Olympics-Truth “too shocking” for IOC but pressure must stop-Vizer (Reuters)
By Karolos Grohmann BERLIN, May 20 (Reuters) – SportAccord president Marius Vizer has urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to end pressure on federations to withdraw their membership of his organisation after he criticised the Olympic body last month. Vizer, who heads the international judo federation and the umbrella body SportAccord, which has about 100 sports federations as members, had accused the IOC of being dated, blocking new events and lacking transparency among other things. Since Vizer’s scathing attack at the SportAccord convention in Sochi, which he said was probably “too shocking” for the IOC, over a dozen Olympic federations, including athletics, boxing, fencing, archery, taekwondo, triathlon, hockey and wrestling, have left, saying his comments did not represent them.