PARIS, Dec 5: The only black skier at the 1992 and 1994 Olympics has sent an open letter to IOC president Jacques Rogge denouncing the qualification standards for next year’s winter Games at Salt Lake City.

Senegalese skier Lamine Gueye, who first took part in the Olympics in Sarajevo in 1984 and is now the head — and only member — of the Senegalese Skiing Federation, claimed Afircan nations had effectively been excluded from the winter Games.

“Soon there will be only white people at the Winter Games and they should remove the black ring from the Olympic flag,” Gueye told Reuters.

“I sent that letter to the International Olympic Committee to denounce a disaster.

“For alpine skiing, I compared the qualification rules now to those used for the 1992 Olympics. The conclusions are a scandal.

“Because of the new rules, in the ten years from 1992 and 2002, 71 racers have disappeared in giant slaloms and 62 in slaloms.

“In ten years, 23 nations have disappeared in giant slaloms and 16 in slaloms.”—Reuters