WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US women's bridge team will not be suspended for making an anti-Bush statement during an international competition last month, the game's US federation said Tuesday, ending a crisis in the normally sedate world of bridge.
"The US Bridge Federation and the players on the US Venice Cup world championship bridge team... have resolved all issues relating to events that occurred at the closing ceremony of the 2007 World Bridge Championship in Shanghai," the federation said in a statement posted on its website.
"The US Bridge Federation board has dismissed all charges against the players on the Venice Cup team," the statement said.
The women's team, made up of six players and team captain Gail Greenberg, held up a sign that read "We did not vote for Bush" when they collected their gold medals at the world championships in China.
Their action drew applause and approval from the crowd -- and the wrath of the USBF, which threatened them with a year's suspension from competition, which would have deprived many of the women of their source of income.
The statement announcing that the crisis had been resolved was signed by all six players on the victorious women's team, but not by Greenberg, the team captain.
According to Greenberg, she was told by telephone in the early hours of Tuesday morning that the USBF has dismissed all charges against the six women, provided the players do not make similar statements in future.
"I wasn't going to say, at 2:00 am, to put my name to it, and when I got a copy of the agreement, I saw it was also contingent on none of the parties taking legal action in future against the other," she told AFP by phone.
"I have this fear within me that the moment I sign this and the USBF no longer has any fear of being sued, they would be able to write and say what they wanted about us for this 'unpatriotic' thing we did," she said.
"The people who felt strongly about what we did and said things like 'no punishment is too great' aren't going to disappear from the face of the earth," she said.
One of the players who signed the agreement, Russian-born Irina Levitina, said she was relieved the crisis has been resolved.
"All bridge players should be happy this is over," she told AFP.
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