Did Margaret Thatcher say to the champion of the Moscow Olympics: “I despise you as a prime minister, but as an Englishwoman I was sick for you”?

The Russian media often mentions a phrase with which the Iron Lady allegedly turned to the British athlete, who went to the games in Moscow in a neutral status contrary to the desire of the country's leadership. We checked whether such an attribution is correct.

In November 2023, ex-captain of the Russian national football team Andrei Arshavin in an interview with the newspaper "Sport-Express»Touched the topic of admission of Russian athletes for international competitions without state symbols. He recalled the story of how British athletes boycotted the Olympics in Moscow, but a certain runner nevertheless went to the USSR in a neutral status and won a gold medal. Congratulating him after that, the country's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher seemed to say: “I despise you as a prime minister, but as an Englishwoman I was sick for you. Well done". IN 2021, 2022 And 2023 For years, this episode was mentioned by the Olympic champion, State Duma deputy Svetlana Zhurova. In her version, Tatcher used the verbs “condemn” and “congratulations” and addressed several athletes at once. In the latter case, Zhurova even called one of the Olympians - the athlete of Sebastian Cow. The latter was also mentioned in connection with this quote by the chief editor of the newspaper Sovetsky Sports Nikolai Yaromenko And the commentator Dmitry Guberniev.

At the end of 1979, Soviet troops They launched hostilities on the territory of Afghanistan. This decision negatively affected the international position of the USSR - the country was in partial isolation. In particular, on the initiative of US President Jimmy Carter 62 countries Boycoted The XXII summer Olympic Games held in Moscow next year.

Partially the boycott touched and British national team. Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Margaret Thatcher She said: “It would be wrong if people and countries condemning aggression jointly ensured the Soviet Union the success that it is striving for.” The government abandoned any support of their athletes, and all expenses for themselves I took it British Olympic Association. A serious campaign has unfolded in the country against the trip of the delegation to Moscow, and it was Thatcher with his inner circle, as Showed Sooned by the papers, was the main driving force of this opposition. One of the targets of the pressure of politicians became Sebastian Cow - Subsequently, a deputy of the British parliament and an international sports functionary, and at that time - a world record holder in average distance. Members of the Government of Great Britain were associated with his father and manager and asked to convince his son to refuse to participate in the Moscow Olympics. According to memories Cow, at the gates of their garage in those days, someone painted a giant swastika. Another athlete, Sprinter Alan Wells, told in an interview that received From the office of Thatcher, a letter with a photograph of a dead Afghan girl, hinting at the inadmissibility of participation in the games. Nevertheless, two runners and another 217 British athletes We went to Moscowwhere they won 21 medal. The champions were four athletes (including Sebastian COU and his eternal competitor Steve Ovett) and one swimmer. For them, instead of “God, keep the queen” at the award ceremonies sounded the Olympic anthem, and all the British performed under the Olympic flag.

Zhurova in an interview assertedthat Thatcher uttered the phrase attributed to her, meeting the Olympians upon their return to their homeland. However, judging by the information available today, there was no official meeting. As James Riordan notes in his research “The UK and the 1980 Olympic Games: Victory for Olympism,” the government did not congratulate athletes on the return at all, the champions were not awarded any traditional awards from the state, and the press during the competition was subjected to pressure from above - it was necessary to emphasize the topic of the boycott of the Olympics. About any greeting upon return Not reporting And Dick Palmer, the head of the British delegation in Moscow. Information about champions does not contain and very detailed Archive of the Margaret Tatcher Foundation. Tatcher's idea as a fan is also doubtful - by messages contemporaries (including COU), she never loved sport and did not understand it.

When on December 31, 1980 Thatcher asked In the radio interview why the British Olympians were not included in the list of awarded orders and medals, traditionally published for the New Year, she replied:

We are very strongly and, I think, very correctly advised them not to go to Moscow to the Olympics, which, in our opinion, brought great honor to the Soviet Union while it remains in Afghanistan, holds Afghanistan, tanks, combat helicopters, destroying people who sincerely fight for the very freedom that our Olympians consider to be the most of course. I strongly advised them not to go. I defended and respected their right to decide on my own - in the end, this is democracy. They decided to take advantage of their democratic right to go to a country in which there are no democratic rights. I reacted with respect to their point of view. I did not agree with this, and we could not go against the position that was expressed very decisively ...

COU in its rather detailed Autobiography Circrats the topic of any congratulations from the authorities addressed to his address after the conquest of Olympic gold, as well as mentions no such conversations with Thatcher. In 1982, the athlete made Cavalier The Order of the British Empire, but this award was awarded at the Royal Buckingham Palace. Later COU became Tatcher’s political like -minded person - he joined the Conservative Party, and in 1992 he was elected to the House of Commons, which the “Iron Lady” left that year.

“Verified” did not find any evidence of the distribution of the prime minister in English, in particular, it is not mentioned either in Archive Margaret Thatcher Foundation, nor in authoritative publications. “Verified” also contacted the historian of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation and the co -author of its memoirs Christopher Collins. He expressed confidence that Margaret Thatcher attributed to her, at least publicly, did not say - all such transcripts are presented on the fund's website. In addition, Collins does not believe that Thatcher met with the British Olympians after they returned from Moscow.

In Russian, judging by the sources on the network, the quote appeared many years after the Moscow Olympics - the editor -in -chief of the Soviet Sports Nikolai Yaromenko in 2017 was One of the first (if not the first) who told her in an established formulation. In an interview with “verified”, Yaromenko said that he heard this story in 2016 during the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro personally from Sebastian Cow, at that time the head of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). It was COU who played key role In the removal of Russian athletes from the Olympic Games, and the story of Thatcher was used in Russia as a kind of reproach for a sports functioner. At the time of publication of this analysis, “verified” failed to get a comment from the COU itself. Nevertheless, the information provided by Nikolai Yaromenko does not allow us to consider this quote both unambiguously genuine and unambiguously invented.

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