Zurich, July 6: Nine Tibetans living in Switzerland announced their plan to join the proposed Tibetan Team for next year’s Summer Olympic Games in Beijing today at a press conference in Zurich.
The Tibetan Olympic team is formed by Tibetans living in exile, and the decision to form a Team Tibet and to campaign for it worldwide received general consensus at the recently concluded Fifth International Tibet Support Groups Conference held in Brussels, Belgium.
Mrs. Melanie Winiger an actress and a well known public figure in Switzerland expressed her support for this initiative.
Among the Tibetan athletes, there is a junior Swiss champion in table tennis, a former participant of the Youth Olympics and a beach volleyball team competing in the Swiss championships.
Tsultrim Dolma Gope, an aspiring female participant in shot-put, described her motivation to take part in the 2008 Beijing Olympics by saying, “I participated in the Youth Olympic Games in Denmark when I was a youngster. It was a fantastic feeling to enter the stadium together with all the other Swiss athletes. I felt proud.”
“Nevertheless, secretly I was dreaming about how wonderful it would be to enter the stadium under the Tibetan flag – with a Tibetan team,” she said. “My dream hopefully will become true,” she adds.
Mrs. Daniela Lehmann, coordinator of the Swiss part of the Team Tibet initiative, said, “You can’t ignore the political reality in China if you talk about Olympics in Beijing. China uses the games to portray herself to the outside world in a way that contradicts reality. Occupied Tibet, especially, continues to suffer under severe human rights violations. The young Tibetans react to this not by calling for boycott but by demanding equal rights to participate in the games.”
“Their positive attitude and courage needs our support” she demands.
She said that the team will get in contact with various groups and organisations such as the National Olympic Committee in Switzerland to seek support.
Swiss Team Tibet members include; Dominik Kelsang Erne (table tennis, 26 years), Rigzin Gyaltag (cycling, 25 years), Jigme Punkang (100 m, 25 years), Gyentsen Zatul (marathon, 26 years), Norbu Phuntsok (beach volleyball, 23 years), Sonam Phuntsok (beach volleyball, 18 years), and Nyima Phuntsok (tennis, 20 years) in men’s category and Tsultrim Gope (shot put, 25 years) and Lhanzom Phunkang (10 000 m, 20 years) in women’s category.
The press conference was concluded by Melanie Winiger calling on the Swiss public to help the nine Tibetan athletes achieve their dream by supporting the initiative morally, through offering training facility and sponsoring.
For further details, contact Kelsang Gope: +41 79 506 85 12
Based on the article forwarded by Wangpo Tethong (w.tethong@hispeed.ch) and Pictures from medien@supportteamtibet.org
