Italian athletes gearing up to take part at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics are cutting off locks of their hair to show their solidarity with Tibet's fight for independence from China.
Among those who have already picked up the scissors for the 'A Wisp for Tibet' campaign is Olympic champion canoer Antonio Rossi, who will carry the Italian flag at the opening ceremony.
On a video posted on YouTube, Rossi is also shown cutting a lock of armpit hair from bald teammate Luca Piemonte, while another national kayaker, Alice Fagioli, chops off two centimetres from her ponytail.
''We'll send all the locks collected to the Chinese consulate,'' said Wisp campaign organiser Cinzia Pedrizzetti. ''It's an act that reminds people of the Tibetan monks, who shave their heads completely to show that they have abandoned material things,'' she added.
''We wanted to involve the athletes to show that the sporting world supports peace, and that it's not true that nobody is taking notice of the situation in Tibet''.
But Rossi was keen to point out that his participation in the campaign was ''not political'', explaining that it was a means of supporting Tibet without attacking China.
''Before and after the Olympics it's right to talk about these issues, but during the Games athletes must concentrate on athletics,'' he said.
''It's not fair to weigh them down with political issues that should be resolved by politicians''.
Rossi, 39, has already taken part in four Olympic Games winning a total of five medals, three of them gold, while in the kayak world championships he has won three gold medals, three silvers and one bronze medal.
China's crackdown in March on a Buddhist-monk-led uprising in Tibet, which China invaded in 1950, has sparked international calls for a boycott of this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Thursday that the Olympics are ''a great sporting event'' that the government did not want to ''politicise''.
