A Resounding Chorus of Maybes

Support for boycotting the Moscow Olympics is slow to gather

With less than four months to go before the Moscow Olympics, just about the only people sweating harder than would-be Olympic athletes are the American officials trying to keep them from going. Last week the U.S. pressed its boycott campaign while plans for a counter-Olympics inched along and undecided nations continued to pass the baton. Among the week's setbacks, standoffs and small triumphs:

> In Washington, about 100 athletes, coaches, trainers and sports officials invited to the White House to discuss the boycott greeted President Carter with stony silence as he entered the East Room. In his 20-minute appeal, Carter said he understood their disappointment, but asserted that no matter what other athletes attend the Moscow Olympics, "ours will not go . . . the decision has been made." He hoped that alternate games would compensate, and even promised special recognition for anyone who attended. But in an informal poll afterward, only 29 supported the U.S. position.

> In Geneva, the U.S., U.K. and Australia invited 25 nations to a two-day meeting to hear White House Olympic Coordinator Lloyd Cutler spell out the U.S. position. Yet only nine of the countries invited sent delegates, and most of those who showed up listened coolly. Even staunchly pro-boycott Britain indicated that a timely Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan would "change everything."

> In London, the House of Commons endorsed a boycott, raising the pressure on the British Olympic Association to do so when the group makes its decision this week. Yet Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's tactics--like her threat to deny paid leave to competitors holding government jobs--angered athletes. At last count, 78 of Britain's 108 Olympic athletes said they still plan to attend.

> In West Germany, Chancellor Helmut Schmidt denounced the U.S.S.R.'s continued occupation of Afghanistan but stopped short of endorsing a boycott. A top French leader said privately, however, that if West Germany stays home, France will too.

U.S. officials insist that in the next two months as many as 50 of the 142 countries invited to Moscow will decide not to go; so far only 25 nations have endorsed the boycott. Much depends on how fast the boycotters can organize their alternate games, which Cutler calls the "WorldClass International Sports Festival." He envisions a series of events next August and September in a number of locales around the world. Funding for the games, however, will be difficult to obtain. Cutler claims that revenues from TV coverage could help, but executives at NBC and ABC decline to say if they would bid on coverage, and CBS, like the undecided nations, is "awaiting developments."

What next? Some delegates to last week's Geneva meeting agreed to hit the road in groups to convince other countries --and their own athletes--of the need for an Olympic boycott. At this rate, however, they might still be out hustling support while everybody else is in Moscow.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.