Olympics

The chief of the former Soviet Olympic Committee said he has pledges of financial support from abroad to field a team at the 1992 Games under the Olympic flag, the Tass news agency reported.

Vitaly Smirnov said in an open letter that 11 former Soviet republics have agreed to send a joint team to the Albertville and Barcelona games. The commonwealth members said the five-ringed Olympic flag and the Olympic anthem must be used to honor any of their medal winners instead of the old Soviet flag and anthem.

The team is expected to have members from the new Commonwealth of Independent States, with representatives from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, Smirnov said. The Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have announced they will send separate teams.