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France opposes games boycott over anti-gay law

France's sports minister has said it would be wrong to boycott the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia over Moscow's adoption of a contentious law that bans gay "propaganda" for minors.

Published: 13 August 2013 08:39 CEST
France opposes games boycott over anti-gay law
Russia's anti-gay law has provoked a string of protests and calls to boycott the Winter Olympics. Photo: Robin Utrecht/AFP

France's sports minister on Monday told her Russian counterpart that Paris was "worried" by the adoption of a law banning gay "propaganda" for minors that risks overshadowing the 2014 winter Olympic Games in Sochi.

French Sports Minister Valerie Fourneyron told AFP that she said at a meeting with Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko in Moscow that France was "clearly opposed to all discrimination based on sexual orientation".

"I was able to tell my Russian counterpart that France was worried by the adoption and implementation of the law… which challenges the freedom of expression of any person, whether they are LGBT or not, who wants to speak out on this subject," she told AFP by telephone.

The hugely controversial law has sparked calls for a boycott of the games but Fourneyron indicated that France agreed with US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron that a boycott would not be appropriate.

"We think that it is much more our duty to continue to try and alert the Russian authorities" to the problems created by the law, she added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin in June signed into law legislation that punishes the dissemination of information about homosexuality to minors but which activists say can be used for a broad crackdown against gays.

The Russian authorities have said that all athletes will be free and safe to compete at the Sochi Games regardless of their sexual orientation but must obey Russian law.

Foreigners found guilty of violating the law can not only be fined up to 5,000 rubles (€114, $156) but face administrative arrest of up to 15 days and eventual deportation.

The head of Russia's Olympic Committee Alexander Zhukov on Monday reaffirmed the official line that while all athletes were welcome in Sochi they would have to obey the controversial law.

"We will do everything to make sure that all our guests feel comfortable and safe," Russian news agencies quoted Zhukov as saying.

"If a person does not announce his opinions (about homosexuality) in the presence of children then no measures will be used against him – citizens of a non-traditional sexual orientation will be able to take part without any problem in the competitions or any other events," he added.

The interior ministry meanwhile issued a statement insisting that there would be no discrimination at the Games, saying such allegations were aimed at "undermining trust" in the event.

The propaganda law is not te only example of how France's stance on gay rights differs markedly from that of Putin's Russia.

Earlier this year, following France's vote to legalize gay marriage, Russian lawmakers passed a bill which placed tough restrictions on adoption to countries where same-sex marriages are legal.

Same-sex marriages are currently legal in 14 countries, including Canada, Belgium, Spain, Norway and Sweden, with France being the latest addition to the list.

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SPORT

The French Paralympic star who survived war, grief and mutilation

The Paralympics is full of stories of disabled athletes overcoming the odds to achieve sporting greatness but few bear the trauma of Jean-Baptiste Alaize.

Published: 28 August 2020 10:06 CEST
The French Paralympic star who survived war, grief and mutilation
Jean-Baptiste Alaize training in Antibes. All photos: AFP

The 29-year-old French sprinter and long-jumper, who features in Netflix documentary Rising Phoenix released on Wednesday, was just three years old when he lost his right leg.

Not by accident or illness but by the brutal hack of a machete.

A child caught up in the civil war in Burundi in October 1994, he watched as his mother was beheaded.

“For years, every time I closed my eyes, I had flashes. I saw my mother being executed in front of me,” he tells AFP after a training session in Antibes, running his finger across his throat.

The killers left the Tutsi boy for dead. Alaize carries a large scar on his back but he was also slashed across the neck, right arm and right leg by his Hutu neighbours.

He woke up in hospital several days later, alive but missing the lower part of his right leg which had had to be amputated.

“With my mother, we ran, we ran, but we didn't manage to run far,” he says. “We were executed 40 metres from the house.”

A decade later, after coming to France in 1998 and being adopted by a French family, he joined the athletics club in Drôme.

Fitted with a prosthetic limb, he discovered that running gave him his first night without a nightmare since the attack.

“From my first steps on the track, I had the impression that I had to run as long as possible, so as not to be caught,” says Alaize who now lives in Miami.

“I remember like it was yesterday my first night after this session, it was… wow! I had cleared my mind. I was free.

“My energy, my hatred, were focussed on the track. I understood that sport could be my therapy.”

He tried horseback riding and enjoyed it, reaching level six, out of seven, until he pulled the plug.

“It was my horse that let off steam and not me,” he laughs.

The psychologist did not work out either.

“She made me make circles and squares. After a few sessions I told her that I wanted to change my method.”

However he did click with his school physical education teacher, who directed him to athletics after he had anchored his team to a spectacular “comeback” win in a 4×100 metre relay.

His classmates had no idea he was an amputee. He had hidden it to avoid teasing and more racial abuse.

“I was called 'bamboula', dirty negro, the monkey. It was hard.”

Fortunately, the Alaize family, who adopted him after he had spent five years in a Bujumbura orphanage where his father had abandoned him, gave Jean-Baptiste a base and a home that he had not had for years.

“When I arrived here I didn't know it was possible,” he said.

“I had lost that side, to be loved. I still can't understand how racism can set in, when I see my parents who are white, and I am a black child… they loved me like a child.”

His parents, Robert and Daniele, had already adopted a Hutu child from Rwanda, renamed Julien.

John-Baptist was originally called Mugisha. It means “the lucky child” which is not quite how things worked out. His new family name, though, suits him better. Alaize is a pun in French for 'a l'aise' – at ease.

The French disabled sports federation spotted the prodigy, and he began collecting his first trophies, including four junior world titles at long jump, three of them with world records.

“It was starting to change my life and I was happy to represent France,” he says.

He went to the Paralympic Games in London (2012) and Rio (2016), where he finished fifth in the long jump, just five centimetres short of the bronze medal.

Now armed with his state-of-the-art prosthesis, which he nicknamed Bugatti, he was dreaming of taking a step up at Tokyo 2020 and going home to France with a medal but the postponement of the Games has decimated his sponsorships.

“I'm still looking to compete at Tokyo 2021 or 2022 and Paris 2024,” he says.

“If I don't succeed, I will have to turn the page which would be sad.”

He hopes that Rising Phoenix will raise his profile and maybe attract some sponsors.

The documentary's producer Ian Bonhote is in no doubt that Alaize's star is rising.

“He bursts through the screen. His story will resonate,” he says.

“The nine athletes in our documentary all have different backgrounds, but none survived what Jean-Baptiste suffered. His disability was imposed on him in such a savage and violent way.”

Rising Pheonix is available now to view on Netflix.

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