Evans backs Team Tibet's 2012 push

theage.com.au[Monday, August 25, 2008]

Rupert Guinness

CADEL EVANS will back a planned bid by Team Tibet to seek an invitation to compete at the 2012 London Olympics after missing out on the Beijing Games that ended yesterday.

Full support … Cadel Evans with Team Tibet members.

The Australian cyclist and two-times Tour de France runner-up who competed in the road race and time trial in Beijing met up with exiled Team Tibet athletes in Zurich on Friday.

"Now I know them I hope we stay in contact. It is one thing to read about them and to write to them, but to go and meet them in person is something else," Evans said.

"If something happens and they suddenly need a sports person from another sport or from another culture, I would certainly try to be as available as I possibly could for them."

Team Tibet was formed in July last year and includes a sprinter, a 10,000-metres runner, a marathon runner, a shot putter, a table tennis player and a cyclist, all of whom are Tibetan refugees.

Evans and his wife Chiara Passerini were briefed about the team's plans at their meeting.

They were also told of the athletes' difficulties in contacting family and friends in China as telephone calls had been intercepted, and the refugees warned of Chinese spies in Australia observing comment and events relating to Tibet.

Evans said for now Team Tibet is "more of a political organisation", but that team members are still determined to compete at the London Games in 2012.

The International Olympic Committee denied the Tibetan National Olympic Committee its request for an invitation to Beijing last December, saying that Tibet was a part of China.

"For London they want to focus more on the sport side of things, to go there and actually be a part of the sport," Evans said. "They don't see any reason why they can't, especially [with the Games now] not being involved with China."

Evans and his wife support the Free Tibet movement and sponsor a Tibetan child. Their meeting with Team Tibet members has increased their awareness on the issue.

"The main reason they formed Team Tibet was as a bit of motivation for the refugees around the world," Evans said.

"It was great to meet them, get to know them and see what they are about. They were happy to have someone come from another sport, an outsider to get to know them a bit."