Sport: Boycott Blues

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Ironically, the boycott comes at a time when South Africa has begun to make progress toward desegregating its sports. Blacks are still excluded from many teams and facilities. Yet an investigative group from the British Sports Council concluded that fencing, karate, judo and track and field in South Africa are so integrated that participants should be allowed to compete internationally. The same has been said of soccer, and a French team of inquiry felt likewise about boxing. Though South Africa's national pastime, rugby, remains aggressively white, the Springboks squad now has one mulatto player. However admirable the blacklist may be, many South Africans fear that it threatens to undo this progress. Warns the pro-government Johannesburg Citizen: "There will be a tendency to say 'To hell with it all, we might as well forget about mixed sport and international contacts and play the game as we wish.' " ∎