Years of bickering between Taiwan and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ended recently in Lausanne, Switzerland, when Taiwan signed an agreement at IOC headquarters.

Under the terms of the agreement, which came after two years of litigation, Taiwan is entitled “to participate in future Olympic Games. . .like every National Olympic Committee with the same status and the same rights.”

The accord between the IOC and the newly-named Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee, which takes its name from the capital of Taiwan, calls for the adoption of a new flag and a new Olympic emblem, replacing the pre-revolution insignia under which Taiwan claimed for speak for all of China.

It was in 1979 that Taiwan was expelled from the Olympic movement, paving the way for the admission of the People’s Republic of China, which had consistently refused to come into the Olympics so long as Taiwan was recognized by the IOC. Chinese athletes competed for the first time at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, but the National Olympic Committee in Peking decided to support the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow.

According to an IOC spokesman, the Lausanne agreement assures that Taiwanese athletes will participate at the 1984 Winter Games in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, and at the 1984 Summer Games scheduled for Los Angeles.

Pas de version française