• Breadcrumb navigation uses Javascript

---

Ethical 'death trap' awaits the unwary

Ethics and the Olympics

by Simon Longstaff

The issue engulfing Phil Coles is not really about corruption, rules or a standard of conduct relative to others.

Instead, it is to do with a growing public yearning for something noble in which to believe and our merciless condemnation of those who are perceived to betray those ideals. It is also about the way in which unthinking custom and practice can lead basically decent people to stumble into an ethical 'death trap'.

I sincerely doubt Mr Coles is a 'bad man'. Indeed, I suspect that he is genuinely shocked to find himself in the eye of the storm.

And that's the root of the problem – if he is to be condemned for anything then it is an apparent inability to consider the real significance of his behaviour when viewed from a broadly ethical perspective. That is probably why he has moved to offer a technical defence rather than admit that there are legitimate grounds for concern.

Fortunately, for all, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is now committed to a process of reform that will see a true marriage of its central core of idealism with practical measures designed to ensure that the Olympic movement merits the trust and regard that it would claim for itself.

When the IOC meets to vote on these reforms in March [1999], then Mr Coles will have an opportunity to declare himself for a future in which the spirit of the movement matters as much as its rules.

At the time of writing, St James Ethics Centre had been retained by the International Olympic Committee to provide advice on the establishment of a new ethics commission.

discuss this article

---