USOC chair would amend charter

Published Oct. 1, 2013 1:00 a.m. ET

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America's newest member of the International Olympic Committee would vote to amend the Olympic charter to list sexual orientation as a form of discrimination.

U.S. Olympic Committee chairman Larry Probst, voted onto the IOC last month, said Tuesday that such an amendment is one of the few avenues available to the USOC as it tries to send a message to Russia, which recently passed an anti-gay law, less than a year before it hosts the Winter Olympics.

The sixth item in the charter's ''Fundamental Principles of Olympism'' says ''any form of discrimination ... on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.'' It does not specifically mention sexual orientation.

Probst reiterated that a boycott of the Sochi Olympics is not an option.