Winter Olympics: US Olympian Angela Ruggiero delighted athletes not being punished over politics after Beijing boycott announced
- Former ice hockey gold medallist and IOC member says initial reaction was one of relief
- Earlier President Joe Biden said the US not send government officials to the 2022 Games
Four-time Olympian Angela Ruggiero greeted the announcement of the United States’ diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Games with relief on Monday, delighted there was no suggestion athletes should also stay away.
Ruggiero, who won ice hockey gold for the United States in 1998 and later served as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said it was important athletes were not penalised for politics.
“My initial reaction was a bit of relief that it wasn’t anything more dramatic,” Ruggiero said. “You know, you work all your life to compete and you never want politics to get in the way of that chance.
“President Biden and others, obviously, wanted to make a statement and use the levers that they had without affecting the athletes, so I think that’s what we saw in this diplomatic boycott.”
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White House press secretary Jen Psaki added, though, that athletes would have the government’s full support, and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee released a statement affirming that the team would be going to China.