Saudi Arabia: "Our donkeys will be in the Olympics, not our women.'

Get ready to see donkeys in white gowns and red-checkered scarfs at the Olympics. Ugh. What I wouldn't give for a TV screen that warned people well in advance of upcoming vomit-inducing scenes which are more yucky than those we are normally warned about.

The board discussed the situation at length during a meeting in Quebec on Thursday that was their last chance to impose sanctions on the Middle East country but it broke without any progress having been made.

The IOC is now hoping it will be able persuade the Saudis to change their attitude on the issues, with a source saying “we are still optimistic the country will send female athletes to London”.

However, their approach is bound to provoke an angry reaction from international human rights groups.

The meeting on Thursday was supposed to represent the final deadline for Saudi Arabia to agree to women being part of their London delegation or they would be in breach of the IOC’s charter.

This was to be the first Olympic Games to have women in every national delegation participating but the Saudis have consistently resisted calls to send a female delegation.

IOC president Jacques Rogge, in the final stages of his 12-year presidential term, wanted to send a clear statement about the role of women at the Games, promoting female boxing on the London 2012 programme.

But that ambition hit a snag earlier this year when the Saudi Olympic Committee president Prince Nawaf bin Faisal said he was “not endorsing” female participation in London as part of the country’s official delegation.....