Myanmar swimmer sacrifices Tokyo Olympics dream after brutal military coup

SYDNEY Win Htet Oo has dreamed of competing in the Olympics since he was 6 years old.

But when the men’s 50m freestyle final takes place in Tokyo late Saturday, the 27-year-old Myanmar swimmer will look home.

Despite a recent Olympic qualifier and a national record, he boycotted the Games in protest of the military coup that overthrew the government elected by his states six months ago this weekend.

Two decades have passed, training slowly, improving slowly, aspiring to be at the level where I can represent my country, he told NBC News from his home in Australia earlier this week.

But then everything changed in the swimmers’ homeland when the army took power in February.

I knew I could not represent Myanmar as long as the army was in charge, he said.

Instead, he hopes to help keep the world in the spotlight and put pressure on what he calls the hypocritical International Olympic Committee.

From hope to despair

Win Htet Oo was born in Malaysia to parents from Myanmar. After attending college in New York, he moved to Melbourne where he focused on his swimming.

But it was a visit to Myanmar in 2016 that made him double his Olympic dream.

After more than 50 years of brutal military rule, a 2015 general election decided Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, seen as a major step on the country’s troubled path to democracy.

I saw a lot of hope. I saw a lot of energy and bravery, especially in the creative arts that really inspired me to consider what I was doing as a swimmer, as an athlete, he recalled.

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The stars appeared to be in line with Tokyo 2020, with Win Htet Oo competing in the 2019 Southeast Asia Games and securing an Olympic qualifying time and a national record in the 50m freestyle.

Then came the military coup.

There was disbelief that I felt so hopeful that the transition to democracy would succeed, no matter how slow the pace was going, said Win Htet Oo.

In the wake of human rights groups, the military has violently suppressed protests across the country in a bid to consolidate power.

More than 900 people opposed to the junta have been killed by security forces, withdrawing international sanctions and sanctions, including from the United States.

Six months after the coup, the military junta has arbitrarily stopped thousands, killed hundreds of civilians, including dozens of children, and now people are facing a deadly pandemic on their own, said Manny Maung, a Myanmar researcher at Human Rights Watch.

This shows us how completely unprepared and inadequate the military is to govern The economy has collapsed, the health care system has collapsed and aid is not reaching the most vulnerable people.

The IOC request was rejected

After the coup, the military also took control of the Myanmar Olympic Committee another reason why Win Htet Oo said there was no way he could compete in the national team.

He wrote to the International Olympic Committee and asked if he could come to Tokyo as an independent athlete. But the organization rejected his request.

With no other options, he withdrew from the review before the Myanmar team was finalized.

People need to know that the Myanmar army is not just another army that has taken power in some backward, developing countries, he said.

People think that fascism has long since died out after World War II, but no, it exists in Myanmar today and it is shocking that the world continues to tolerate it.

This is an army accused of genocide against Rohingya and other ethnic people in Myanmar, he added, referring to a deadly 2017 crackdown on the Rohingya minority population in the Buddhist-majority Rakhine states, which caused more than 1 million fleeing.

In a statement, the IOC said the Myanmar Olympic Committee remained the National Olympic Committee (NOC) officially recognized by the IOC.

Over the past few months, the NOC has consistently confirmed its focus on preparing its team for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, she said. In accordance with the Olympic Charter, each qualified athlete must be registered by their respective IOCs recognized by the IOC.

While the Myanmar Olympic Committee sent a team of seven athletes to the last Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, this time only two compete.

It is hypocritical

Win Htet Oo said he was very concerned about the IOC’s response to his request and is now calling for reform about how the organization recognizes national Olympic committees.

They are adhering to a stance of political neutrality, even though I think the Myanmar Olympic Committee is violating Olympic Charter.

Hypocritically hypocritical, he told the Olympics, which aimed to promote peace and harmony.

But experts say this is nothing new.

What the IOC is interested in is financial completion and presenting a good show, said Dr Tom Heenan, who teaches sports at Melbourne Monash University.

The Olympic Card has noble words, but all clad in windows. The main goal of the Olympics is revenue for the IOC and the Olympic movement, he said.

(NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News, paid $ 7.5 billion to extend the media rights to the American Olympics until 2032. NBCUniversal is the International Olympic Committee’s only major source of revenue.)

Heenan said turning a blind eye to human rights abuses is part of the history of the IOC and the Olympic movement, with the wildest example being the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

The IOC has repeatedly said it should be neutral and stay out of politics, with its president Thomas Bach insisting earlier this year that it is not a super world government.

She has raised it focuses on human rights in recent years, with the rights requirements included in the host city contract for the upcoming 2024 Summer Games in Paris.

But it has also faced criticism during next year’s Winter Games, which will be held in Beijing amid growing international backlash against China’s treatment of its minority Uighurs, Hong Kong and Tibet.

China denies wrongdoing and its foreign ministry has criticized the politicization of sport and said any boycott is doomed to failure.

Meanwhile, Win Htet Oo is left to watch the final for which he dreamed of participating from another continent, knowing that he could have been there.

[But] I have hope, he said. Let us consider how sport can be a force for the protection of fundamental human rights. This is the next big idea that the IOC and athletes really need to think about.

Many athletes around the world want to see sport as a real force, not just empty words, he added. Let us use sport as a real tool towards a more ethical, humane world.