The International Olympic Committee has always been political, from the sheikhs and royals in its membership to a seat at the United Nations to pushing for peace talks between the Koreas. But Russia's invasion of Ukraine three weeks ago exposed its irreconcilable claims of “political neutrality.”
The IOC’s politics were evident at Hitler’s 1936 Olympics. During the Cold War, the Games were a stage for conflict , violence and boycotts . To this day, the IOC has partnered with authoritarian states like China and Russia, beginning with the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, through the doping-scarred Sochi Games to the just-closed Beijing Winter Olympics.
Following the invasion of Ukraine — acting because of a breach of the so-called Olympic Truce and not because of the war itself — the IOC recommended that sports federations and event organizers “not invite or allow” Russian or Belarusian athletes to participate. “Failure to act swiftly against Russia and Belarus will continue to erode the Olympic brand," Koehler said, "and when that brand erodes the people that are most affected are the athletes — the ones that fill the stadium and draw sponsors and broadcasters."
A day before the Winter Olympics opened last month, Bach said the position of the IOC must be “political neutrality.” He said to do otherwise would put “the Games at risk.” Three weeks later, after Bach stood next to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the opening ceremony, Russia invaded Ukraine.KEY TO SUCCESS
Jules Boykoff, a political science professor at Pacific University and a critic of the IOC, suggested that instead of athletes marching under national flags, they should enter under sports disciplines — skaters together, basketball players in a group, gymnasts paired up. “Athletes might get to know each other more with that kind of mingling,” said Boykoff, author of “Power Games: A Political History of the Olympics.
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