International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge said Friday that Russia must explain how it will implement its controversial anti-gay propaganda law and detail its impact on the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games.
He said the IOC wants clarification of how the law will be applied, despite having received assurances from Games organizers.
Rogge said at a news conference in Moscow following a meeting between the International Association of Athletics Federations Council and the executive board of the IOC, that his body needed clarification over the English translation of the law.
He said, “we have received all reassurances emanating from Mr. Dmitry Kozak, who is in charge of the organization of the Games in Sochi. We asked for written confirmation of these reassurances.
“We received them yesterday, we have studied it this morning but there are still uncertainties and we have decided to ask for more clarification as of today. So we are waiting for this clarification before having final judgement on these reassurances”.
When asked what would happen if an athlete protested against the law during the Sochi Games Rogge said, “this is definitely something (that) has to be considered case by case so I cannot give you a generic answer”.
Asked what the IOC specifically needed to clarify on the new legislation Rogge replied “we are not clear about the English translation of the Russian law and we want clarification of this translation to be able to understand what has been communicated to us.
“This is about a couple of paragraphs – we don’t understand all the details because of probably a difficulty in translation. We don’t think it is a fundamental issue, more of a translation issue”.
But Rogge added the Olympic charter was very clear. “It says sport is a human right and should be available to all regardless of race, sex or sexual orientation.
“The Games themselves should be open to all, free of discrimination. Our position is very clear but as we don’t have all (the) full details of a good comprehension of the law we cannot many any comment on that”.
