Elton Tucker, Assistant Sport Editor

Lord Sebastian Coe, two-time Olympic 1,500 metres gold medallist and chairman of the London organising committee for the 2012 Games, fields questions during a Gleaner video podcast at the company's head office, yesterday. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

OLYMPIC 1,500 METRES gold medallist, Britain's Lord Sebastian Coe, slammed sports boycotts during a Gleaner video podcast at the company's head office on North Street, yesterday.

Coe, winner of the 1,500m gold medal and 800m silver at both the 1980 Moscow and 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, said he disliked boycotts. According to him, they never achieved what they set out to do.

"Sport is often chosen because it is the cheapest of the options," Coe said as boycotts of the coming Beijing Games have been touted over China's human rights record and policies towards Tibet and Darfur.

Affecting lives

"Governments rarely ask other organisations - businesses, the cultural community - to shoulder some of that burden. Sport is high profile and often thought of by politicians as the first resort and although sport and politics have always been intertwined because both are important to people's lives ... we should never use sport in the front line of politics," the former British Member of Parliament said.

The man described by many as the most elegant and fastest 800m runner of his generation and who led London's successful bid to host the 2012 Olympics, added that sport can be used as a positive tool in many communities.

"Sport can do a great deal to bring communities together, it can help in conflicts, it can help locally in challenging communities but it should not be the front line of politics. You can't ask sports to do what the United Nations fails to do," he said.

Who suffer

Coe concluded that the only people who got damaged in boycotts were the athletes who lose their right to compete.

The Moscow Games and the Los Angeles Olympic were both hit by boycotts.

In 1980, 65 countries declined to compete because of the then Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.

The Soviet Union then led a boycott of the Los Angeles Olympics, arguing that the safety of their athletes could not be guaranteed.

Coe, the chairman of London's organising committee for 2012 and a vice-president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, leaves the island today following a 48-hour visit. He was guest speaker at the Salvation Army's annual fundraising dinner at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel last night.

To watch The Gleaner podcast of Lord Sebastian Coe's interview, log on to: www. go-jamaica.com