Writing in a column published in The Times today, Moynihan said: "To use the Olympics as a one-off gesture of condemnation serves no useful purpose.

 

"Athletes should neither be asked nor expected to solve a problem to which the Governments of the world have yet to find an answer.

 

"So my deep-rooted conviction remains that athletes should compete in Beijing and I will fight for that right on their behalf. In sport we can set the example of engaging, not isolating.

 

"The athletes should look up at the Olympic flame and be proud that, through its strength, there is a real chance for change in the world's most populous country.

 

"That flame is undoubtedly shining into the recesses of China."

 

Along with Sebastian Coe, now the chairman of London 2012, Moynihan defied Margaret Thatcher in 1980 when he went to the Moscow Olympics when the British Government were calling for a boycott over the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.

 

He wrote: "I was called into the Foreign Office to be carpeted by Douglas Hurd; we received a daily postbag of diatribes; and a senior Tory party official told me that any aspirations of a political career might as well be forgotten if I set foot in Moscow.

 

"In 1980 and in 1984 at Los Angeles, the Cold War was played out on the Olympic stage - but to little effect.

 

"The Soviet Union was not persuaded to change its policies.

 

"Despite many countries boycotting the Games, it would be another nine years before the last Russian troops retreated from Afghanistan.

 

"The case at the time was clear to my team-mates and me.

 

"Despite the horrors of the Soviet invasion, it was wrong for the Government to ask sportsmen and women to make the sole sacrifice.

 

"Trade continued between the Soviet Union and the West; diplomatic relations stayed intact; cultural exchanges were unaffected; and anyone could walk down Piccadilly and buy a ticket on Aeroflot and spend their summer holiday in Leningrad.

 

"Only the athletes were being targeted and only the athletes would suffer."

 

function pictureGalleryPopup(pubUrl,articleId) { var newWin = window.open(pubUrl 'template/2.0-0/element/pictureGalleryPopup.jsp?id=' articleId '&&offset=0&§ionName=ColumnistsGuestContributors','mywindow','menubar=0,resizable=0,width=615,height=655'); } Coe won the gold medal in the 1500 metres in Moscow while Moynihan was the cox for the men's eight who claimed the silver medals.

 

Moynihan wrote in The Times: "I would argue that the high media profile of the Olympics will ensure that the spotlight of international attention shines brightly on Beijing and this spotlight, in time, will bring dividends; that sport and the Olympics are a force for good in themselves; that engagement is preferable to isolation; that humiliating China is unlikely to achieve anything and would ultimately prove counterproductive.

 

"By raising awareness of the situation in China, the Games are already exerting pressure for change.

 

"It is precisely because the Chinese have invested so much in the hosting of the Olympic Games that we have any leverage at all on human rights.

 

"That's part of the reason why Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Human Rights in China have not called for a boycott."

 

The full article can be read at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article3599043.ece.