Lithuanian racists soil the Olympic spirit

In Olympic terms, it was about as sickening as it gets. During yesterday’s basketball match between Nigeria and Lithuania, a large section of the Lithuanian fans engaged in a level of racism not seen for a very long time here in the UK.

Whenever a Nigerian player touched the ball a very large number of Lithuanian fans began whistling, booing, mimicking red Indians chants, mimicking male masturbation, and capped it all off with despicable Nazi salutes. It was sickening as it was relentless, and at times fearful of what might occur.

My seven year old son was there with me with his grandfather on what was supposed to be a sporting highlight of his young life. Instead he was asking more questions than I could answer.

Of course I made an official complaint, and to be fair to the officials they moved quickly, bringing in the police to try and calm the situation down.

My family and I were moved away from the Lithuanian aggression to a place where we could better enjoy the game. The ugliness out of site could still be clearly heard.

But for those left around the Nazi supporting Lithuanians and for the Nigerian players who were continually booed this was a very sad day for the Olympic movement.

This is the second incident in as many days of Lithuanian Nazi sympathizers at Basketball games. On Sunday night a Lithuanian thug was caught on camera giving a Nazi salute to two Black officials.

The British Olympic authorities must review the footage of what occurred and take appropriate action against those fans and the team.

Failure to take action could see an explosive situation when the Lithuanians basketball team play the USA at the end of week.

Simon Woolley