hankyoreh

Win Htet Oo, a 26-year-old swimmer on Myanmar’s national team, poses for a picture while holding a sign that reads “help Myanmar.” (provided by Win Htet Oo)

The Olympics are the world’s biggest sporting event, and for athletes, just having a chance to compete is a huge honor. But recently, an athlete turned down his chance to compete in the Tokyo Olympics.

Win Htet Oo, a 26-year-old swimmer on Myanmar’s national team, said he refused to “march in the parade of nations under a flag steeped in my people’s blood,” even though that means he won’t get to stand “tall among the world’s greatest athletes in equal terms.”

In a statement posted to his social media accounts on April 10, Win Htet Oo announced that he would be boycotting the Tokyo Olympics this July. The swimmer said accepting the Myanmar Olympic Committee (MOC), given its connections with the military junta that now controls Myanmar, would be “to recognize the legitimacy of a murderous regime.”

Through Tuesday, more than 600 civilians have reportedly died at the hands of the military junta since it carried out a coup d’état on Feb. 1.

There have been several examples of countries boycotting the Olympics because of political issues, but it’s extremely rare for an individual athlete to do so. That shows how hard it is for athletes to give up a shot at Olympic glory.

That’s especially true for Win Htet Oo, who became the first Burmese swimmer to qualify for the Olympics in 2019, following two years of grueling training in Melbourne, Australia.

Win Htet Oo, who is currently living in Melbourne, told the Hankyoreh in an email interview Friday that he is opposed to Myanmar participating in the Olympics because of his desire to uphold Olympic values.

The decision to boycott the Olympics didn’t come easy for this swimmer, who said that “the Olympics is every athlete’s dream.”

“Millions of Myanmar who once believed they could one day be free to achieve great things [. . .] now face a dark future. I stand in solidarity with them and I will happily give up my dream until Myanmar people can dream,” the swimmer said.

Win Htet Oo stressed that taking part in the Olympics while Myanmar is in its present situation would betray the values of the Olympics and brought up the death of Ma Kyal Sin, a 19-year-old taekwondo athlete who was fatally shot by junta soldiers.

“How can the Myanmar Olympic Committee [given its alignment with the junta] possibly use sport to teach the Olympic values when soldiers kill young people like Ma Kyal Sin who was an athlete that perfectly embodied [those values]?”

After taking control of the country through a coup, Myanmar’s junta replaced the chair of the MOC.

“It will be a tragic day for the world when we allow an Olympic committee that is now tied to a military that has committed crimes against humanity to participate in the Olympic Games when we are ostensibly supposed to be celebrating our humanity,” Win Htet Oo said.

The International Olympic Committee’s current stance is that politics should be kept out of the Olympics. But Win Htet Oo is concerned that the junta would exploit Myanmar’s participation in the Tokyo Olympics for political propaganda purposes.

“[The Myanmar] military is accused of genocide by many international institutions. The Olympics will be a way for [the junta] to tell the world that everything is fine in Myanmar when in fact it is not,” Win Htet Oo said.

For the swimmer, South Korea is a model of democratization that Myanmar ought to imitate.

“We know South Koreans have struggled against militarism and have triumphed and [have] prospered since South Koreans won their freedom. We are also on our way to freedom. We hope South Koreans can continue to support [the] Myanmar people,” he said.

By Lee Jun-hee, staff reporter

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