Sebastian Coe calls political boycott of Winter Olympics ‘meaningless’

• The US, UK and others will not send officials to Beijing
• China's human rights record is under intense scrutiny

Sebastian Coe has doubled down on his insistence that boycotting the Beijing Winter Olympics over China's human rights record and treatment of the tennis star Peng Shuai would be a mistake, and says that dialogue and relationships are a better way of flicking the dial" politically and socially.

In his strongest intervention yet, the head of World Athletics and senior IOC member said that sporting boycotts were historically illiterate and intellectually dishonest" and described the political boycott announced by the US, UK and other western countries as frankly meaningless".