IOC rejects Spain call for air crash mourning

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Spanish request to commemorate the 153 people killed in an air crash has been rejected by Olympic officials, the country's Olympic committee said on Thursday.

Despite the International Olympic Committee's refusal to allow the Spanish to mark Wednesday's disaster at Madrid airport, gold medal winning sailors Fernando Echavarri and Anton Paz of Spain took to the podium wearing black armbands.

The Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) said they wanted Spanish athletes to compete wearing black armbands and for Spanish flags to be flown at half mast.

"There have been similar requests from other countries before," COE President Alejandro Blanco told Spanish radio station Cadena Ser.

"America wanted it for a coach who was killed, Zambia because their president died and then the cruelest thing which was Georgia and Russia.

"In all three cases the IOC has refused the requests to fly the flags at half mast. We explained our case and debated it, but the decision is irrevocable."

SHOW RESPECT

Blanco was speaking during an act of remembrance for the victims at the "Casa de Espana" in Beijing.

The IOC said such public displays of grief could affect the level playing field.

"With 204 countries and territories, many occasions arise during the Olympic Games where athletes understandably would like to a make a public show of respect," the IOC said in a statement.

"The IOC is sympathetic to such needs and requests but maintains the position that public displays and demonstrations should be discouraged within Olympic venues in order to enable a level playing field for all.

"We do encourage National Olympic Committees and their teams in these situations -- such as the recent tragic aviation accident in Spain -- to find ways for athletes to cope with their grief."

Echavarri and Paz won gold medals in the Tornado class.

"I do not know anything about it," Paz said when asked about the IOC's request not to.

"Maybe if we knew it was not permitted I might not have done it. Someone (officials in Qingdao) could have told us to take them off but no one said anything."