http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-10-107494-Boycotts-only-harm-athletes-IOC

The head of the International Olympic Committee has warned against boycotting major sports events, as pressure mounts on Euro 2012 co-hosts Ukraine over its treatment of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko.



IOC president Jacques Rogge said non-attendance at events like the Euro only harmed the competitors, while the long-term effect of boycotts were quickly forgotten.



“Boycotts ultimately turn against those that impose them,” Rogge told AFP in a interview at the committee’s headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.



“If anyone will feel the damage of a boycott it is themselves. They are sacrificing a fine generation of young athletes,” he added.



The Ukrainian government has been widely criticised for its treatment of former prime minister Tymoshenko, who was jailed for seven years last October on charges that European Union leaders view as politically-motivated.



A number of European politicians have vowed to stay away from matches being played in Ukraine when the tournament gets under way from June 8, threatening to overshadow the first major football championships to be held behind the former Iron Curtain.



Unlike at the Moscow Olympics in 1980, where the United States notably boycotted the Games after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the tit-for-tat no show of Eastern bloc nations in Los Angeles in 1984, none of the 16 teams has pulled out.