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Argentina Olympic chief condemns Falklands advert

Tuesday 08 May 2012

OLYMPICS: A television advertisement showing an Argentina hockey player doing step-ups on a British war memorial in the Falklands was condemned on Tuesday by the country's Olympic leader.

The Government advert features national hockey captain Fernando Zylberberg training in Port Stanley and ends with the slogan "To compete on English soil, we are training on Argentine soil."

Gerardo Werthein, Argentina's Olympics president, distanced his organisation from the advertisement.

Werthein said: "We strongly believe the Olympic Games are not a platform for politics and we have communicated this position to the International Olympic Committee.

"We, of course, defend an individual's right to freedom of speech but this cannot interfere with the sporting performance of our team at the forthcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games in London.

"Indeed, the Argentinian NOC has made clear that using the Olympic Games to make political gestures of any kind is not acceptable and we will conduct ourselves in the proper spirit of Olympism in all that we do in London and elsewhere."

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