Inaki Ochoa final: "Personally I'll boycott the Beijing Olympics this summer"

ExWeb interview, Inaki Ochoa final: "Personally I'll boycott the Beijing Olympics this summer"

"The family of the executed pays for the bullet, while the state sells the organs. The Tibetan genocide is still unpunished, after 1 million Tibetans were exterminated between 1950 and 1970, and another million are living in exile. And the IOC awards China with the Games?" "In Athens 2004 we were coming down from K2, but this year will be different." Image from K2, click to enlarge. "Jorge Egocheaga and Peter Guggemos, I will miss you this time brothers!! Good luck..." Ochoa (left) in K2 high camp (click to enlarge). "Bob Dylan says that 'behind every beautiful thing, there is some kind of pain'. Himalayas are beautiful, Himalayan climbing is painful. If you are not ready for some kind of suffering, ready to pay a certain price (cash not accepted), ready to accept that it may leave scars on you, then it would probably be wise to stay home." Image of Ochoa's lonely footprints on Shisha Pangma's infamous ridge. (Click to enlarge) Related Links ExWeb interview, Inaki Ochoa encore, part 1: "the summit is where everything goes down in any and every other direction" ExWeb interview, Inaki Ochoa part 2: "At best we might be able to postpone the death of Everest" Ochoa's website Previous story Previous - ExWeb interview with Inaki Ochoa: No fear, no regrets – just stay alive to keep climbing ExWeb interview with Iñaki Ochoa, part 2 final: “Everest, the way it is climbed nowadays, is by far the easiest of the 8,000ers”

10:55 am EDT Mar 13, 2008
(MountEverest.net) "I always loved the Games. In 1988 we watched Seoul in the Yosemite cafeteria."

"During Barcelona 1992, we were walking towards Everest. Atlanta 1996 we were coming down from the Gasherbrums, and in the 2000 Sydney games we were walking towards Ama Dablam."

"In Athens 2004 we were coming down from K2, but this year will be different."

Boycotting the Beijing Olympics

Where climbers have been finding all kinds of excuses for China's behavior, for Inaki there are no two ways about it. "I'll personally boycott the Beijing Olympics this summer," he told ExplorersWeb.

"China executed 1.010 people last year, according to their own figures, or between 7.500 and 8.000, according to Amnesty International," says Inaki. "Even in the best of cases, this represents 65% of executions done in the world per year."

"The family of the executed pays for the bullet, while the state sells the organs. The Tibetan genocide is still unpunished, after 1 million Tibetans were exterminated between 1950 and 1970, and another million are living in exile. And the IOC awards China with the Games?"

"Don’t count on me following any of it in the newspapers or on TV. I'm very sorry I will not see the Ethiopian long distance runners Bekele and Gebresselasie that I admire so much, but it will be easier to sleep if I don’t cooperate as a spectator of that circus." (more)