Leave politics out of Olympics - Christie

18.02.2008

Former sprinter Linford Christie has urged Olympians to ignore politics and focus on performance ahead of the 2008 Beijing Games.

China's staging of the Games is becoming increasingly politicised because of its human rights record and foreign policy in places such as Sudan.

But Christie says personal feelings should be kept to one side. "Sometimes people try to get politics and athletics entwined and they shouldn't," said 47-year-old Christie.

"It's always like that. People try and drag sport into certain things and there's nothing we can do about that. "The athletes are going out there and performing and that's all they should do."

Sometimes we are a little bit hypocritical, I mean we all use Chinese products here Christie, who clinched the 1992 Olympic 100m title in Barcelona, is the only Briton to win 100m gold medals at Olympic, World, Commonwealth and European Championships.

He added: "The athletes get one chance in four years to go out and compete. Sometimes we are a little bit hypocritical, I mean we all use Chinese products here."