Sport: Chinese Checkers

For the last seven years,”the Red Chinese have applied every conceivable pressure to force the International Olympic Committee to recognize them as the only representatives of China. They boycotted sessions attended by Nationalist China representatives, withdrew their athletes from events in which Nationalists were entered, finally stalked out of the I.O.C. itself. Soviet Russia and other Communist satellites added their weight. Last week, at the annual meeting in Munich, I.O.C. delegates caved in, voted to expel the Nationalists as the first step toward accepting Red China as “the representative of China.” If the Nationalists wanted to reapply as representatives of Formosa, the I.O.C. indicated, they would be accepted. Snapped the U.S. State Department: “Totally inconsistent with [the Olympics’] nonpolitical tradition.”

When it came to choosing sites for the 1964 Olympics, the I.O.C. had much less trouble. Tokyo won the summer games with 34 of the 58 votes. Innsbruck, Austria, which barely lost to Squaw Valley as host for the 1960 winter games, was an even easier winner, with 49 votes in favor.