban the Myanmar Olympic Committee from representing the nation within the upcoming Tokyo Video games, saying it “doesn’t share Olympic values.”
“The Myanmar Olympic Committee can’t be part of that Olympic motion as a result of it’s basically working as an extension of the navy’s rule,” Win Htet Oo informed Nikkei Asia.
The 26-year-old swimmer, who at present lives in Australia, final month mentioned in a Fb put up that by rejecting the Myanmar Olympic Committee he had foregone any likelihood of competing in Tokyo.
On the 2019 Southeast Asian Video games, Win Htet Oo met the Olympic qualifying commonplace set by FINA, the game’s world governing physique. That makes him eligible to compete in his first Olympics, the swimmer mentioned.
Since he began swimming at age of 6, he has dreamed of competing in opposition to the world’s greatest at an Olympics. Tokyo was not solely going to be the belief of that dream however the finish of his athletic profession. “Hopefully it might be just like the transition to a profession the place I might be serving to different Myanmar athletes to go to the Olympics,” Win Htet Oo mentioned.
In March, Win Htet Oo despatched a letter to the IOC asking it to not acknowledge the MOC and that it permit Myanmar athletes to take part within the video games beneath the impartial Olympic flag.
The IOC informed him it might apply the precept of neutrality and never take a political aspect. “My argument has all the time been that this isn’t political,” Win Htet Oo mentioned. “That is in regards to the Olympic Constitution.”
That constitution says, “The objective of Olympism is to position sport on the service of the harmonious improvement of humankind, with a view to selling a peaceable society involved with the preservation of human dignity.”
Myanmar safety forces are mentioned to have killed about 800 folks and arrested roughly 4,000 for the reason that coup on Feb. 1.
Win Htet Oo is just not the one Myanmar athlete to take a stand in opposition to the junta. Not less than as much as 10 gamers reportedly refused to take part in Myanmar’s World Cup qualifier in Japan on Friday. Throughout the nationwide anthem, a substitute goalkeeper gave the three-finger salute related to the protests.
Win Htet Oo additionally believes that amid the navy crackdown in Myanmar, “athletes are being focused,” he mentioned. In March, 19-year-old feminine martial artist Ma Kyal Sin was gunned down at a protest.
“I believe many athletes have been threatened to be silent,” he added.
He’s involved that the junta will use the Olympics as a “highly effective” showcase that it is going to be capable of level to and say “the whole lot is okay” within the nation.
Requested if he had ever thought-about protesting throughout the video games relatively than boycotting them, Win Htet Oo scoffed on the thought. “You realize, what if I went and did the three-finger [salute]?” he questioned aloud. “That may get extra consideration however on the similar time, by staying silent till the Olympic Video games I’d permit the MOC to make use of me additionally as a propaganda device, which I’m in opposition to.”
On Monday, he created an internet petition and immediately addressed it to the IOC and Thomas Bach, calling on the committee to show its dedication to human rights points. “What extra egregious crime is important to point out the MOC’s absolute failure to guard the reason for sport in Myanmar?” he mentioned in an announcement.
With the IOC having loads on its plate with the pandemic, Win Htet Oo feels the Myanmar difficulty has been unable to turn out to be a precedence. The coup and the continued strife, he mentioned, “are on the very backside of their checklist.”
His frustration is obvious.
“A small nation like Myanmar is just not on their radar proper now,” he went on. “They need to be certain that the Olympic Video games go forward, and all these problems with human rights … we’re gonna be ignored.
“That is why I am attempting to create as a lot noise as I can — in order that the IOC cannot keep silent any longer.”