tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca-fr/topics/international-olympic-committee-ioc-104867/articlesInternational Olympic Committee (IOC) – La Conversation2023-12-18T22:48:17Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2197962023-12-18T22:48:17Z2023-12-18T22:48:17Z‘Politically neutral’ Russian athletes can now enter the Olympics – but don’t expect many to compete<p>Earlier this month, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced Russian and Belarussian athletes <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/strict-eligibility-conditions-in-place-as-ioc-eb-approves-individual-neutral-athletes-ains-for-the-olympic-games-paris-2024">will be able to compete</a> in the 2024 Paris Olympics if they are politically neutral. The decision from the committee’s executive board reversed an earlier ban. </p>
<p>The IOC made this change even though the Russian National Olympic Committee remains suspended from competition for its <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-executive-board-suspends-russian-olympic-committee-with-immediate-effect">violation</a> of “the territorial integrity of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine”. For its part, Russia <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/12/09/1218406353/russian-belarus-athletes-ioc-2024-olympic-games">rejects</a> the decision.</p>
<p>The committee’s decision has enraged Western leaders, particularly those in Ukraine. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1142889/kyiv-says-ioc-encouraging-war-ukraine">accused</a> the committee of effectively giving “[…] Russia the green light to weaponize the Olympics”.</p>
<p>While it might seem like a good idea not to hold individual athletes responsible for the decisions of governments, the decision is more complicated that it appears.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/refugee-team-offers-a-way-for-russian-and-belarusian-dissidents-to-compete-at-the-paris-olympics-202427">Refugee team offers a way for Russian and Belarusian dissidents to compete at the Paris Olympics</a>
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<h2>Athletes caught in the middle</h2>
<p>More than 30 Western nations, including Australia, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/dec/08/athletes-who-have-not-supported-ukraine-war-to-compete-at-paris-2024">have previously called for</a> a complete ban on Russian participation in the Games. </p>
<p>IOC President Thomas Bach <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67711799">defended his decision</a> by arguing “individual athletes cannot be punished for the acts of their governments”. </p>
<p>The ruling came with <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/strict-eligibility-conditions-in-place-as-ioc-eb-approves-individual-neutral-athletes-ains-for-the-olympic-games-paris-2024">strict conditions</a>. Athletes must not be open supporters of the Russian invasion and they cannot be affiliated with Russian or Belarussian military or security services.</p>
<p>They cannot compete under their home country’s flag, or with national emblems or anthems.</p>
<p>The committee estimates that only 11 athletes – six Russians and five Belarussians – will qualify under these regulations.</p>
<p>The committee has been <a href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/64604212">slowly working towards this policy</a> since the spring of 2023. </p>
<p>The call may seem reasonable. After all, why should Russian and Belarussian athletes, especially those not supportive of the invasion, suffer from the actions of their government?</p>
<p>But it’s not quite that cut and dry.</p>
<h2>Different, inconsistent approaches</h2>
<p>The rule change seems inconsistent. As the committee continues to ban the participation of Russian teams, not all neutral Russian and Belarussian athletes will be able to participate. </p>
<p>Sporting federations can also continue to ban Russian and Belarussian athletes from competition and therefore qualification for the Games. World Athletics President <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/world-athletics-defies-ioc-maintains-113900349.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAK8RYILhtTwcf8F72FRd3jOng0u7BeehrhgaTPszxpb7HT9ufXfwDnRCQSfZc9McQRQCjCxxmdsURC3tDSmswrm1A60uNAT8dg">Seb Coe confirmed</a> that the organisation will continue to ban them. </p>
<p>By contrast, World Taekwondo and World Judo have both allowed Russian and Belarussian athletes to <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/media/q-a-on-solidarity-with-ukraine-sanctions-against-russia-and-belarus-and-the-status-of-athletes-from-these-countries">compete in qualification</a>.</p>
<p>In September, the International Paralympic Committee also decided neutral athletes <a href="https://www.paralympic.org/news/ipc-general-assembly-partially-suspends-npc-russia">can compete</a>.</p>
<h2>What can Ukraine’s allies do?</h2>
<p>With the Paris 2024 games only seven months away, the IOC’s decision seems final. But frustrated Western leaders have other options. </p>
<p>In the past year, Western officials have <a href="https://www.euronews.com/2023/03/30/paris-olympics-if-russian-athletes-are-cleared-to-compete-will-a-boycott-threat-have-any-e#:%7E:text=Ukraine%20has%20threatened%20to%20boycott,the%202024%20Paris%20Olympic%20Games.">threatened to boycott</a> the Olympics if Russian and Belarussian athletes competed. </p>
<p>There is a long history of politically motivated Olympic boycotts and threatened boycotts. In 1980, the United States and 66 other countries boycotted the Moscow games <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/12/08/history-olympic-games-boycotts/">in response to the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan</a>. Eight other countries, including Australia, competed under an Olympic flag to signal their opposition to the invasion. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-a-year-of-sporting-mega-events-the-brisbane-olympics-can-learn-a-lot-from-the-ones-that-fail-their-host-cities-187838">In a year of sporting mega-events, the Brisbane Olympics can learn a lot from the ones that fail their host cities</a>
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<p>In 1984, in response, the Soviet Union and its allies boycotted the summer Olympics in Los Angeles. </p>
<p>A boycott of the Paris Olympics would be devastating to the organisers, but it remains very unlikely. France is a Western nation and a strong supporter of Ukraine. President Emmanuel Macron recently <a href="https://www.barrons.com/news/eu-should-give-ukraine-full-and-enduring-support-macron-65f3b496?refsec=topics_afp-news">encouraged the European Union</a> to continue supporting the beleaguered nation.</p>
<p>As a more palatable approach, Western leaders could ban athletes from Russia and Belarus from competing in international athletic competitions in Western Europe in the run-up to the games. This would likely make it impossible for any athletes from those countries to qualify for spots in Paris. </p>
<p>As historian Heather Dichter <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/190/monograph/chapter/3034403">has shown</a>, travel bans have a long history in the Olympics. </p>
<p>In the 1960s, there was a <a href="https://members.shafr.org/assets/docs/Passport/2022/September-2022/passport-09-2022-dichter.pdf">NATO-wide ban on East German athletes</a> travelling to compete in events in Western European countries. This effectively barred them from participation in several major sporting competitions and from qualifying for the Olympics. </p>
<p>Some Western leaders have already attempted to use this strategy against Russian and Belarussian athletes. Polish President Andrzej Duda <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/media/q-a-on-solidarity-with-ukraine-sanctions-against-russia-and-belarus-and-the-status-of-athletes-from-these-countries">refused to issue visas</a> to Russian and Belarussian fencers for a qualification competition in June. The International Fencing Federation moved the matches to Bulgaria where the neutral athletes could compete. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gender-inequality-will-still-be-an-issue-at-the-paris-2024-olympics-despite-the-games-being-gender-balanced-210883">Gender inequality will still be an issue at the Paris 2024 Olympics — despite the Games being gender-balanced</a>
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<p>As a more drastic step, French officials could simply ban all Russian and Belarussian athletes from travelling to Paris during the Olympics. The committee would likely have no recourse at this late date.</p>
<p>It would would align with the approach of some other EU member nations that <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20230523-russian-tourists-seek-new-destinations-as-europe-shuts-its-doors-over-ukraine-war">ban Russian tourism and travel</a>. </p>
<p>However, the French National Olympic Committee would likely oppose such a move. They might worry that it threatens the viability of their likely future <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/the-french-alps-and-salt-lake-city-utah-invited-into-respective-targeted-dialogues-to-host-the-olympic-and-paralympic-winter-games-2030-and-2034">2030 Winter Olympic Games</a>.</p>
<p>At a time when so much international attention has turned to the Israel/Hamas war, will leaders, however frustrated, do anything in response?</p>
<p>Only time will tell, but one thing’s for sure: whatever happens will be carefully calculated to account for the vast array of geopolitical moving parts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219796/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keith Rathbone does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The International Olympic Committee has ruled politically-neutral individual athletes are eligible, but some nations aren’t happy about it.Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2159912023-10-24T19:19:05Z2023-10-24T19:19:05ZCricket? Lacrosse? Netball? The new sports that might make it to the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games<p>At the International Olympic Committee’s recent session in Mumbai, India it <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1141782/ioc-session-la-28-sports-confirmed">officially ratified</a> five sports being added to the existing 28 core sports for the 2028 Los Angeles summer games.</p>
<p>Of these five, several will be making their first-ever appearance, namely squash and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_football">flag football</a>, while others have had a long gap between inclusion – lacrosse in 1904 and 1908, cricket in 1900 and baseball/softball coming back in after a gap since the Tokyo 2021 games.</p>
<p>Until 1992, the IOC allowed sports to be added to the Olympic Games by the local organising committee as “demonstration events”. Under this arrangement, the 1956 Melbourne games included baseball and Australian Rules football. Over the years, a large number of other host cities trialled a variety of sports, but only a few stayed in the games.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/breakdancing-in-the-olympics-the-games-have-a-long-history-of-taking-chances-from-pesapallo-yes-its-a-sport-to-kite-flying-151750">Breakdancing in the Olympics? The Games have a long history of taking chances, from pesapallo (yes, it's a sport) to kite flying</a>
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<p>Nowadays, the <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/olympic-agenda-2020-plus-5">Olympic Agenda 2020 + 5</a> serves as a major IOC policy document about how the games should operate. A recent change sees the local organising committee recommending what sports should be added to their particular games. </p>
<p>Faced with an IOC guideline to cap the summer games at approximately 10,500 athletes and to stay within a 19-day schedule, means there are limitations to new sports being added. Besides the <a href="https://www.paris2024.org/en/olympic-sports/">28 core sports</a> guaranteed inclusion in the summer olympics (although these core sports can be altered by the IOC), what are the criteria used for any new additions?</p>
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<p><strong>Inspiring the next generation</strong>: The inclusion of new sports in the Olympics is a strategic move to attract younger athletes who may not be involved in traditional Olympic sports.</p>
<p><strong>Innovation and adaptation</strong>: Many of the recently added sports represent new and innovative approaches to competition and showcase the ability of the games to adapt to the changing times.</p>
<p><strong>Diversity</strong>: The inclusion of different sports is a way of embracing cultural diversity and promoting global reach to regions that may not have traditionally been strongly represented at the Olympics. For example, it is expected that by adding cricket, the sub-continent, with its huge population base including India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, will develop an enhanced interest in the olympics.</p>
<p><strong>Popularity and integrity</strong>: How popular is the sport worldwide? Is it played in a number of countries and does it have a significant number of participants? Is the respective world sporting federation “squeaky clean” and does it have strong and effective leadership? Most importantly, is it devoid of sport integrity issues (such as significant doping and governance faults)?</p>
<p><strong>Screen dream</strong>: Is the sport going to be exciting to watch for television viewers? Since broadcasting rights is the major source of revenue for the games, the IOC wants to cater to the broadcasters’ and audience’s preferences.</p>
<p><strong>Corporate cash</strong>: New sports in the olympics tend to attract corporate interest and sponsorship from new sources. This helps to secure the financial stability of the games and aligns with the IOC’s wish to diversify its revenue streams.</p>
<p><strong>Leaving a legacy</strong>: Since facility legacy has become an extremely important criterion, will any newly built facilities be useful post-games? There is a very strong push to eliminate costly facilities that later become “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-07/what-japan-learned-from-olympic-white-elephants/100329488">white elephants</a>” – a strong criticism of the 2004 Athens Olympics.</p>
<p><strong>Gender equality</strong>: There has been a concerted effort by the IOC to ensure a 50-50 gender ratio. The recent addition of mixed “co-ed” events seen in many winter sports has the potential to expand into several summer sports (for example, mixed relays in swimming or athletics).</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/everyones-a-winner-with-new-events-at-the-winter-games-22820">Everyone's a winner with new events at the Winter Games</a>
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<p><strong>Host nation’s preferences</strong>: In the new process of selecting sports, the IOC has given a lot of flexibility to the local organising committee to evaluate and make recommendations. </p>
<p>So given all of this, what sports might we expect to be added for the Brisbane 2032 games? Here are some early thoughts.</p>
<p><strong>The favourites</strong></p>
<p><em>Cricket</em>: It is being introduced in 2028 and should remain in the games in 2032 due to its popularity in the host nation and strong support from the sub-continent.</p>
<p><em>Lacrosse</em>: This is a sport in which Australia is again expected to do well. As it will be played in a modified six-person format (similar to rugby 7s) and using a shot clock, nations traditionally not strong in the current version of this sport – with its bigger field and larger number of players – may begin to take an interest and support its inclusion.</p>
<p><em>Sport climbing, surfing and skateboarding</em>: All of these had their debut in Tokyo 2021 and will likely remain in the program. Surfing, in particular, will be popular in beach-crazed LA, and should be a no-brainer for sunny Queensland.</p>
<p><em>Baseball/softball</em>: These should be back in the 2028 games after a short hiatus. As Australia is normally quite competitive in these sports and a medal contender, they are a strong chance be included.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/one-year-to-go-will-the-paris-2024-olympics-see-a-return-to-normalcy-210186">One year to go: Will the Paris 2024 Olympics see a return to normalcy?</a>
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<p><strong>The “maybe” list</strong></p>
<p><em>Flag football</em>: It will no doubt be assessed after its LA 2028 debut. The fact that the NFL in the US is actively supporting this initiative enhances its chances of remaining in the program.</p>
<p><em>Breakdancing</em>: This popular, youth-friendly sport making its debut in the Paris games, was somewhat <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1141612/breaking-world-dance-sport-los-angeles">surprisingly not selected</a> for LA in 2028. This does not preclude its addition to the 2032 games, especially if it proves to be a hit in 2024.</p>
<p><em>Netball</em>: There will be a strong push to have it included by the Brisbane organising committee, but its limited worldwide profile will work against it. </p>
<p><em>E-sports</em>: Competitive video gaming has experienced explosive growth worldwide in recent years. Although it offers a unique blend of skill, strategy, and technology is it deemed worthy of an Olympic guernsey as it lacks athletic prowess? However, the IOC is monitoring it very closely and <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1141738/ioc-to-launch-olympic-esports-games">recently announced</a> a new standalone E-sports games, which could possibly lead to it making an appearance in the mainstream games.</p>
<p><strong>Long shots</strong></p>
<p><em>Surf lifesaving</em>: These would be a perfect beach activity for these games and a sport in which Australia would be a medal favourite. But a limited worldwide profile harms its chances.</p>
<p><em>Pickleball</em>: It is one of the world’s fastest growing sports and quickly gaining a following in Australia. As it is played on tennis courts it is not a big cost factor for the host city. But it may take a few more years of growth and lobbying to get into the games.</p>
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<p><em>Motorsports, karate and kickboxing</em>: All three put in a bid for the LA games and were not successful. They are not likely to be included in the Brisbane games, as they appear to have limited widespread support among the large IOC membership.</p>
<p><em>AFL</em>: This is a real long shot, as too few countries play this sport and the host nation would dominate.</p>
<p>Four years from now, the IOC must decide on the sports for the 2032 Brisbane games. New sports breathe fresh life into the Olympic movement, ensuring its relevance and appeal. </p>
<p>With lobbying by many sports to capture a spot on the program, much can happen between now and then. The Brisbane 2032 Olympic Organising Committee must attempt to strike a balance between its recommendations to the IOC for final approval, while at the same time trying to put an “Aussie slant” on the sporting program.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215991/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Baka does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We now know sports that will make their Olympic Games debut in 2028. Here’s what that tells us about what might get the nod for Brisbane 2032.Richard Baka, Adjunct Fellow, Olympic Scholar and Co-Director of the Olympic and Paralympic Research Centre, Institute for Health and Sport, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2024272023-04-11T19:30:17Z2023-04-11T19:30:17ZRefugee team offers a way for Russian and Belarusian dissidents to compete at the Paris Olympics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520098/original/file-20230410-440-7ac19x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=20%2C6%2C4473%2C2930&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The 2024 Summer Olympic Games are scheduled to take place from July 26 to Aug. 11 in France.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Michel Euler)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/refugee-team-offers-a-way-for-russian-and-belarusian-dissidents-to-compete-at-the-paris-olympics" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The International Olympic Committee (IOC) began 2023 with high hopes of maintaining its solidarity with Ukraine, but its call to <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/statement-on-solidarity-with-ukraine-sanctions-against-russia-and-belarus-and-the-status-of-athletes">allow individual athletes from Russia and Belarus to attend the 2024 Paris Games</a> has caused backlash. </p>
<p>In response to this position, international athlete-led organization Global Athlete <a href="https://www.globalathlete.org/our-word/ioc-welcomes-russia-and-threatens-to-suspend-ukraine">released a statement by Ukrainian athletes in February</a> calling on Olympic officials to withdraw support for the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes at the Olympic Games. </p>
<p>More athletes spoke up following the International Fencing Federation’s (IFF) March 10 <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1134597/fie-russia-decision-return">decision to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete in international fencing events</a> — just in time for them to compete in qualifications for next year’s Olympics. </p>
<p>In an <a href="https://www.globalathlete.org/our-word/over-300-call-ioc-and-fie-to-uphold-ban-russia-belarus">open letter to the IOC and IFF</a>, over 300 international fencers decried the decision, arguing that allowing these athletes back into world sport sets a grievous precedent where “a nation can violate the values and rules of sport and international peace without fear of the consequences.” </p>
<p>Fencers claimed that any proposed conditions for neutrality for these athletes, such as proving “they’re opposed to the war” or not “tied to the Russian military,” are unrealistic because <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/03/07/russia-criminalizes-independent-war-reporting-anti-war-protests">public denunciation of the war is illegal in Russia</a>.</p>
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<span class="caption">Activists protest the International Olympic Committee’s decision to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under a neutral flag at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games in front of the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland in March 2023.</span>
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<p>These expressions of outrage — the latest in a tide of Olympic athletes claiming the IOC is side-stepping commitments to bar Russia and Belarus from international sport — are happening in the wake of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-place-nuclear-weapons-near-belarus-borders-with-nato-2023-04-03/">which Belarus has explicitly endorsed</a>.</p>
<h2>An Olympic tightrope</h2>
<p>On March 28, the <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-issues-recommendations-for-international-federations-and-international-sports-event-organisers">IOC released recommendations</a> for the participation of individual athletes in international sport. The IOC recommended that individual athletes from Russia and Belarus be allowed to participate as “neutral athletes” while their nations remained barred from competing.</p>
<p>This position <a href="https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/2021/03/udhr.pdf">aligns with human rights law</a> that states everyone is entitled to the rights and freedoms of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This decision follows increased pressure from legal experts, including the <a href="https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=27552">United Nations Human Rights Council</a>, to allow individual athletes to compete in international sport. </p>
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<img alt="A white older man in a suit gestured while speaking from behind a desk. The Olympic flag stands in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519133/original/file-20230403-24-c990ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519133/original/file-20230403-24-c990ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519133/original/file-20230403-24-c990ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519133/original/file-20230403-24-c990ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519133/original/file-20230403-24-c990ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519133/original/file-20230403-24-c990ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519133/original/file-20230403-24-c990ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach speaks at the opening of the executive board meeting of the committee in Lausanne, Switzerland on March 28, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Laurent Gillieron/Keystone via AP)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The idea of individual athletes competing as neutral athletes is problematic, however, because they still retain their nationality. “For Russian and Belarusian athletes,” <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/olympians-coc-letter-olympics-paris-russia-belarus-1.6771468">argued a group of Canadian athletes</a>, “there is no distinction between the athlete and the state.”</p>
<p>This statement <a href="https://bnn-news.com/estonia-will-participate-in-the-olympics-latvia-considers-boycotting-them-242580">echoed Estonian Olympic Committee President Urmas Sõõrumaa’s sentiments</a> of early February: “Let’s not forget that practically the majority of Russian athletes who make it to the podium are military athletes and get a (military) medal when they win.”</p>
<h2>Political pressure</h2>
<p>Political pressure, too, is mounting. On Feb. 3, three of Russia’s neighbours announced <a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-sports-latvia-estonia-soviet-union-919f44f8ea48fc382297e02a31f3e411">they would consider boycotting the Olympic Games</a> if Russian athletes weren’t banned from the Paris Games. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/statement-on-russias-war-on-ukraine-and-international-sport/statement-on-russias-war-on-ukraine-and-international-sport">Feb. 21 joint declaration by ministers</a> of 34 national governments stated: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“As long as these fundamental issues of military entanglement and the substantial lack of clarity and concrete detail on a workable ‘neutrality’ model are not addressed, we do not agree that Russian and Belarusian athletes should be allowed back into competition.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These arguments present a challenge, but also provide the framework for a solution for Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete while ensuring their separation from their respective national sport apparatus.</p>
<h2>A possible solution</h2>
<p>A possible solution that doesn’t require moral compromises or an abandonment of universal human rights and the tenets of Olympism, is for Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as stateless members of the <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/refugee-olympic-team">Refugee Olympic Team</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/refugee-olympic-team-to-shine-spotlight-on-worldwide-refugee-crisis">Refugee Olympic Team was created in 2016</a> to “act as a symbol of hope for refugees worldwide and bring global attention to the magnitude of the refugee crisis.”</p>
<p>Enrolment in the Refugee Olympic Team constitutes a powerful rejection of the politics and/or oppressive situations in athletes’ homelands. The place of origin should make no difference: whether Russia or Syria, Belarus or South Sudan, athletes are massed together as a homogenous refugee team.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of people wearing dark blue suits wave behind a person carrying an Olympic flag and a sign that says 'Refugee Olympic Team'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520094/original/file-20230410-7003-53mb1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520094/original/file-20230410-7003-53mb1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520094/original/file-20230410-7003-53mb1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520094/original/file-20230410-7003-53mb1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520094/original/file-20230410-7003-53mb1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520094/original/file-20230410-7003-53mb1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520094/original/file-20230410-7003-53mb1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Yusra Mardini and Tachlowini Gabriyesos, of the Refugee Olympic Team, carry the Olympic flag during the opening ceremony in the Olympic Stadium at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan in July 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/David J. Phillip)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The term <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/what-is-a-refugee.html">refugee has a legal definition under the United Nations</a>, and it would be reasonable to assume that any Russian or Belarusian athletes who truly disavow the war, and thus risk persecution at home, would qualify.</p>
<p>Inviting these athletes to compete on the Refugee Team would logically disconnect Russian or Belarusian military complicity and demonstrate the IOC’s commitment to treating athletes equally, regardless of where they are from. </p>
<h2>Standing for unity and peace</h2>
<p>The IOC has an opportunity to disavow the violence and illegality of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by extending the platform and status of refugee athletes to Russian and Belarusian athletes.</p>
<p>The IOC should continue to ban Russia’s and Belarus’ Olympic committees and bar athletes who support the Ukrainian-Russian war from competing in the Olympic Games, whose rings above all stand for unity and peace. </p>
<p>The IOC should allow stateless athletes to compete on terms that <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-olympics-2020-russia-idUKKBN1Z10HU">have already proven themselves to be effective in the past</a>. Olympic values illustrate humanity’s unwillingness to be subsumed by the bloody politics of oppression, violence and war.</p>
<p>The inclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes on the refugee team could potentially address Olympic athletes’ criticism of the IOC’s suggested pledge of disavowal.</p>
<p>It’s important to note the serious potential consequences for Russian and Belarusian athletes who take this pathway. The term “refugee” is not a shield against any retribution their former governments might take. These athletes might not only end up stateless, but might also not have a home to go back to or to live in safety. </p>
<p>The potential for statelessness may be addressed, as it is with the current refugee team, even if only temporarily. However it raises the question of whether enforcing one human right — that of non-discrimination — justifies the violation of another: <a href="https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/2021/03/udhr.pdf">the right to a nationality</a>. This is another serious potential weakness that we don’t yet have a solution for.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202427/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The IOC has an opportunity to disavow the violence and illegality of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by extending the platform and status of refugee athletes to Russian and Belarusian athletes.Angela Schneider, Director, International Centre for Olympic Studies, Western UniversityAlan C Oldham, Graduate Student, International Centre for Olympic Studies, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1961232022-12-08T00:34:08Z2022-12-08T00:34:08ZSport NZ’s transgender guidelines are a good start – but can they filter up from grassroots to elite competition?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499664/original/file-20221207-20-v6q07a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=35%2C291%2C3244%2C1936&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The release this week of Sport NZ’s new <a href="https://sportnz.org.nz/diversity-and-inclusion/transgender-inclusion/guiding-principles-for-the-inclusion-of-transgender-people-in-community-sport/">Guiding Principles for the Inclusion of Transgender People in Community Sport</a> caused a minor and predictable controversy. One former parliamentarian called the guidelines “woke ideology”. Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson responded that such opposition was “petty and small-minded”.</p>
<p>In reality, the guidelines are the result of <a href="https://sportnz.org.nz/media/okjhw2n2/summary-of-feedback-final-1.pdf">extensive consultation</a> over two years. They’re a response to national sports organisations calling for help in navigating the uncharted waters of imagining sport beyond the gender binary. </p>
<p>They recommend supporting athletes to participate in community sport in the gender they identify as. Sports organisations are now tasked with developing new or revised policies that prioritise inclusion.</p>
<p>While some, such as <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/128052313/who-gets-to-play-how-nz-rugby-is-navigating-transgender-inclusion">NZ Rugby</a> and <a href="https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/08/30/boxing-nz-to-create-open-category-for-transgender-athletes/">Boxing New Zealand</a>, are already working on transgender policies, the guidelines offer a clear road map for the consultative process, with the support of Sport NZ.</p>
<p>Recognising this will be different for each sport, Sport NZ CEO <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/300757598/transgender-athletes-can-participate-in-community-sport-says-sport-nz">Raelene Castle says</a> the guidelines are simply a good “start point for conversation”. At their core is the principle of inclusion, based on wellbeing and safety, privacy and dignity, and removing discrimination, bullying and harassment.</p>
<p>By gaining confidence through this process, it’s hoped sports organisations will recognise that making sport safer and more inclusive is ultimately beneficial for all. The question now, however, is whether change at the grassroots level can filter up to elite sports, which are most often governed and directed by policies set by international bodies. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499659/original/file-20221207-21-ct0mb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499659/original/file-20221207-21-ct0mb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499659/original/file-20221207-21-ct0mb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499659/original/file-20221207-21-ct0mb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499659/original/file-20221207-21-ct0mb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499659/original/file-20221207-21-ct0mb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499659/original/file-20221207-21-ct0mb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sport NZ CEO Raelene Castle speaking at the World Conference on Women & Sport in Auckland in November 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A blurry line</h2>
<p>Sport NZ and High Performance Sport New Zealand have committed to supporting national sporting bodies navigate the rules and regulations applied by international sporting organisations. In practice, however, the boundaries between community and national and international elite sports are blurry. </p>
<p>Access to sport is a <a href="https://www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Human_Rights_in_sport__CAS_report_updated_16.04.2021_.pdf">human right</a>. It has many social, psychological and physical benefits that should be available to all. The <a href="https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/56/19/1064">principles and practices of inclusion</a> don’t observe boundaries between community and elite sport, and many sports organisations are struggling to balance competitive fairness with inclusiveness, and <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/978-1-80262-985-920221005/full/html">governance with human rights law</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-way-we-talk-about-olympian-laurel-hubbard-has-real-consequences-for-all-transgender-people-163418">Why the way we talk about Olympian Laurel Hubbard has real consequences for all transgender people</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Some international organisations continue to reinforce gender binary norms in elite sport with policies based on <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)32764-3/fulltext">increasingly outdated views of biological sex</a>. Others are working towards policies that recognise changing understandings of gender in wider society.</p>
<p>A year ago, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) released <a href="https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Documents/News/2021/11/IOC-Framework-Fairness-Inclusion-Non-discrimination-2021.pdf">updated guidelines</a> for inclusion of transgender and intersex athletes. No athlete should be excluded from competing based on an “unverified, alleged or perceived unfair competitive advantage due to their sex variations, physical appearance and/or transgender status”.</p>
<p>The guidelines recognised decades of significant harm caused to athletes who have experienced unethical and “medically unnecessary” procedures and treatments to meet previous selection criteria. Indeed, the widespread use of so-called “<a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p081682">sex testing</a>” justified by sporting criteria has been a gross <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2020/12/04/theyre-chasing-us-away-sport/human-rights-violations-sex-testing-elite-women">violation of human rights</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499663/original/file-20221207-23-ct0mb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499663/original/file-20221207-23-ct0mb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499663/original/file-20221207-23-ct0mb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499663/original/file-20221207-23-ct0mb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499663/original/file-20221207-23-ct0mb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499663/original/file-20221207-23-ct0mb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499663/original/file-20221207-23-ct0mb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lia Thomas competing at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships in the US in March 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Resistance and reaction</h2>
<p>The media attention and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/21674795221116884?casa_token=gcxflDs8rj8AAAAA%3Ara_7QtvkzPGwulsi9ktbjI75cGHjRNmt72IxxKE7m4wRkIFw_tkUdxPQaV-dloKjNgYl2gGx5kh5Lg">polarising debates</a> surrounding high-profile transgender athletes like New Zealand Olympic weightlifter Laurel Hubbard and US swimmer Lia Thomas have prompted some sports organisations to revise their policies, often under duress. </p>
<p>Rowing USA, for instance, has just announced a new <a href="https://usrowing.org/documents/2022/11/28/USRowing_GenderIdentityPolicy_20221201.pdf">Gender Identity Policy</a>. Domestic athletes can now participate based on their “expressed gender identity”. </p>
<p>Some are concerned that opening competition in this way essentially eliminates the “women’s category”. Others see such initiatives as a move towards <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1012690219889621">reimagining sport</a> as safe, supportive and inclusive of people across the gender spectrum.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-debate-over-transgender-athletes-rights-is-testing-the-current-limits-of-science-and-the-law-162593">The debate over transgender athletes' rights is testing the current limits of science and the law</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Other sports have taken a different stance. World Rugby <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/978-1-80262-985-920221006/full/html">banned transgender women</a> from women’s rugby in 2020. And earlier this year the aquatic sports federation FINA banned transgender swimmers, <a href="https://resources.fina.org/fina/document/2022/06/19/525de003-51f4-47d3-8d5a-716dac5f77c7/FINA-INCLUSION-POLICY-AND-APPENDICES-FINAL-.pdf">reintroducing measures</a> <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/378/bmj.o1843.full.pdf">described by one critic</a> as “an unacceptable erosion of bodily autonomy for women and girls”.</p>
<p>And various other sporting bodies have introduced trans-exclusionary policies, including the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/rugby-league-joins-clampdown-transgender-athletes-womens-sport-rcna34734">International Rugby League</a> and the <a href="https://www.bicycling.com/news/a40320907/uci-transgender-policy-2022/">International Cycling Union</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1600226617363927040"}"></div></p>
<h2>From guidelines to policies</h2>
<p>Bans on trans athletes are often justified on the ground of biology and science. The counter-argument is that the research on transgender sports performance is <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/sport/469578/too-early-for-bans-with-research-on-trans-women-athletes-in-its-infancy-academic">too new</a> to make definitive calls this early. But one <a href="http://www.athleteally.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/The-Future-of-Womens-Sport-includes-Transgender-Women-and-Girls-Statement_11.15.21.pdf">analysis of the literature</a> concluded “the future of women’s sport includes transgender women and girls”. </p>
<p>As the new book <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/doi/10.1108/9781802629859">Justice for Trans Athletes</a> shows, transgender athletes experience many challenges, including stigma, discrimination and gender-based violence. Sport NZ is to be commended for recognising its responsibility to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00918369.2019.1696104?casa_token=yYrLzA4R-sgAAAAA%3Aoh6v1dKmYymG7riM70mxi-Zq7gxDkJ88ewzvHo8fD1lEbD_j1x1amEOG_FDVTgOtP5Ys-PA76hfk6w">take such trauma into account</a>, given the harm that can be done during “debates” about the participation of an already <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19419899.2021.1897033">marginalised and often vulnerable</a> group.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/polarising-sensational-media-coverage-of-transgender-athletes-should-end-our-research-shows-a-way-forward-187250">Polarising, sensational media coverage of transgender athletes should end – our research shows a way forward</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Local sporting bodies will not lose funding if they don’t adopt the principles within their inclusion and diversity policies, but the Sport NZ guidelines clearly identify expectations for best practice. </p>
<p>It remains to be seen how national and international sports organisations implement and regulate such guidelines if and when some sporting bodies refuse to voluntarily adopt them. Given the onus is on organisations to carve their own paths, there is a lot of room for alternative interpretations of what are essentially still only recommendations.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://journals.lww.com/acsm-csmr/Fulltext/2019/06000/Transgender_Policy_in_Sport,_A_Review_of_Current.10.aspx?fbclid=IwAR2AGlQBfbUmpZBRCLk9PLC0IqA2F7Uu9qkuXslpQrUt0ZxgEjd_etz0DXs">sports medicine</a> and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/10126902211072765?casa_token=llo2C9lmzXkAAAAA%3A3inLslv0PgbBlwHtZLQ7v4rR_vmSM4JDgqWWy7SbFpV69FlpYPkfKWOxtxwyv7uvahsTz8f0mtbGEg">social science</a> scholars acknowledge, developing overarching policy on transgender participation in sport remains complex and messy. Introducing guidelines and frameworks rather than enforceable policy may be a lighter touch, but it sends a clear message of an organisational commitment to change.</p>
<p>Starting from a place of inclusion is an important sign of progress. But it will be a shame if this important human rights issue becomes tangled and lost in the all-too-familiar power plays and politics of global sport.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196123/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Holly Thorpe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It remains to be seen how sports organisations implement and regulate transgender guidelines if some sporting bodies refuse to voluntarily adopt them.Holly Thorpe, Professor in Sociology of Sport and Gender, University of WaikatoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1781152022-03-07T20:19:39Z2022-03-07T20:19:39ZSports are political: Reaction and inaction to Putin’s war of aggression<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450459/original/file-20220307-84100-polm62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5719%2C3809&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Andrew Parsons, president of the International Paralympic Committee, speaks at the opening ceremony at the 2022 Winter Paralympics. The IPC announced on March 3 that all athletes from Russia and Belarus would be barred from competing.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Andy Wong)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On March 3, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) announced that all athletes from Russia and Belarus would be <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/paralympics/ipc-backtracks-bans-russia-belarus-from-beijing-1.6371077">barred from competing</a> at the 2022 Paralympics. The decision came less than a day after the IPC announced it was <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/paralympics/ipc-russia-belarus-neutral-athletes-beijing-1.6369639">permitting athletes from both countries</a> to compete as neutrals. The IPC’s ban, however, felt forced and hollow. </p>
<p>Make no mistake; it was athlete resistance that forced the IPC to abandon its tolerance of Russia and Belarus. Advocacy groups like <a href="https://twitter.com/GlobalAthleteHQ/status/1499143453384523776?s=20&t=DH-imb3Uklzxf2TIZ881kQ">Global Athlete</a> and current and former Paralympic and Olympic athletes pressed the IPC to take a stronger stance against Russia and Belarus by joining the majority of teams, leagues and federations in an international sporting boycott.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A person wearing a face mask that says 'No War in Ukraine' and holding a sign that says 'Yevhen Malyshev 2002-2022.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450127/original/file-20220304-16533-udi2sn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450127/original/file-20220304-16533-udi2sn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450127/original/file-20220304-16533-udi2sn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450127/original/file-20220304-16533-udi2sn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450127/original/file-20220304-16533-udi2sn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450127/original/file-20220304-16533-udi2sn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450127/original/file-20220304-16533-udi2sn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Lee Reaney, a Canadian journalist working for the Kyiv Post, poses questions to the panel at a press conference following the IPC Governing Board decision on Russia, Belarus and Ukraine on March 2.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Andy Wong)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.paralympic.org/news/ipc-decline-athlete-entries-rpc-and-npc-belarus-beijing-2022">IPC president Andrew Parsons</a>, Russian and Belarusian athletes were not banned for their respective nations’ roles in the outrageous and unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine, but rather to preserve “the long-term health and survival of the Paralympic Movement.” </p>
<p>In fact, the IPC press release contained not a single reference to Ukraine. Parsons’s comments at the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqm2VgK4Zbs">opening ceremonies </a> likewise excluded the words Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. </p>
<p>The IPC’s actions aren’t all that surprising. After all, when Putin invaded Ukraine in 2014, IPC head of communications Craig Spence <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/paralympics-organizers-fear-crimea-unrest-will-overshadow-games-1.2559400">told CBC</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We’re quite happy to leave the politics to the politicians; we’re competing as we planned.… We don’t want global politics to overshadow what we hope will be a fantastic sporting event.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>But people’s lives can’t be reduced to mere politics and global sporting events can, and do, benefit the authoritarian and totalitarian regimes that play host. <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-international-olympic-committee-and-china-are-using-politics-to-obscure-human-rights-abuses-176873">China, which was criticized</a> for using the Olympics to obscure human rights abuses, views the recent games as an economic boon. A spokesman for Beijing <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/14/business/economy/olympics-china-economics.html">told the <em>New York Times</em></a> that the Winter Olympics “brought positive economic benefits and created new sources of growth for the local economy.”</p>
<p>Beyond the IPC’s underwhelming response, the broader sporting landscape is even more complicated, ranging from complete inaction to expulsion, illustrating the politically charged nature of international sport in the 21st century.</p>
<h2>International Olympic Committee fails to act … again</h2>
<p>The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/02/24/ioc-strongly-condemns-russia-for-violating-olympic-truce-by-invading-ukraine/?sh=1b0be3f57c64">quick to condemn Putin</a> and urge the international sports federations to take action, but has refused to take any meaningful action itself. As of the writing of this article, the IOC has not removed the Russian Olympic Committee from the Olympic Movement. Instead, it’s urged international federation events to <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-eb-recommends-no-participation-of-russian-and-belarusian-athletes-and-officials">exclude Russian and Belarusian athletes</a>, passing the responsibility for action off to others. Such a move is unsurprising, given the IOC’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2022/02/10/russian-figure-skating-doping-allegations/">past tolerance for Russian abuses</a>.</p>
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<p>In 2008, Putin <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2014/03/13/world/europe/2008-georgia-russia-conflict/index.html">invaded neighbouring Georgia</a> before and during the Beijing Summer Olympics, sparking a conflict that killed hundreds and displaced thousands. Instead of tossing Russia out of the Games for violating the <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/olympic-truce">Olympic Truce</a>, the IOC celebrated the nation, with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/sports/10iht-olygeorgia.1.15141380.html">IOC spokesperson Giselle Davies arguing</a> that the presence of both Russia and Georgia at the 2008 Beijing Olympics reflected the “Olympic spirit and the value of the Games.”</p>
<p>Russia’s invasion of Georgia was a calculated move by Putin, who used the grand and controversial 2008 Beijing Olympics to distract global attention from his assault. He had little need to fret about IOC sanctions, as Russia was already scheduled to host the 2014 Sochi Olympics. IOC criticism of his regime would be tantamount to admitting Sochi was unfit to host. When Putin <a href="https://www.vox.com/2014/9/3/18088560/ukraine-everything-you-need-to-know">invaded Ukraine shortly after the Sochi Olympics</a>, violating the truce for the second time in six years, the IOC once again failed to act.</p>
<h2>UEFA and FIFA put soccer bans on Russia</h2>
<p>The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) took swift action a day after the Russian invasion began, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-soccer-sports-champions-league-paris-249b9dd81765c7cc4dd7a3fc4eb2547b">moving the Champions League</a> final from St. Petersburg to Paris. UEFA also promptly initiated steps to <a href="https://theathletic.com/news/uefa-ends-partnership-with-russian-energy-company-gazprom/0KZpGVsmrzP9/">remove Russian government-owned gas giant Gazprom</a> as a sponsor. The move was finalized on Feb. 28, axing Gazprom’s roughly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/feb/25/russia-stripped-champions-league-final-uefa-ukraine">US$40-million</a> deal with the European soccer authorities. The same day, UEFA <a href="https://www.sportingnews.com/ca/soccer/news/russia-ban-uefa-cups-europa-league-spartak-moscow-suspension/zgkvtkjezdcbpk8df0p074ce">ejected Spartak Moscow</a> from the Europa League, the second-tier of European championship soccer.</p>
<p>The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) has also severed ties with Russia. On Feb. 27, FIFA ruled that Russia’s national team <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-sports-soccer-czech-republic-world-cup-28eda547fd8de260cf520af9913276ef">could compete</a> in World Cup qualifiers, but only as the Football Union of Russia and only if they refrained from displaying the flag or playing the national anthem. The following day, after facing a barrage of complaints, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/06677626-c933-4689-8123-41dc6f2143a9">FIFA banned the nation from World Cup</a> competition entirely.</p>
<p>Independent clubs have also taken action. <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-10559709/Russia-Spartak-Moscow-set-kicked-Europa-League-UEFA-football-stands-up.html">FC Schalke 04</a>, which plays in the second division of Germany’s Bundesliga, removed <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/13/russia-putin-german-right-hand-man-matthias-warnig">Putin’s ally Matthias Warnig</a> from the team’s board and cancelled its sponsorship deal with Gazprom. England’s <a href="https://www.espn.com/soccer/manchester-united-engman_utd/story/4602413/man-united-cut-sponsorship-with-russian-airline-aeroflot-amid-ukraine-invasion">Manchester United has also ended</a> its six-year, US$53.7 million sponsorship agreement with Russia’s state-owned airline Aeroflot, with 18 months remaining in the deal.</p>
<p>Red Star Belgrade is still wearing their Gazprom sponsorship prominently on their jerseys, but that’s hardly a surprise. Serbia is the only European nation, other than Belarus, to <a href="https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/rangers-watch-ahead-red-star-26335843">not sanction Russia</a> for its assault on Ukraine.</p>
<h2>Sport matters</h2>
<p>Although the IOC and FIFA represent the grandest of the contemporary mega events, the sporting world has seen a broader array of action against Putin and Russia. Following the IOC’s call for international sport federations to ban athletes from Russia and Belarus, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/60568139">most have complied</a>, but some took longer than others. The International Gymnastics Federation (IGF) permitted Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete in Doha last week, providing <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-russian-gymnast-ivan-kuliak-to-be-investigated-by-international-gymnastics-federation-for-wearing-pro-war-symbol-12559778">Russian gymnast Ivan Kuliak</a> the opportunity to stand on the podium with a “Z” — a symbol of support for Putin’s war — affixed to his chest. As of March 7, the IGF has now banned all Russian and Belarusian athletes. </p>
<p>But it’s not just the federations taking action. Formula 1 has cancelled its <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/paralympics-organizers-fear-crimea-unrest-will-overshadow-games-1.2559400">Russian Grand Prix</a> and <a href="https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.formula-1-terminates-contract-with-russian-grand-prix-promoter.5geFNbONEePwRCSQj25Xg3.html">terminated</a> the race going forward. All four major professional boxing bodies have <a href="https://www.espn.com/boxing/story/_/id/33381629/boxing-governing-organizations-sanction-title-bouts-russia-due-invasion-ukraine">barred championship contests in Russia</a>. Finnish ice hockey club <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/hockey/2022/02/25/jokerit-helsinki-pulls-out-of-khl-playoffs-russia-invasion/6939672001/">Jokerit Helsinki</a> has withdrawn from the Russian-based Kontinental Hockey League playoffs in protest of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.</p>
<p>The old claim that sports exist in a sort of bubble, beyond the reach of politics, has seemingly been condemned to the dumpster of historical myth and folly. It is time for organizations like the IPC to stop lamenting the intersection of sport and politics, and instead accept this well-established reality going forward, conducting their affairs accordingly. There must be no further reversals.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178115/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>MacIntosh Ross does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s time for organizations like the IPC to stop lamenting the intersection of sport and politics, and instead accept this well-established reality going forward.MacIntosh Ross, Assistant Professor, Kinesiology, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1780352022-03-01T02:49:14Z2022-03-01T02:49:14ZFIFA has finally acted against Russia, but it doesn’t undo a long history of cosying up to Putin<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449064/original/file-20220301-17-13n7dpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=320%2C28%2C3392%2C2544&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Martin Meissner/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Under intense international pressure, FIFA made an abrupt about-face this week and suspended Russia’s teams from international football. The move means Russia will not have a chance to compete in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.</p>
<p>For decades, soccer’s global governing body has avowed sporting neutrality, preferring not to politicise <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-soccer-fifa-protests-idUSKBN2BI2FN">sporting events</a>. The federation’s decision to punish Russia for its aggressive war-making represents a small step towards a more politically forward-thinking policy, but its actions fall far short of redressing the harm it has caused in the past. </p>
<p>It also came after international outcry over its initially weak response to Russia, in which it said the team would still be allowed to compete under the name “Football Union of Russia”, at neutral venues and without its flag or anthem.</p>
<p>It took bold steps by countries like Sweden, Poland and the Czech Republic, which flat-out refused to play against any Russian team, for FIFA to change its mind.</p>
<p>What FIFA’s leadership still fails to realise is banning Russia does not introduce politics into sports – it removes the stench of it. FIFA has long allowed dictators – especially Russian President Vladimir Putin – to politicise the game. It now has a responsibility to clean up its own mess. </p>
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<h2>A long history of Russian sportwashing</h2>
<p>FIFA has taken action against belligerent nations before. Following the second world war, both <a href="https://www.espn.com/soccer/news/story/_/id/1836963/a-tournament-unlike-other">Germany and Japan</a> were prevented from taking part in the 1950 World Cup in Brazil. </p>
<p>FIFA also excluded South Africa from the World Cup during the apartheid era and removed Yugoslavia from qualifying for the 1994 tournament during the war in the <a href="https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/10/01/Yugoslavia-banned-for-1994-World/8232717912000/">Balkans</a>. </p>
<p>But FIFA has had a long history of working alongside Putin and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-14/world-cup-dream-sportswashing-russia-appalling-record/9867166">looking the other way</a> when it comes to Russia’s human rights abuses. </p>
<p>The 2018 World Cup, for which FIFA awarded hosting rights to Russia, allowed Putin to trumpet his country’s post-Soviet modernisation. But it came at great cost to soccer’s legitimacy. </p>
<p>After a bribery scandal in the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups shook the soccer world, FIFA <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-30035670">hired a former US attorney</a> to investigate. He didn’t last long; he <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/19/sports/soccer/fifa-investigator-michael-j-garcias-resignation-ended-an-uneasy-marriage.html">resigned in protest</a> and suggested FIFA was incapable of reform. </p>
<p>FIFA refused to move the tournament from Russia even after Russian-backed rebels <a href="https://www.si.com/soccer/2014/07/25/fifa-russia-2018-world-cup">shot down</a> a Malaysia Airlines plane, the Russian military <a href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/26691561">occupied</a> Crimea, and a former Russian spy was <a href="https://www.espn.com/soccer/fifa-world-cup/story/3417865/england-world-cup-boycott-talk-is-attempt-to-punish-us-russias-foreign-ministry">poisoned</a> in the United Kingdom.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-russia-worthy-of-hosting-the-world-cup-96917">Is Russia worthy of hosting the World Cup?</a>
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<p>FIFA had been perfectly placed to make an important statement about the centrality of human rights to the sport. The Russian soccer world was (and still is) deeply connected to Putin and his oligarch backers. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/21/sports/mutko-russia-world-up.html">Vitaly Mutko</a>, the deputy prime minister of Russia, for instance, was the former chairman of the Russian Football Union and head of the 2018 World Cup organising committee.</p>
<p>But FIFA failed to act then, and was slow to act again this week. </p>
<p>In the face of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, FIFA President Gianni Infantino could only offer embarrassingly milquetoast comments when questioned by reporters. </p>
<p>Asked if he regretted allowing Putin to host the 2018 World Cup and whether sport had helped “embolden” the Russian leader, Infantino <a href="https://twitter.com/robharris/status/1496930303952183300?s=11">offered cliches</a>. “I firmly believe in sport to bring people together,” he said.</p>
<p>He offered no condemnation of the Russian invasion and refused to comment on whether he would return the Medal of Friendship that Putin awarded him in 2019.</p>
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<h2>Other sports move quickly to isolate Russia</h2>
<p>While FIFA and Infantino prevaricated, other sporting federations acted to isolate Russia. </p>
<p>The Polish Football Association <a href="https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/sports/euro-backlash-as-fifa-refuses-to-expel-russia-from-football/3160353/">called FIFA’s stance “totally unaccepteable”</a> and said the Polish national team would not play Russia. UEFA, the European football governing body, <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/uefa-terminates-gazprom-deal/">ended its lucrative sponsorship deal</a> with the Russian energy company Gazprom and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/02/24/russia-ukraine-sports/">moved the Champions League final</a> in May from St Petersburg to Paris. </p>
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<p>And French Football Federation President Noël Le Graët <a href="https://www.leparisien.fr/sports/football/guerre-en-ukraine-je-penche-pour-une-exclusion-de-la-russie-du-prochain-mondial-annonce-noel-le-graet-27-02-2022-WLRL3K3QE5B3NJYSUQ6AUF6RRQ.php">told Le Parisien</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The world of sport, and in particular football, cannot remain neutral.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Even the International Olympic Committee, no stranger to working with dictators accused of human rights violations, strongly condemned Russia for violating the <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-strongly-condemns-the-breach-of-the-olympic-truce">Olympic Truce</a> immediately after the invasion. </p>
<p>The IOC went a step further this week, recommending Russian and Belarusian athletes be <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/feb/28/ioc-ban-russia-and-belarus-fifa-uefa">banned from all international competitions</a>, although it left itself some wiggle room with the Winter Paralympics about to begin in Beijing.</p>
<p>In fact, the sporting world has been almost completely united in pulling its competitions from Russia. Most didn’t wait to act.</p>
<p>Formula One <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-26/andrey-rublev-alex-ovechkin-against-russian-war-with-ukraine/100863688">cancelled</a> the Russian Grand Prix, while the international ski and volleyball federations <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-28/russian-athletes-against-war-in-ukraine-fifa-ioc-measures/100866956">cancelled or moved competitions</a> to other locations. Even the International Chess Federation shifted the Chess Olympiad from <a href="https://www.fide.com/news/1599">Moscow</a>. It remains to be seen, however, whether these events will ban Russian competitors from taking part.</p>
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<h2>Should Russian athletes be punished?</h2>
<p>Many other organisations are going further by already banning Russian competitors or looking to ban them. </p>
<p>The Norwegian Ski Federation banned all Russian competitors from <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/winter/cross-country-skiing/norway-ski-federation-russia-not-welcome-1.6365836">its competitions</a>, while Sweden <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/sport/20220226-cancellations-revocations-and-repudiations-russia-becomes-persona-non-grata-in-sport">is pushing</a> for a total ban on Russian athletes competing in the European Union. </p>
<p>In North America, former NHL stars like Dominik Hasek are arguing for the league to suspend Russian <a href="https://www.foxsports.com.au/nhl/nhl-2022-russia-ukraine-war-dominik-hasek-calls-alex-ovechkin-chicken-shit-over-vladimir-putin-national-hockey-league/news-story/0ba7042aca88bbb4a994b94d4ba228ce">players</a>. </p>
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<p>These organisations and players realise that Russian athletes competing under a neutral flag still compete for Russia. The IOC might not play the Russian national anthem at the upcoming Paralympics, but Russian state television still celebrates its athletes’ victories and transforms them into symbols of state power and prestige. </p>
<p>Banning Russian athletes might seem unfair because it will impact people who had no say in the invasion of Ukraine. In fact, many Russian athletes are bravely showing their opposition to the Putin regime. But after years of sporting organisations providing exceptions for Russian athletes to continue to compete, a tougher stance is now needed.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/russian-olympic-doping-saga-shows-need-for-a-radically-different-approach-90850">Russian Olympic doping saga shows need for a radically different approach</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178035/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keith Rathbone does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What FIFA’s leadership still fails to realise is banning Russia does not introduce politics into sports – it removes the stench of it.Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1764992022-02-18T13:06:55Z2022-02-18T13:06:55ZWhat’s the IOC – and why doesn’t it do more about human rights issues related to the Olympics?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446607/original/file-20220215-27-rj68co.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C65%2C5476%2C3574&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">This protest outside IOC headquarters in early 2022 objected to the Winter Games being held in China. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/protester-holds-a-banner-during-a-protest-march-gathering-news-photo/1238159433">Valentin Flauraud/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://www.paris2024.org/en/the-international-olympic-committee/">International Olympic Committee</a>, a nongovernmental organization based in Switzerland that’s independent of any one nation, was <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/history/institutional">founded in 1894</a>. It’s a group of officials who supervise and support the Olympics and set Olympic policies about everything from whether break dancing can be added as an official sport to what’s required for an athlete to compete on a team representing a country where they don’t normally reside. Because the IOC is often in the news, we asked two sports scholars, <a href="https://sportleadership.vcu.edu/about/faculty-and-staff/yannick-kluch-phd.html">Yannick Kluch</a> and <a href="https://education.uconn.edu/person/eli-wolff/">Eli Wolff</a>, five questions about what it does and why so many people want it to change how it responds to concerns about human rights and other issues.</em></p>
<h2>1. What are the main things the IOC does?</h2>
<p>The IOC coordinates what’s known as the <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/olympic-movement">Olympic movement</a>, the technical term for the constellation of committees, federations and other bodies that puts on spectacular sporting competitions every two years. </p>
<p>That includes overseeing the <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/national-olympic-committees">206 national Olympic committees</a> and <a href="https://www.arisf.sport/ioc.html">35</a> <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/international-federations">international sports federations</a>. The IOC also supervises the specific <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/faq/roles-and-responsibilities-of-the-ioc-and-its-partners/who-organises-the-olympic-games">organizing committees</a> formed for every one of the Olympic Games, seven years before the competitions begin.</p>
<p>The IOC’s 101 members, many of whom are former athletes, <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/session">meet at least once a year</a> to make important decisions.</p>
<p>They’re responsible for selecting where future Olympic Games will occur, electing their leaders, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/tokyo-olympics-live-updates/2021/07/28/1021713829/how-the-olympics-decide-what-sports-to-include">choosing new Olympic sports</a> and making amendments to the Olympic Charter. The IOC’s own officials select candidates for membership in the committee.</p>
<p><a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/mr-thomas-bach">Thomas Bach</a>, a German, has served as IOC president since 2013. He regularly convenes <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/executive-board">its executive board</a>. He represents the IOC during the Games.</p>
<p>The IOC also oversees several humanitarian initiatives such as <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/peace-and-development">Peace and Development through Sport</a>,the <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/refugee-olympic-team">Olympic Refugee team</a> and the <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/olympic-solidarity">Olympic Solidarity</a> program. The committee has <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-granted-un-observer-status">observer status with the United Nations</a> and promotes a worldwide symbolic ceasefire during the Games known as the <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/olympic-truce/resolutions">Olympic Truce resolution</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446612/original/file-20220215-21-kwcjuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Man seated next to the Olympic flag" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446612/original/file-20220215-21-kwcjuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446612/original/file-20220215-21-kwcjuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446612/original/file-20220215-21-kwcjuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446612/original/file-20220215-21-kwcjuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446612/original/file-20220215-21-kwcjuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446612/original/file-20220215-21-kwcjuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446612/original/file-20220215-21-kwcjuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Thomas Bach is the president of the IOC.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/thomas-bach-president-of-the-ioc-who-chairs-the-press-news-photo/1204934386">Eric Dubost/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>2. What’s the IOC’s mission?</h2>
<p>The IOC <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/faq/roles-and-responsibilities-of-the-ioc-and-its-partners/what-is-the-international-olympic-committee-ioc-and-what-is-its-mission">has three main roles</a>. The global nonprofit says “its job is to encourage the promotion of Olympic values, to ensure the regular celebration of the Olympic Games and its legacy and to support all the organizations affiliated to the Olympic Movement.” </p>
<p>In the <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/olympic-charter">Olympic Charter</a> the IOC goes into more detail about its principles, articulating the seven fundamental principles of “Olympism.”</p>
<p><a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/principles">These include</a> placing “sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity,” promoting the “practice of sport [as] a human right,” a commitment to political neutrality and shielding athletes from discrimination.</p>
<p>The IOC is also supposed to protect the ethics and integrity of the Olympic movement, prevent athlete abuse and harassment and generally make competitions safe, fair <a href="https://www.jpost.com/bds-threat/article-689297">and accessible</a> for all qualifying competitors.</p>
<h2>3. How does the IOC get money, and where do those funds go?</h2>
<p>About three-quarters of its funds come from the <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1110506/ioc-accounts-2020-55m-deficit">sale of the rights to broadcast</a> the Olympic Games. It gets most of the rest through marketing deals. The IOC collected more than US$5 billion for the 2014 and 2016 Games, the most recent <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/funding">data it has made available</a>. </p>
<p>Because the IOC operates as a nonprofit, its leaders do not manage this money as they might if it were a private company. Instead, the <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1054448/david-owen-the-ioc-likes-to-say-it-redistributes-90-per-cent-of-revenues-but-does-it-and-who-to">committee distributes 90% of its revenue</a> to national Olympic committees, Olympic athletes and other entities, reserving the rest of the money to cover operational expenses.</p>
<p>The IOC also provides half of the funds used by the <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/who-we-are">World Anti-Doping Association</a>, established in 1999 to research and monitor the use of <a href="https://www.acmt.net/cgi/page.cgi/_zine.html/Ask_A_Toxicologist/What_is_doping_and_why_do_athletes_do_this_">prohibited medications and treatments by athletes</a>. Governments provide the rest of the association’s funding. </p>
<p>Olympic athletes, <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22586868/olympics-athletes-pay-medal-sponsors-ioc">especially those who compete on U.S. teams</a>, get very low compensation for their participation in the Games, and they are limited in terms of their ability to earn money from marketing deals. Bach, although he is technically a volunteer, <a href="https://www.infobae.com/aroundtherings/ioc/2021/07/12/ioc-unveils-bach-compensation-payments-to-members/">earns about $244,000 a year</a>, and other IOC leaders are paid as well.</p>
<h2>4. What are some of the controversies the IOC faces?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2022/02/11/russia-olympics-doping-scandal/">IOC’s response</a>, in 2014, to proof that the Russian government was sponsoring systematic doping of its athletes has led to <a href="https://theconversation.com/russian-doping-scandal-should-other-countries-pull-out-of-the-olympics-62951">widespread criticism</a> for being too lenient and has <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-doping-case-against-russian-curler-aleksandr-krushelnitckii-92103">sparked controversy</a> ever since. To punish the Russian government, without sidelining all Russian athletes from the Games, the IOC permits them to compete as “Olympic Athletes from Russia” without allowing the use of the <a href="https://www.sportingnews.com/us/olympics/news/roc-winter-olympics-team-russia-meaning/clvyrpwcy9rmzox9ewyc1bam#">Russian flag or anthem</a>.</p>
<p>In 2022, doping remained a problem. That became clear when belated test results showed Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva had <a href="https://www.sportingnews.com/us/olympics/news/kamila-valieva-olympics-doping-drug-test/bptb5mvcgqurafu2oxkbhchy">used a banned heart medication</a> several weeks before she competed in the Olympics. The IOC’s response to this news appeared to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/02/14/1080501383/russian-figure-skater-kamila-valieva-olympics-2022">disappoint all sides</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446592/original/file-20220215-17-6vkavx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A figure skater on the ice during the Beijing Winter Games" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446592/original/file-20220215-17-6vkavx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446592/original/file-20220215-17-6vkavx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446592/original/file-20220215-17-6vkavx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446592/original/file-20220215-17-6vkavx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446592/original/file-20220215-17-6vkavx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446592/original/file-20220215-17-6vkavx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446592/original/file-20220215-17-6vkavx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Kamila Valieva of Russia kept competing in Beijing after evidence that she had tested positive for a banned substance came to light.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/kamila-valieva-of-team-roc-skates-during-the-women-single-news-photo/1370717181">Justin Setterfield/Getty Images Sport</a></span>
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<p>Separately, the IOC has <a href="https://www.theippress.com/2021/06/12/game-of-corruptions-an-issue-that-the-international-sports-law-must-conquer/">failed to stop corruption in the bidding process</a> for hosting the Olympics, a longstanding problem most recently exposed with the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-48881867">2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro</a> and the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-tokyo-lamine-diack-2020-tokyo-olympics-japan-057023df193a02e2799678917df7d055">Olympic Games held in Tokyo</a> five years later.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446591/original/file-20220215-25-4lzt5j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Olympic champions stand on the podium in an old photo." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446591/original/file-20220215-25-4lzt5j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446591/original/file-20220215-25-4lzt5j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=925&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446591/original/file-20220215-25-4lzt5j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=925&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446591/original/file-20220215-25-4lzt5j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=925&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446591/original/file-20220215-25-4lzt5j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1163&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446591/original/file-20220215-25-4lzt5j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1163&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446591/original/file-20220215-25-4lzt5j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1163&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">American sprinters Tommie Smith (center) and John Carlos raise their fists and give the Black Power salute during the U.S. national anthem at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/american-sprinters-tommie-smith-and-john-carlos-raise-their-news-photo/514698444">Bettmann/GettyImages</a></span>
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<p><a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/01/05/human-rights-abuses-will-taint-olympics-and-world-cup-its-time-end-sportswashing#https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/01/05/human-rights-abuses-will-taint-olympics-and-world-cup-its-time-end-sportswashing#">Human rights groups have expressed outrage</a> over the IOC’s decisions that allowed China to host the Olympic Games in 2008 and 2022.</p>
<p>China <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/17/show-no-mercy-leaked-documents-reveal-details-of-chinas-mass-xinjiang-detentions">faces widespread accusations</a>, including from the <a href="https://2017-2021.state.gov/ccpabuses/index.html">U.S. government</a>, that it <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-china-use-the-beijing-olympics-to-sportwash-its-abuses-against-the-uyghurs-only-if-the-world-remains-silent-175922">oppresses Uyghurs</a> in China’s western Xinjiang region. This abuse is increasingly considered to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2020.1848109">constitute genocide</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/33212070/olympics-2022-china-warned-athletes-not-protest-beijing-happens-do">Many athletes</a> and other people object to China’s <a href="https://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/claims-10012021193648.html">repression of the Tibetan people</a>. China has also drawn widespread criticism for <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/hong-kong-how-is-chinas-crackdown-changing-the-citys-identity/a-60007287">cracking down on free speech in Hong Kong</a>.</p>
<p>The United States and several other countries cited these concerns in announcing a <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/is-china-committing-genocide-against-the-uyghurs-180979490/">diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Olympics</a>.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the committee states that “at all times, the IOC recognises and upholds human rights” <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/human-rights">on its website</a>. </p>
<p>The IOC has also come <a href="https://olympicanalysis.org/section-5/at-tokyo-games-athlete-activism-takes-front-row-seat-despite-iocs-attempts-to-silence-athletes/">under fire</a> for its <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-athletes-commission-s-recommendations-on-rule-50-and-athlete-expression-at-the-olympic-games">Rule 50</a>.</p>
<p>Originally adopted in <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2020-tokyo-olympics-explainer-protest-rule-racial-injustice-dcb4de638c59b77d259f713af73f5c5a">1975 as Rule 55</a>, it now states that “no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.” This is the rationale for why the IOC <a href="https://www.si.com/olympics/2021/08/03/race-imboden-protest-tokyo-olympics-x-symbol">bars athletes from engaging in protests</a> while they compete or <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/02/sport/raven-saunders-podium-protest-olympics-spt-intl/index.html">during medal ceremonies</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/181025">Time and again</a> the IOC has relied on Rule 50 to justify its commitment to what it calls “political neutrality” as a fundamental principle of Olympism – even when that commitment has contradicted one or more aspects of its mission.</p>
<h2>5. Is the IOC neutral and apolitical?</h2>
<p>Well, it depends on whom you ask. </p>
<p>“The position of the IOC must be, given the political neutrality, that we are not commenting on political issues,” Bach said, when <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/03/sports/tennis/peng-shuai-olympics.html">asked about the abuse of Uyghurs by China’s government</a> at the outset of the Beijing Winter Games. “Because otherwise, if we are taking a political standpoint, and we are getting in the middle of tensions and disputes and confrontations between political powers, then we are putting the Olympics at risk.”</p>
<p>In 2020, likewise, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/oct/24/the-olympics-are-about-diversity-and-unity-not-politics-and-profit-boycotts-dont-work-thomas-bach">Bach wrote that the Olympics</a> “can set an example for a world where everyone respects the same rules and one another.”</p>
<p>[<em>Over 140,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-140ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p><a href="https://journals.library.brocku.ca/index.php/jess/article/view/3589/2727">Human rights experts and activists around the world</a>, however, have called the IOC’s position to be apolitical a myth and urged the committee to take a stronger stance on human rights abuses.</p>
<p>Shortly before the Tokyo Games began, in the summer of 2021, more than 150 experts on sports, human rights and social justice – including both of us – <a href="https://alicenter.org/programs-athletes-social-change-rule-50-expert-letter">published an open letter</a>. In it, we called on the IOC to demonstrate a stronger commitment to human rights and social justice.</p>
<p>“Neutrality is never neutral,” we argued. “As a reflection of society at large, sport is not immune to the social ills that have created global inequities. … Staying neutral means staying silent, and staying silent means supporting ongoing injustice.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176499/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yannick Kluch is a member of the Team USA Council on Racial and Social Justice, where he serves as external expert on athlete protests/demonstrations and racial and social justice. He is also on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council for USA Diving, the National Governing Body for the sport of diving in the United States. Kluch serves on the advisory board for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council for Excellence (DIECE). He has signed onto the Rule 50 expert letter referenced in this article and is a co-author on the History News Network article referenced at the end of the piece.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>In addition to his role at the University of Connecticut, Eli Wolff directs the Power of Sport Lab platform, and he is also a coordinator of the Athletes and Social Change forum with the Muhammad Ali Center. He has signed onto the Rule 50 expert letter and the Beijing 2022 expert article referenced in this article. </span></em></p>The International Olympic Committee oversees several humanitarian initiatives. But it avoids letting human rights concerns interfere with the Games, even in countries with rampant violations.Yannick Kluch, Assistant Professor of Sport Leadership; Director of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence, Virginia Commonwealth UniversityEli Wolff, Instructor of Sport Management, University of ConnecticutLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1767822022-02-17T20:06:45Z2022-02-17T20:06:45ZAthlete mental health was sacrificed during Beijing 2022 Olympics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447123/original/file-20220217-3064-13wweuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C5%2C3887%2C2589&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kamila Valieva, of the Russian Olympic Committee, reacts after competing in the women's free skate program.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 175px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/athlete-mental-health-was-sacrificed-during-beijing-2022-olympics" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/06/olympics-can-do-make-world-better-place/">recent letter</a>, Richard Pound, the longest-serving member of the International Olympic Committee, claimed that “the IOC is athlete-centered,” insisting the Olympics “can — and do — make the world a better place.” </p>
<p>He provided no evidence to support these assertions. Certainly, the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games seem to be anything but “athlete-centered.” </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/silence-is-golden-olympic-athletes-freedom-of-speech-muted-by-games-organizers-175582">Silence is golden? Olympic athletes' freedom of speech muted by Games organizers</a>
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<p>This year’s event has exposed how very little the IOC cares about the health and well-being of competitors, and its active role in the promotion of a psychologically damaging sociopolitical context for competition. </p>
<p>Unlike Pound’s claims, there are piles of evidence to suggest that <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2022/02/09/olympics-2022-mikaela-shiffrin-mental-health-struggles/6719393001/?gnt-cfr=1">the well-being of Olympians is of secondary importance</a> to pomp and profit.</p>
<h2>Shut up and make us money</h2>
<p>Even before the Beijing Olympics were underway, athletes were struggling to have their voices heard. In fact, silencing athletes is a feature of the Olympic Charter, rigorously upheld by the IOC and enshrined in <a href="https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Document%20Library/OlympicOrg/General/EN-Olympic-Charter.pdf?_ga=2.96845535.1998666656.1644854057-232264114.1636726668">Rule 50</a> that prohibits any demonstrations, political or otherwise, at the Olympics.</p>
<p>Before the Olympics got underway, Yang Shu, a member of the Beijing Organizing Committee, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2022/01/19/china-winter-olympics-politics-speech/">announced that</a> any behaviour or speech against the “Olympic spirit” or Chinese laws and regulations would be “subject to certain punishment.” </p>
<p>In response, athlete’s rights groups are speaking out. In a recent news release, <a href="https://globalathlete.org/our-word/the-ioc-is-failing-athletes-rights">Global Athlete</a> argued that the IOC was suppressing free speech by limiting athlete’s abilities to speak out about human rights issues in China. In doing this, they argue that athletes are being used to legitimize the Chinese government, while at the same time silencing any dissenting voices.</p>
<p>Athlete mental health is contingent upon <a href="https://www.apa.org/international/pi/2018/12/mental-health-rights">fundamental human rights such as freedom of expression</a>. An ideologically motivated and COVID-restricted competitive environment can violate an athlete’s rights and <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.603875">potentiate psychological distress</a>. An unsupportive competitive environment is a critical risk factor associated with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-016-0492-2">elite athletes’ mental health vulnerabilities</a>. </p>
<h2>COVID-19 protocols and athlete well-being</h2>
<p>COVID-19 has only exacerbated the usual pressure athletes face during the Olympics. <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/summer/tokyo-2020-spectator-less-events-1.6117819">Like the recent Summer Olympics held in Tokyo</a>, athletes are socially isolated in Beijing, with no family, friends or fans to support them. But athletes at the Winter Olympics are also <em>literally</em> isolated in China’s Olympic “bubble.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A person in a protective suit and face shield holding a garbage bag" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446856/original/file-20220216-21-629619.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446856/original/file-20220216-21-629619.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446856/original/file-20220216-21-629619.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446856/original/file-20220216-21-629619.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446856/original/file-20220216-21-629619.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446856/original/file-20220216-21-629619.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446856/original/file-20220216-21-629619.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">An Olympic worker in protective clothing clears rubbish at a hotel inside the Olympic bubble during the 2022 Winter Olympics on Feb. 12 in Zhangjiakou, China.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Frank Augstein)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The so-called “bubble” is China’s way of keeping risk of infection as low as possible — a “<a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2022-02-08/la-fg-china-olympics-bubble">closed loop</a>” of hotels, conference centres and sporting venues with its own dedicated transport service that ferries athletes, coaches and media personnel back and forth. While a seemingly <a href="https://time.com/6147255/beijing-winter-olympics-covid-bubble/">effective way</a> to keep COVID-19 transmissions low, it is taking a toll on athletes’ mental health.</p>
<p>There is a lack of transparency in how athletes can access mental health services and supports, which is directly at odds with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197X.2020.1746379">multi-societal consensus statements</a> and the <a href="https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/53/11/667">IOC’s own consensus statement</a> that advocates for accessible and barrier-free mental health supports for athletes.</p>
<p>There has been no effort to mitigate this lack of support for athletes in Beijing. </p>
<p>And athletes in isolation <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/02/08/1079124088/covid-cases-beijing-olympics-bubble">have it worse. They’ve complained</a> of issues with food, internet connections and access to training equipment. Officials say they are doing their best, but athletes on social media have been sharing experiences that say otherwise.</p>
<p>Belgian skeleton competitor <a href="https://apnews.com/article/winter-olympics-kim-meylemans-covid-isolation-8ccaf121249292e846a31a896c0250e4">Kim Meyleman</a> was shocked and terrified when she was taken to a non-Olympic facility for isolation, with no explanation. The uncertainty — in an authoritarian state no less — <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CZeObbHBCnR/">clearly traumatized Meyleman</a>, who fought back tears as she explained the situation on Instagram.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CZeObbHBCnR","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Other athletes are also complaining about their quarantine conditions. Russian biathlon competitor <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/winter/olympic-teams-concerned-quarantine-hotels-1.6340972">Valeria Vasnetsova</a> tested positive for COVID-19 and, like Meyleman, was quarantined off site. </p>
<p>“My stomach hurts,” she told followers on Instagram. “I’m very pale and I have huge black circles around my eyes. I want all this to end. I cry every day. I’m very tired,” She was given the same meal three times a day, for five days straight. The only vegetable provided was a small amount of potatoes.</p>
<h2>Long lasting impact</h2>
<p><a href="https://apnews.com/article/winter-olympics-kim-meylemans-covid-isolation-8ccaf121249292e846a31a896c0250e4">Rob Koehler</a>, the director of Global Athlete, is very concerned about what he’s seeing in Beijing. He told <em>The Associated Press</em>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We’re worried about the entire COVID-19 protocol. We’re worried about the quarantine facilities and we’re worried about everything that’s not published, which is the details, and the devil is always in the details. They haven’t been well-informed and it hasn’t been transparent.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Athletes at the Beijing Olympics experienced a different Games. They were not only expected to perform under strict rules, but be at their best in a country where anything they say could have serious consequences.</p>
<p>The full extent of the impact this will have on athletes’ psychological well-being remains to be seen — and the Beijing Games have certainly thrown a shadow over the Olympics for years to come.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176782/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eva Pila receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>MacIntosh Ross does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The well-being of Olympians is of secondary importance is secondary to pomp and profit.MacIntosh Ross, Assistant Professor, Kinesiology, Western UniversityEva Pila, Assistant Professor, Kinesiology, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1768732022-02-16T20:02:25Z2022-02-16T20:02:25ZThe International Olympic Committee and China are using politics to obscure human rights abuses<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446644/original/file-20220215-24208-msgcd4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C8403%2C5597&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Actors cheer as President of the China, Xi Jinping, arrives for the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics on Feb. 4 in Beijing. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/David J. Phillip)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>China is using yet another Olympic Games as a political tool to reinforce its position as a global power and <a href="https://theconversation.com/2022-winter-olympics-will-help-beijing-sportwash-its-human-rights-record-154911">sportwash</a> its dismal human rights record. </p>
<p>This was first seen in 2008, when China and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) made <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2008/01/31/china-olympic-promises-are-not-being-kept">opaque promises</a> about the Olympic Games improving human rights in the authoritarian regime. But since then, the situation has worsened and continues to deteriorate. </p>
<p>The IOC continues to claim it is an <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-olympic-movement-claims-political-neutrality-in-reality-that-ideal-is-often-selectively-applied-164558">apolitical organization</a>, while <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-sanctioning-a-refugee-team-to-letting-china-host-does-the-international-olympic-committee-support-human-rights-172467">allowing China to host</a> and use the Olympics as a distraction from its <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8591242/beijing-olympics-china-human-rights/">industrial scale human rights abuses</a>. Few nations know how to politicize the Olympics quite like China.</p>
<h2>A new sort of Cold War</h2>
<p>In the United States, critiques of China have started to feel more like <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jan/13/beijing-winter-olympics-human-rights-politics">hypocritical warmongering</a>, leveraged for domestic political pandering, rather than a sincere desire to improve human rights in China, or the United States for that matter. </p>
<p>What is needed, as sportswriter Dave Zirin and political scientist Jules Boykoff aptly observed in <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/society/beijing-olympics-china/">The Nation</a>, is: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“a mass independent current that can stand with the oppressed in the United States and in China, and that refuses to paper over structural inequalities on either side in order to win political points.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Those familiar with Teng Biao (one of the authors of this piece) know that he has experienced both the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/12/world/asia/12china.html">politics and physical brutality</a> of the Chinese state first hand. </p>
<p>As a vocal human rights lawyer, Teng resisted the authoritarian regime’s crackdowns on the freedoms of speech and expression, resulting in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/mar/08/china.olympicgames2008">three forced disappearances</a> and a physical beating by authorities prior to the 2008 Olympic Games. He knows the stakes, and the costs, of standing up for human rights in China.</p>
<h2>Boycott, boycott, boycott</h2>
<p>For much of its existence, Communist China has <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674028401">boycotted the Olympic Games</a>. After the Chinese Civil War, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) made its debut at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, leading the Republic of China (ROC) to withdraw in protest, furious that the Communist mainland was permitted to enter under the name of “China.” </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-taiwan-competing-in-the-olympics-under-chinese-taipei-175895">Why is Taiwan competing in the Olympics under 'Chinese Taipei'?</a>
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<p>This <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/2759241">two-China debate</a> was a recurring theme at the Olympics until the 1980s. At the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, the the ROC competed while the PRC stayed home. And in 1958, the PRC formally withdrew from the Olympic Movement, rejoining in 1979. They only participated in the 1980 Winter Olympics however, joining the U.S.-led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics.</p>
<p>The PRC’s politicization of the Games worked. The IOC has made the ROC — now more commonly known as Taiwan — compete as Chinese Taipei since the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, under an Olympic flag rather than the flag of Taiwan. </p>
<p>This has remained the Olympic status quo for over thirty years, despite the obvious fact that Taiwan functions as an independent, democratic nation.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of people wearing matching uniforms waving at a crowd." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446626/original/file-20220215-17-14og2iy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446626/original/file-20220215-17-14og2iy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446626/original/file-20220215-17-14og2iy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446626/original/file-20220215-17-14og2iy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446626/original/file-20220215-17-14og2iy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446626/original/file-20220215-17-14og2iy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446626/original/file-20220215-17-14og2iy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Taiwan delegation parades during the opening ceremonies for the Olympic Games in Los Angeles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/File)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Beijing 2008 as a boon to high-tech totalitarianism</h2>
<p>The 2008 Beijing Olympics has a grim legacy. In <a href="https://publicseminar.org/essays/oppression-resistance-and-the-high-tech-totalitarianism/">Public Seminar</a>, Teng Biao convincingly argued that China governs through “high-tech totalitarianism,” using artificial intelligence and other technologies to maintain “total control of Chinese society.” </p>
<p>Although Italian philosopher <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo3534874.html">Giorgio Agamben’s</a> “states of exception” theory has typically been applied to disasters and other emergencies, political scientist <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Celebration-Capitalism-and-the-Olympic-Games/Boykoff/p/book/9781138805262">Jules Boykoff</a> has made a strong case for the extension of Agamben’s work to moments of jubilation and euphoria, particularly the Olympic Games. </p>
<p>A “state of exception” is similar to a state of emergency, except instead of the state’s ability to transcend the rule of law being invoked in an emergency, it is done in the name of public good.</p>
<p>It can open the door to a legally sanctioned eradication of not just political opponents, but anyone living on the margins of society. For Tibetans and Uyghurs, this rings all too true. In Tibet in particular, the Chinese government used the Olympic Games as an excuse to <a href="https://journals.library.brocku.ca/index.php/jess/article/view/3589/2727">dramatically escalate</a> its suppression of language, religion, speech and peaceful protest. </p>
<p>As international relations scholar <a href="https://www.google.ca/books/edition/The_War_on_the_Uyghurs/Nqw_EAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=sean+r+roberts&printsec=frontcover">Sean R. Roberts</a> has shown, the Chinese government leveraged both the 9/11 attacks in the U.S. and the 2008 Olympics to re-frame peaceful Uyghur cultural protests — typically labelled as separatism — as a terrorist threat to justify their mass incarceration. </p>
<p>Since 2008, Tibet has been closed off to foreigners, but details of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1982067779619">boarding schools</a>, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-54260732">arbitrary detentions</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/xi-jinping-is-my-spiritual-leader-chinas-education-drive-tibet-2021-06-11/">restrictions on religion</a> and a general assault on Tibetan culture are well-documented. For some, the situation has become too untenable to bear. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of people holding protest signs stand around a flag that's on fire." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446627/original/file-20220215-21-ri04oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446627/original/file-20220215-21-ri04oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446627/original/file-20220215-21-ri04oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446627/original/file-20220215-21-ri04oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446627/original/file-20220215-21-ri04oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446627/original/file-20220215-21-ri04oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446627/original/file-20220215-21-ri04oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Exiled Tibetans burn a Chinese flag during a protest against Beijing Winter Olympic Games in New Delhi, India on Feb. 4.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A total of 157 Tibetan monks and nuns have <a href="https://savetibet.org/tibetan-self-immolations/">self-immolated in protest</a> since 2009. </p>
<h2>The IOC, politics and human rights</h2>
<p>Despite China’s history of using the Olympics for political gain, the IOC has refused to intervene, going so far as to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/04/world/asia/ioc-china.html">cut off talks with human rights groups</a> concerned with the possibility that official merchandise for the Beijing Olympics was being made with forced labour in the Uyghur Region.</p>
<p>Both the IOC and China have started framing all criticism as political matters, unfit for discussion at a so-called apolitical event like the Olympic Games. </p>
<p>Criticism of the disappearance, silencing and carefully choreographed re-emergence of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/peng-shuai.html">Peng Shuai</a> is “just politics.” Criticism of policies aimed at the cultural eradication of Uyghurs and Tibetans, as well as China’s decision to have a Uyghur light the Olympic cauldron, are more “politics.” </p>
<p>But there must be a line drawn between politics and human rights. While the definition of politics depends on the context, the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights">United Nations</a> is quite clear when it comes to what is, and what is not, a human right. Violations of these rights are not merely political wranglings of foreign diplomacy, but rather real, tangible assaults on people and their cultures. </p>
<p>But the two — politics and human rights violations — are obviously intertwined. The former can be used to hide the latter. Unfortunately, that’s precisely what the IOC and China have done with Beijing 2022.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176873/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Few nations know how to politicize the Olympics as effectively as China does.MacIntosh Ross, Assistant Professor, Kinesiology, Western UniversityBiao Teng, Pozen Visiting Professor, Human Rights Scholar, University of ChicagoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1755822022-02-03T17:44:44Z2022-02-03T17:44:44ZSilence is golden? Olympic athletes’ freedom of speech muted by Games organizers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442363/original/file-20220124-23-19tipti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5739%2C3823&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The International Olympic Committee has a demonstrated history of controlling athletes' public statements, despite claiming that athletes are free to express their opinions in press conferences, in media interviews and on social media.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/David J. Phillip) </span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 175px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/silence-is-golden-olympic-athletes--freedom-of-speech-muted-by-games-organizers" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Beyond the Olympic’s facade of glitz, glamour and gold there’s a glaring and controversial regulation — the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) <a href="https://olympics.com/athlete365/what-we-do/voice/athlete-expression-rule-50/">Rule 50</a>. Rule 50 prohibits athletes from demonstrating during competition or on the podium. </p>
<p>Two years ago, IOC member <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/free-speech-for-olympic-athletes">Dick Pound</a> stated that “athletes remain free to express their opinions in press conferences, in media interviews and on social media.” But the <a href="https://olympics.com/athlete365/who-we-are/athletes-declaration/">Athletes Declaration</a> is clear — all Olympians must “comply with applicable national laws.” </p>
<p>This includes forgoing their right to freedom of speech and expression while in China because of the regime’s <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3146188/picking-quarrels-and-provoking-trouble-how-chinas-catch-all">vague law</a> against “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.”</p>
<p>With the 2022 Beijing Olympics looming, Pound has been <a href="https://www.sportsnet.ca/olympics/article/dick-pound-defends-iocs-decision-award-olympics-china/">assuring Olympic critics</a> that “there is absolutely nothing wrong with China” as an Olympic host.</p>
<p>If Pound’s commentary leaves you with an unsettling sense of déjà vu, there’s a good reason for that. Addressing 205 national Olympic committees before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, IOC President Jacques Rogge <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/-freedom-of-expression-is-a-basic-human-right">downplayed threats to freedom of speech</a> saying: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“A person’s ability to express his or her opinion is a basic human right and as such does not need to have a specific clause in the Olympic Charter because its place is implicit.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In addition to restrictions imposed by the IOC and China, many active athletes are contractually bound by their Olympic federation’s code of ethics to refrain from making “<a href="https://resources.fina.org/fina/document/2021/01/12/c9057283-1c4e-442e-807e-f88c982c7275/logo_fina_code_of_ethics_as_approved_by_the_ec_on_22.07.2017_final_0.pdf">adverse comments</a>” on executive decisions.</p>
<h2>China’s assault on athlete rights</h2>
<p>Even if the IOC gave athletes the green light to protest, such actions would be ill-advised since China’s authoritarian regime is notorious for its <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/09/china/china-travel-foreigners-arbitrary-detention-hnk-dst-intl/index.html">arbitrary detentions</a>. </p>
<p>The IOC’s silence suggests that it is aligning itself with China rather than championing Olympic athletes, while stifling growing criticism regarding its own hollow commitments to human rights.</p>
<hr>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-sanctioning-a-refugee-team-to-letting-china-host-does-the-international-olympic-committee-support-human-rights-172467">From sanctioning a refugee team to letting China host: Does the International Olympic Committee support human rights?</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<p>Dutch officials recently advised athletes <a href="https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/dutch-athletes-warned-keep-phones-laptops-out-china-media-2022-01-11/">to leave personal electronic devices at home</a> and use only team-provided cell phones in order to avoid Chinese espionage. </p>
<p><a href="https://citizenlab.ca/about/">Citizen Lab</a> at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy recently determined that an application all athletes are required to download for submitting health and customs information has a “<a href="https://citizenlab.ca/2022/01/cross-country-exposure-analysis-my2022-olympics-app/">devastating flaw where encryption protecting users’ voice audio and file transfers can be trivially sidestepped</a>.”</p>
<p>On the same day the security flaw was revealed, Beijing Organizing Committee official Yang Shu explained that athletes could indeed be <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jan/21/china-threat-punishment-beijing-winter-olympics-athletes-political-statements-free-speech-very-concerning-australia-says">punished for political statements</a> to journalists and on social media. </p>
<p>In fact, the committee will have departments <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jan/21/china-threat-punishment-beijing-winter-olympics-athletes-political-statements-free-speech-very-concerning-australia-says">dedicated to monitoring Olympians’ speech</a> for the duration of the Games.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman wearing a medical face mask holding a sign that says 'Save Tibet: Boycott Beijing 2022.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442345/original/file-20220124-15-1rpk2fo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442345/original/file-20220124-15-1rpk2fo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442345/original/file-20220124-15-1rpk2fo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442345/original/file-20220124-15-1rpk2fo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442345/original/file-20220124-15-1rpk2fo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442345/original/file-20220124-15-1rpk2fo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442345/original/file-20220124-15-1rpk2fo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protesters and activists gathered in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on Jan. 4 to protest against the Beijing Olympic Games and call on Germany to diplomatically boycott the Winter Olympics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Michael Sohn)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But there’s a lot for athletes to comment on — from the obvious attempt of Chinese authorities to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jan/21/china-threat-punishment-beijing-winter-olympics-athletes-political-statements-free-speech-very-concerning-australia-says">subvert their freedom of speech</a> to the well-documented human rights abuses unfolding against <a href="https://journals.library.brocku.ca/index.php/jess/article/view/3589/2727">Tibetans, Uyghurs, Southern Mongolians and Hong Kongers</a> and the all-too-common <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/china-and-tibet">persecution of human rights defenders</a>.</p>
<h2>The IOC Athletes’ Commission</h2>
<p>The IOC Athletes’ Commission is a group of retired athletes whose <a href="https://olympics.com/athlete365/who-we-are/ioc-athletes-commission/#:%7E:text=ArticlesRelated%20Content-,About,of%20the%20Olympic%20Movement%20decisions.">stated purpose</a> is to ensure that athletes’ viewpoints are “at the heart of Olympic movement decisions.” </p>
<p>The effectiveness of the Athletes’ Commission is limited at best. As <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83867-773-220201008">R.A., an anonymous commission member</a> explained, many members have experienced powerlessness at the hands of international federations and are unlikely to “rock the boat,” while others “don’t want to bite the hand that feeds them.” </p>
<p>Whether Athletes’ Commission members are free to express their views is also an open question.</p>
<p>In early 2020, as the world dealt with COVID-19, some athletes challenged the IOC’s plans to host Tokyo 2020 in August. Canadian Athletes’ Commission member Hayley Wickenheiser <a href="https://www.si.com/olympics/2020/04/11/hayley-wickenheiser-ice-hockey-medical-school-doctor-coronavirus">called for postponement</a>. The IOC promptly <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1093067/hayley-wickenheiser-ppe-ioc-canada">sent her a personal message</a> saying it was “a pity” that she spoke out without asking them first. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A man wearing glasses sitting in front of a teal background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442357/original/file-20220124-17-1iqprmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442357/original/file-20220124-17-1iqprmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442357/original/file-20220124-17-1iqprmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442357/original/file-20220124-17-1iqprmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442357/original/file-20220124-17-1iqprmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442357/original/file-20220124-17-1iqprmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442357/original/file-20220124-17-1iqprmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dick Pound, a senior member of the International Olympic Committee, at a news conference in Munich, Germany in 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Kerstin Joensson)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/hayley-wickenheiser-had-to-speak-out-for-olympic-postponement-1.5512175">Her rebuttal</a>: “I didn’t know free speech had to go through the IOC.”</p>
<p>Clearly, the IOC wants to control athletes’ public statements. When R.A. was about to publish a critical article in an Olympic magazine, they were subjected to an unsuccessful attempt at censorship by a senior IOC member. He phoned R.A.’s private number to persuade them to tone down the article, and followed up by emailing a document that he thought would demonstrate that the critique was flawed.</p>
<h2>Solidarity: Athlete advocacy groups fight back</h2>
<p>The Olympic industry may not enjoy its privileges for much longer. Athlete advocacy groups and athlete unions — like the <a href="https://www.uniglobalunion.org/sectors/world-players/about">World Players Association</a>, <a href="https://athleten-deutschland.org/">Athleten Deutchland</a>, <a href="https://globalathlete.org/">Global Athlete</a> and others — have been <a href="https://athleten-deutschland.org/wp-content/uploads/20211206_After-Peng-Shuai-Case_Protection-of-athletes.pdf">mobilizing to protect athletes’ rights</a>, with <a href="https://globalathlete.org/our-word/global-athlete-calls-on-the-international-olympic-committee-and-the-international-paralympic-committee-to-postpone-the-games">some notable successes</a>.</p>
<p>The IOC has been the target of global criticism, inside and outside of sport, because of its recent selection of <a href="https://www.axios.com/olympics-authoritarian-china-fda2e433-0725-4579-a338-6a084fcd1ade.html">three host cities under authoritarian regimes</a> — Beijing in 2008 and 2022, and <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/02/11/russia-ioc-acts-sochi-abuses">Sochi in 2014</a> — with full knowledge of the human rights violations perpetuated by these governments. </p>
<p>Since <a href="https://library.olympics.com/Default/doc/SYRACUSE/68183/olympic-industry-resistance-challenging-olympic-power-and-propaganda-helen-jefferson-lenskyj?_lg=en-GB">Olympic industry propaganda</a> relies on winning hearts and minds, can it survive the damage to its brand that the protests of athletes and activists are generating?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175582/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Can the Olympic industry survive the damage that calls for a Winter Olympics boycott are doing to its brand?Helen Jefferson Lenskyj, Professor Emerita of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education, University of TorontoMacIntosh Ross, Assistant Professor, Kinesiology, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1750532022-02-01T23:32:44Z2022-02-01T23:32:44ZHow snowboarding became a marquee event at the Winter Olympics – but lost some of its cool factor in the process<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443590/original/file-20220131-125001-1pfxbyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=32%2C0%2C5361%2C3598&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">GettyImages</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The mass appeal of creative, youth-oriented events such as <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9780230305571">snowboarding</a> and freestyle skiing at the Winter Olympics is a virtual case study of how the once radical can go mainstream.</p>
<p>And while audiences have come to love these relatively new sports, the story of snowboarding’s inclusion in the Olympics also reveals the unintended consequences of “success” for the image of the sport itself.</p>
<p>When snowboarding first emerged in the late 1960s and ’70s in North America, most of its early pioneers were young people who rejected competitive, organised sport. Inspired by surfing and skateboarding rather than skiing, they were seeking something that offered fun, self-expression and an <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/101269097032002003?casa_token=is4c9XY0kgkAAAAA:eqrpwqODtfwAGMZL8uuumydcYtE1qq6KdEiqh_fCckeS5ZdsZ3tX6OcfWvp4jwaORw5kq_l6thp1fA">alternative identity</a>.</p>
<p>Despite some initial resistance from skiers and resorts, snowboarding’s popularity grew during the 1990s. Television and corporate sponsors identified its huge potential to attract the elusive young male market. Increasingly, <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230390744_2">transnational media corporations and events</a> likes the <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315680521-17/games-holly-thorpe-belinda-wheaton">X-Games</a> and Gravity Games <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17430431003779999?casa_token=xvBiThqP-7MAAAAA%3A_DbAOUto0w9NCOX5NAeRYmtfrcW8IQXoSF_NbRF3tUK1mGUKC_nEyAMavGoitjxDzzBoD_VL8kRUOw">controlled and defined</a> snowboarding. </p>
<p>While some snowboarders initially <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0193723500242005?casa_token=ykEK0M_fiTQAAAAA:ZfEaJjw9XoKMJIShYKOtlh8Ix_HDFwXZWXPr2hWdTFMqzKY0k6zEHxPkp0cPQDT9Oo_bCchTWz52tg">resisted “selling out”</a>, many embraced the opportunities to develop the sport and carve out new careers for themselves as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/17430437.2018.1440715">“extreme sport” athletes</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/BiNbR2dlNIA","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<h2>Early resistance</h2>
<p>Meanwhile, the Winter Olympics (always a more niche event compared with its summer counterpart) recognised snowboarding’s potential to attract younger viewers and international sponsors. </p>
<p>The International Olympic Committee (IOC) first included snowboarding in the 1998 Winter Olympics, but under the governance of the International Ski Federation (FIS) rather than the International Snowboard Federation. The loss of autonomy and control <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0038038511413427">infuriated many snowboarders</a>.</p>
<p>The world’s best halfpipe rider at the time, Norwegian Terje Haakonsen, was <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0193723500242005?casa_token=LaLUgSMGGckAAAAA:JlZCJVJninovAyc1gO7nVvs3hRrmJIQQSgGw6pxMFTuFPWZ4t3tkQfbM3AD56uuljK4LemWgzHKoEA">particularly vocal</a>, refusing to be turned into a “uniform-wearing, flag-bearing, walking logo”. Many other snowboarders echoed his sentiments. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-winter-olympics-expanded-and-brought-growing-pains-with-them-90411">How the Winter Olympics expanded – and brought growing pains with them</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>And while snowboarding’s <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0038038511413427?casa_token=C4nosGSOEkYAAAAA%3AqX7eAobLwDVn9k-Kl36csVvD9hwTTpYk6cu4fxHf4CG_Otn5HTbhlYqRUR1_2wZfkTbs2DYFW-WCDg">assimilation continued</a>, the four events that debuted in 1998 – men’s and women’s halfpipe and giant slalom – were largely treated as a sideshow. The athletes were perceived and portrayed as interlopers in the Olympic program. As <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/longterm/olympics1998/sport/snowboard/articles/oly8.htm">The Washington Post put it</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Snowboarders are the official curiosity of the Nagano Winter Games. They’re totally new to the Olympics. They look different, they sound different, they are different.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>When Canadian Ross Rebagliati <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02614367.2011.596556">tested positive for marijuana</a> after winning the first snowboarding gold medal, the IOC revoked his medal, only to return it a few days later when Rebagliati’s lawyers found a loophole in the IOC/FIS drug policies. The scandal confirmed the view – of snowboarders as well as mainstream commentators – that snowboarding was not ready to become an Olympic sport. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1488413241235628032"}"></div></p>
<h2>Acceptance and growth</h2>
<p>By the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, however, the packaging of snowboarding had evolved and the sport’s second mainstream outing was deemed a resounding success. Nearly 32% of the US population (92 million people) watched the halfpipe competition in which Americans won gold, silver and bronze in the men’s event and gold in the women’s event. </p>
<p>Official broadcaster NBC reported a 23% ratings increase among 18-to-34-year-olds. For the IOC, the inclusion of snowboarding had become a game-changer, showcasing cool new sports celebrities for Olympic audiences, especially in the lucrative US market. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/get-caught-up-in-the-olympic-spirit-but-keep-your-political-eyes-wide-open-174223">Get caught up in the Olympic spirit, but keep your (political) eyes wide open</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>By the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, snowboarders were front and centre, with Shaun White from the US deemed the most “<a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/more-sports/shaun-white-still-the-man-to-beat-in-halfpipe/article4197158/">recognisable athlete</a>”. </p>
<p>When White won his third gold in the halfpipe at the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang it attracted a record 22.6 million viewers in the US alone. Having qualified for his fifth Olympics, White will bring his star power to Beijing this year.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1487828856387956736"}"></div></p>
<h2>Women on board</h2>
<p>Women snowboarders have competed in all Olympic events since 1998, <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/978-1-137-45797-4">expanding opportunities</a> for women in the sport and industry. </p>
<p>Olympic snowboarders such as Kelly Clark, Hannah Tetter, Torah Bright and Chloe Kim build on the efforts of previous generations of female snowboarders, carving out new space for girls and women in the sport.</p>
<p>In the process of wowing audiences, they’ve also <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1743043052000316632?casa_token=KRItkl3TnJ8AAAAA%3AhFcpKn7yNOk80CfSMw9hPfmzoidZNEsdPvE9drAP3B5NY6w916718wrHuWnIT1T_G6HgiZaegMTvHw">inspired the next generation</a> of stars like New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski-Synnott and Japan’s Ono Mitsuki.</p>
<p>It’s estimated women will make up 45% of the athletes competing in Beijing this year, including in the new mixed team snowboard cross event, added as part of a broader <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0193723518781230?casa_token=-KV69rocC5AAAAAA%3ARQDcfd2xMRPrnBMBlIrmGvhPdKqDPPSMtQHIBFei0cy-eEJe-HAZZhppaq9-ZRmTuYxEw8tPDZQ65g">IOC initiative to achieve gender parity</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Zoi Sadowski-Synnott in the snow" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443581/original/file-20220131-117572-pvafio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443581/original/file-20220131-117572-pvafio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443581/original/file-20220131-117572-pvafio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443581/original/file-20220131-117572-pvafio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443581/original/file-20220131-117572-pvafio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443581/original/file-20220131-117572-pvafio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443581/original/file-20220131-117572-pvafio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Zoi Sadowski-Synnott after her winning final run of the Dew Tour at Copper Mountain, Colorado, in 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GettyImages</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Victim of its own success?</h2>
<p>While the IOC held the line with certain rules and regulations (no stickers on snowboards, no large corporate logos on clothing or equipment), it has been increasingly willing to accommodate snowboarders’ individuality – allowing more clothing choices and athletes to select their own music for halfpipe runs. </p>
<p>Snowboarding’s success has also helped open up the Winter Olympics to other youth-focused sports, particularly <a href="https://kansaspress.ku.edu/978-0-7006-1341-0.html">free-skiing disciplines</a>, as well as influencing the Summer Olympics’ embrace of BMX, surfing, skateboarding, sport climbing and breaking. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/alt-goes-mainstream-how-surfing-skateboarding-bmx-and-sport-climbing-became-olympic-events-164158">Alt goes mainstream: how surfing, skateboarding, BMX and sport climbing became Olympic events</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But there’s an irony to snowboarding’s mainstream success, too. While it has become popular with broader audiences, and companies and athletes have done very well from Olympic exposure, it appears to have lost its appeal among younger people.</p>
<p>Participation has been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/07/sports/snowboarding-once-a-high-flying-sport-crashes-to-earth.html">declining steadily</a> in recent years – to the point where former pro snowboarder and action sports agent Circe Wallace has said the sport’s <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09523367.2019.1703688?casa_token=6YJKDDvQBpAAAAAA%3AmHDngdV1qeKrY6IYsaTRwNrYN28cjekSwJv7voD8gd9-SobWrAc0b23_VSj377xpUuC67yKO0qKCtA">commodification and institutionalisation</a> have been “the death knell of the unique culture and beauty of snowboarding”.</p>
<p>It’s a familiar story – youth-culture cool incorporated by mainstream businesses and organisations for profit. As the IOC continues to search out the <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Action-Sports-and-the-Olympic-Games-Past-Present-Future/Wheaton-Thorpe/p/book/9781138492851?gclid=Cj0KCQiAosmPBhCPARIsAHOen-N-SmP9K_ulHwUfHt8ERhLTbUn_66Px4yJL6NuC0dYBeLvgUHmnE9YaAsRDEALw_wcB">latest youth-oriented sports</a> to help it stay relevant, bring back younger viewers and attract corporate sponsors, we would do well to ask who, ultimately, are the real winners and the losers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175053/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The mainstream embrace of snowboarding for its youthful audience and sponsorship riches also dented its once-alternative image – but a new generation of stars could change all that.Holly Thorpe, Professor in Sociology of Sport and Physical Culture, University of WaikatoBelinda Wheaton, Professor, University of WaikatoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1731452021-12-27T19:03:19Z2021-12-27T19:03:19ZCan China win back global opinion before the Winter Olympics? Does it even want to?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437452/original/file-20211214-25-1f606j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=80%2C0%2C5910%2C3988&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Protesters rally against the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Los Angeles in December.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Damian Dovarganes/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Beijing Winter Olympics are only weeks away and China has been forced on the defensive by a diplomatic boycott called by the US, UK, Australia and other western countries.</p>
<p>There had been <a href="https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/32004162/calls-boycott-china-olympics-amid-uyghur-genocide-fall-flat-washington">pressure for Western governments</a> to announce a boycott for months over the Chinese party-state’s treatment of the Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, as well as human rights lawyers and individuals who dare to speak out against the government. </p>
<p>The push gained new momentum after the <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/18/china/wta-ceo-peng-shuai-steve-simon-intl-hnk/index.html">disappearance</a> of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai following her allegations of sexual assault against a former top Politburo official. The Women’s Tennis Association <a href="https://www.wtatennis.com/news/2384758/steve-simon-announces-wta-s-decision-to-suspend-tournaments-in-china">suspended</a> all of its tournaments in China – the strongest stance yet against China by a sporting organisation that relies heavily on the Chinese market. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1461076745713598473"}"></div></p>
<p>China’s international image was already at <a href="https://theconversation.com/chinas-image-problem-is-worsening-globally-its-time-for-beijing-to-consider-a-diplomatic-reset-147901">its lowest level</a> in years in many western countries following the outbreak of the COVID pandemic and Beijing’s initial handling of the crisis. </p>
<p>So, given the increasingly negative views of the country in the west, how will Beijing respond with the Olympics only weeks away? Will it adopt a charm offensive? Or will it retaliate because it feels it has been treated unfairly?</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/chinas-image-problem-is-worsening-globally-its-time-for-beijing-to-consider-a-diplomatic-reset-147901">China's image problem is worsening globally. It's time for Beijing to consider a diplomatic reset</a>
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<h2>Businesses still need access to China</h2>
<p>Recent strategies adopted by the government suggest there are other avenues for Beijing to counter critics of its policies. Take economic pressure, for one.</p>
<p>In a virtual meeting between China’s vice foreign minister, Xie Feng, and US business lobby groups at the end of November, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/02/beijing-warns-china-linked-us-businesses-you-cannot-make-a-fortune-in-silence">Xie asked</a> US businesses to “speak up and speak out” for China with the US government. </p>
<p>The message was clear – Beijing expects the business community to lobby on its behalf to continue to have access to China’s lucrative market. As Xie said,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If the relations between the two countries deteriorate, the business community cannot ‘make a fortune in silence’.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This has long been the price the business community has been forced to pay to have a foothold in China – compliance with the demands of the party-state. </p>
<p>Remember back in 2019, when former Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/10/7/20902700/daryl-morey-tweet-china-nba-hong-kong">tweeted in support</a> of pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong? The NBA initially issued a statement that was <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com.au/nba-china-daryl-morey-tweet-response-criticism-2019-10">criticised</a> by US politicians on both sides of the aisle for prioritising financial interests over human rights. (The league later clarified it stood for “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/10/08/768225490/nba-defends-freedom-of-speech-for-employees-as-china-moves-to-block-block-games">freedom of expression</a>”.)</p>
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<p>The NBA still lost <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/feb/24/china-nba-hong-kong-protests-financial-costs-update">hundreds of millions of dollars</a> over the fallout. NBA games <a href="https://www.scmp.com/sport/basketball/article/3153029/nba-still-missing-chinese-television-screens-2021-22-season-tips">haven’t been on Chinese state television</a> since the episode.</p>
<p>Access to the lucrative Chinese market still matters hugely – this is leverage the Chinese government can still use against foreign interests. It says a lot that major Olympic sponsors <a href="https://www.thewrap.com/jake-tapper-blasts-hollywood-china/">have remained</a> quiet over China’s human rights situation, while governments have announced diplomatic boycotts.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/olympic-games-are-great-for-propagandists-how-the-lessons-of-hitlers-olympics-loom-over-beijing-2022-171555">Olympic Games are great for propagandists – how the lessons of Hitler's Olympics loom over Beijing 2022</a>
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<h2>China doesn’t care what the west thinks</h2>
<p>Then there is the question of whether China still needs the west or cares what the west thinks of it.</p>
<p>China has <a href="https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/2511_665403/202112/t20211206_10463087.html">framed</a> the diplomatic boycott as “a blatant political provocation and a serious affront to the 1.4 billion Chinese people”. But it has also pointed to the <a href="https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-12-03/76th-UNGA-adopts-Beijing-Winter-Olympic-Truce-Resolution-15Gr4gfnsEE/index.html">173 UN member nations</a> that signed the <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/un-general-assembly-adopts-olympic-truce-for-beijing-2022">UN Olympic truce</a> to ensure conflicts do not disrupt the games. </p>
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<p>Yes, Beijing is angry about the snub from Washington and others, but it is emphasising it still has broad international support for the Winter Olympics. Russian President Vladimir Putin has <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1115898/putin-beijing-2022-opening-ceremony">accepted</a> the invitation to attend the opening ceremonies “with joy”. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will also attend, and others will surely follow.</p>
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<p>China’s model of development has long attracted admiration from African countries, particularly its form of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01436597.2015.1046985">state-directed capitalism</a>. By hosting its second Olympics in less than 20 years, China is reinforcing this message to developing nations – that its model of development works.</p>
<p>By awarding China the games, the IOC is also showing the world it is unfazed by its close proximity to authoritarian regimes, further legitimising them. </p>
<p>The European Union’s <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/olympic-mess-eu-dither-winter-olympics-boycott/">dithering over its response</a> to the boycott has also strengthened Beijing’s position and allowed it to exploit the west’s inconsistent stance on the matter. </p>
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<h2>The Olympics don’t bring dramatic change</h2>
<p>There was <a href="https://apnews.com/article/beijing-sports-asia-2020-tokyo-olympics-china-olympic-games-73163e1885612915b4742de2bfa3d277">great hope</a> the 2008 Beijing summer Olympics would change China for the better – the government would become more accountable and have greater respect for human rights. </p>
<p>However, <a href="https://www.espn.com/olympics/news/story?id=3294640">violent protests</a> broke out in Tibet against the party-state’s repressive policies and then spread around the world in the run-up to the games. About 30 Tibetans were <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/apr/29/tibet.jailings">jailed</a>, some for life. </p>
<p>The 2008 Olympics revealed the naivete of the international community: believing that sport can bring political change.</p>
<p>In fact, China stage-managed those games so well, it was <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/21/asia/beijing-olympics-2008-2022-soft-power-dst-intl-hnk/index.html">deemed a soft power victory</a>, announcing China as a superpower on the global stage. Historian Zheng Wang called the games “a symbol of China’s rejuvenation”.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Through the extravagant opening ceremony, the Chinese government showcased China’s historical glory and new achievements […] unassailable evidence that China had finally ‘made it’. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>It would be mistake to think the current diplomatic boycott will lead to any substantial change in China’s domestic situation. Instead, the diplomatic boycott is a strategy of compromise – athletes are still able to compete, but western governments can be seen as taking a stand. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-australias-diplomatic-boycott-of-the-beijing-winter-olympics-is-important-but-unlikely-to-have-any-significant-impact-173422">Why Australia's diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics is important, but unlikely to have any significant impact</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>However, the silence of major sponsors shows there is no unified voice when it comes to the China’s human rights situation. This gap between the west’s political and commercial response plays to China’s advantage. It’s yet another way for China to demonstrate the weakness of the west – that professed democratic values and respect for human rights can be compromised when profits are at stake.</p>
<p>As such, China is unlikely to capitulate and make dramatic overtures to repair its international image. It’s more likely to go on the offensive.</p>
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<p>Nonetheless, this should be a moment when sports fans, athletes, sponsors, and the broader international civil society question sporting bodies like the IOC in awarding sporting events to authoritarian governments. </p>
<p>The IOC didn’t learn its lesson in 2008. If it wants to be seen as upholding human rights, this starts with how it awards its biggest prizes – the right to play host to the rest of the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173145/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Y.J. Hsu is affiliated with the Lowy Institute. </span></em></p>China has been unfazed by diplomatic boycotts by the west. In Beijing’s eyes, the Olympics still have broad support by many nations and, importantly, corporate sponsors.Jennifer Y.J. Hsu, Research fellow, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1733802021-12-10T12:46:25Z2021-12-10T12:46:25ZBeijing Olympics: US-led diplomatic boycott is misplaced<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436918/original/file-20211210-133881-u0cm05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=142%2C59%2C4850%2C2994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/washington-dc-usa-february-10-2021-1936930471">BiksuTong / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The US has announced a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing over concerns of China’s alleged <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-announces-diplomatic-boycott-winter-olympics-china-human/story?id=81583714">human rights abuses</a>. Predictably, Australia and the UK , members of the newly created AUKUS military alliance designed to counter China, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59582137">followed suit</a>, as has Canada.</p>
<p>Boycotts are a diplomatic practice used by states to express disapproval on various matters. In this case, the states in question are refusing to send diplomatic representatives to the Games – but they are not blocking their athletes from competing. This illustrates why boycotts of this nature are not only difficult to pull off, but can actually undermine the value sport brings to international relations. </p>
<p>The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is made up of members who represent the organisation in their own countries – not the other way around, like in the UN. This model has helped the IOC maintain political neutrality over the years. Its president, Thomas Bach has stated that allowing politics in will mark <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1116567/">the end of the Games</a>.</p>
<p>The White House <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-announces-diplomatic-boycott-winter-olympics-china-human/story?id=81583714">announcement</a> made it clear that the government will not penalise US athletes by barring them from participating in the Games: “The athletes on Team USA have our full support”. This shows the US understands the importance of leaving politics out of sport – so why boycott at all?</p>
<p>This decision is an example of “constructive ambiguity”, a negotiating tactic widely credited to Henry Kissinger, one of the US’s preeminent diplomats. The term refers to the deliberate use of ambiguous language to advance a political purpose and does not denote integrity but self-preservation.</p>
<p>Days before the boycott was announced, the UN general assembly <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/un-general-assembly-adopts-olympic-truce-for-beijing-2022">adopted the resolution</a> to “[build] a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal”. The resolution was co-sponsored by 173 member states, but the US was not one of them. Luis Moreno, the Permanent Observer for the IOC to the UN, stated: “This is only possible if the Olympic Games are politically neutral and do not become a tool to achieve political goals”.</p>
<p>Both the IOC and Seb Coe, president of World Athletics, have <a href="http://www.news.cn/english/2021-11/28/c_1310338291.htm">denounced politically motivated boycotts</a>. Coe, who became Olympic champion in the 1980 Moscow Games despite the then British government’s support for a US-led boycott, dismissed the current decision as “a meaningless gesture”.</p>
<p>These events reinforce the constructive ambiguity of the US’s diplomatic boycott. By supporting the participation of US athletes in the Beijing Games, the Biden administration explicitly acknowledges the Olympic values and the primacy of the Olympic Charter.</p>
<p>At the same time, by declaring a diplomatic boycott, the US clearly undermines the political neutrality of sport and puts its own Olympic authorities and athletes in a very uncomfortable position. The boycott urges athletes and officials from those countries to either distance themselves from their governments or to accept that they do not care about human rights in China.</p>
<h2>Past boycotts</h2>
<p>The US policy towards sporting boycotts has been chequered. Appeals to boycott the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany because of repressions against Jews and Christians were left unanswered by the administration, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43609114">despite the insistence</a> of US diplomats in Berlin.</p>
<p>David Kanin, a former CIA specialist on the Olympic movement, said of the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/019372358000400101">Moscow boycott</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The international impact of the boycott might have been greater had the White House been more knowledgeable of the organisation and operation of the Olympic movement and international sport. </p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://academic.oup.com/dh/article-abstract/40/5/845/2403023">Historians deemed</a> the Moscow boycott to have been a foreign policy and sporting “failure of Olympic proportions”. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black sticker with white text showing the Olympic rings, with the text Berlin 1936, Beijing 2022." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436919/original/file-20211210-133881-rr6jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436919/original/file-20211210-133881-rr6jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436919/original/file-20211210-133881-rr6jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436919/original/file-20211210-133881-rr6jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436919/original/file-20211210-133881-rr6jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436919/original/file-20211210-133881-rr6jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436919/original/file-20211210-133881-rr6jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A sticker drawing a parallel between the Beijing Olympics and the 1936 Games in Berlin, which were unsuccessfully boycotted.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.alamy.com/sticker-berlin-1936-olympics-beijing-2022-berlin-germany-image450101948.html">Sibylle A. Möller / Alamy Stock Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Past Olympic boycotts have failed for a number of legal, political and ethical reasons. The Olympic movement encompasses 206 countries and for any boycott to be successful it needs the support of the overwhelming majority of countries. This is highly unlikely to happen – all countries have strong bilateral relations with other states, which they will not jeopardise over a sporting event.</p>
<p>The Chinese government has been harsher in its response to the boycott, saying the involved countries will <a href="https://uk.news.yahoo.com/winter-olympics-2022-china-warns-075800324.html?">“pay the price”</a>. China has also said that it would <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-not-inviting-western-politicians-who-threaten-boycott-beijing-winter-games-2021-11-29/">not invite</a> western diplomats who threatened to boycott emphasising that the White House initiative is merely political grandstanding. </p>
<p>Human rights abuses should be condemned in the strongest possible terms wherever they take place, but Biden’s response to politically boycott the Olympics is timid and misplaced. The pursuit of freedom requires us to take unambiguous positions, and sports are exceptionally effective means to bring people together and promote ongoing dialogues.</p>
<p>Indeed, in 1971 the Nixon administration sent <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/magazine-25836922">nine US table tennis players</a> to China to reestablish diplomatic relations between the two countries. This move became known as “ping pong diplomacy” and is the prime example of how sport and international understanding are linked. It would be a mistake to undo that now.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173380/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The boycott is ambiguous and will undermine the value of sport in diplomacy.Vassil Girginov, Reader in Sports Management and Development, Brunel University LondonChristian Visdomini, Associate Fellow at Green-Templeton College, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1722612021-11-25T16:33:20Z2021-11-25T16:33:20Z#WhereisPengShuai: Totalitarianism, violence against women and an overdue Olympic boycott?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433301/original/file-20211122-15-raf961.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C8%2C5964%2C3979&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The editor of a Communist Party newspaper posted a video online that he said showed missing tennis star Peng Shuai as the ruling party tried to quell fears abroad while suppressing information in China about Peng after she accused a senior leader of sexual assault. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Andy Brownbill)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Content warning: This article contains mention of sexual assault and rape.</em></p>
<p>On Nov. 2, 2021, Chinese tennis pro Peng Shuai took to Weibo — a Chinese microblogging site — to recount her alleged sexual assault at the hands of high-ranking Chinese Communist Party (CCP) member and former vice premier of China, Zhang Gaoli.</p>
<p>The post was removed after about 20 minutes and Peng’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/china-peng-shuai-zhang-gaoli-metoo/2021/11/03/79c0f308-3c4f-11ec-bd6f-da376f47304e_story.html">account was suspended</a>.</p>
<p>After an international outcry, Chinese state media released what they claim was an <a href="https://twitter.com/CGTNOfficial/status/1461025491842916358?s=20">email from Peng to Women’s Tennis Association CEO Steve Simon</a>, but the note’s <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/peng-shuai-naomi-osaka-joins-calls-answers-metoo-allegations-rcna5827">authenticity was questioned</a>.</p>
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<p>China Global Television Network, the state’s international media platform, said Peng wrote directly to Steve Simon but the <a href="https://safeguarddefenders.com/en/scripted-and-staged%22%22">email inexplicably addressed “everyone</a>.” In a screenshot of the letter, a cursor is visible, raising questions about <a href="https://twitter.com/StephenMcDonell/status/1461040454913437714?s=20">when and where this email originated</a>.</p>
<p>Simon himself doubted its authenticity. “Whether she was coerced into writing it, someone wrote it for her, we don’t know,” <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/18/china/wta-ceo-peng-shuai-steve-simon-intl-hnk/index.html">Simon told <em>CNN</em></a>. “But at this point I don’t think there’s any validity in it and we won’t be comfortable until we have a chance to speak with her.” </p>
<p>Chinese state media then released a few photos of Peng, heightening concerns that the tennis star is not, in fact, free. Those concerns seem to be widely shared, except for one glaring exception — the International Olympic Committee (IOC).</p>
<h2>The IOC and CCP are acting as one</h2>
<p>According to the <a href="https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Document%20Library/OlympicOrg/General/EN-Olympic-Charter.pdf?_ga=2.4482545.358704646.1637603417-1484801982.1626721502">Olympic Charter</a>, the IOC is supposed to be working toward a “peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.” When push came to shove, however, the IOC rushed to the CCP’s defence, publicly accepting the regime’s email as proof that Peng was safe and free. IOC President Thomas Bach even <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/21/sport/peng-shuai-video-call-thomas-bach-spt-intl/index.html">participated in a video call</a> with Peng. </p>
<p>Since Nov. 2, Peng hasn’t been asked about the alleged sexual assault — as if it was erased from the narrative. As <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/ioc-call-with-chinese-tennis-star-peng-raises-more-questions-1.5675079">Yaqiu Wang of Human Rights Watch explained</a>, the IOC is now “actively playing a role in the Chinese government’s enforced disappearance, coercion and propaganda machinery.”</p>
<p>The IOC and CCP now appear to be acting as one. Any hope for the “preservation of human dignity” at the 2022 Beijing Olympics is gone.</p>
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<h2>Totalitarian China and violence against women</h2>
<p>Mao Tse Tung famously stated “women hold up half the sky,” but male domination <a href="https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Betraying_Big_Brother/_MctEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=patriarchy+and+chinese+communism&printsec=frontcover">has been the norm</a> in China. Its political system <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/04/10/china-xi-jinping-totalitarian-authoritarian-debate/">is totalitarian</a> and patriarchal, standing in stark opposition to the nation’s <a href="https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Betraying_Big_Brother/_MctEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=China+women+big+brother&printsec=frontcover">growing, and thoroughly suppressed, feminist movement</a>.</p>
<p>In China, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/24/605188107/chinese-women-face-rampant-gender-discrimination-from-employers-report-says">discrimination against women is rampant and institutionalized</a>. What Peng alleged she experienced is familiar to many Chinese women. </p>
<p>The CCP uses International Women’s Day as an opportunity to identify, harass and detain feminist activists. In 2015, a group of activists known as the Feminist Five — Li Maizi, Wu Rongrong, Zheng Churan, Wei Tingting and Wang Man — <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/china-to-release-three-of-five-womens-rights-activists-fate-of-two-unclear/2015/04/13/4c1195b2-e1e2-11e4-ae0f-f8c46aa8c3a4_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_22">were detained for 37 days</a> just for planning to give out anti-sexual harassment stickers on public transport during the event. </p>
<p>The social media accounts for <a href="https://www.cfr.org/event/feminist-voices-china-metoo-censorship">the group Feminist Voices</a> have also attracted the ire of the CCP. In 2015, Feminist Voices launched a campaign protesting China’s annual Spring Festival Gala on Chinese Central Television, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/02/25/chinas-feminists-stand-up-against-misogynistic-tv-gala/">securing 1,300 signatures</a> before being censored. </p>
<p>On March 8, 2018 — again on International Women’s Day — Feminist Voices <a href="https://hongkongfp.com/2018/03/09/prominent-chinese-feminist-social-media-account-censored-international-womens-day/">was banned from Weibo</a>. A similar ban was <a href="https://hongkongfp.com/2018/03/09/prominent-chinese-feminist-social-media-account-censored-international-womens-day/">carried out by WeChat</a> the following day.</p>
<p>In Xinjiang, where Muslim women are held for so-called “re-education,” rape remains a common means of torture and coercion. Tursunay Ziawudun, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-55794071">who spent nine months in a camp there</a>, told the <em>BBC</em> that “women were removed from the cells ‘every night’ and raped by one or more masked Chinese men.” </p>
<p>This has been verified by former camp physician and teacher Sayragul Sauytbay, who told reporters that <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-55794071">guards rape women in full view of other detainees</a> in hopes of coercing confessions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman stands holding her child in front of a blown-up, flipped-over car" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433300/original/file-20211122-27-1mkwg23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433300/original/file-20211122-27-1mkwg23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433300/original/file-20211122-27-1mkwg23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433300/original/file-20211122-27-1mkwg23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433300/original/file-20211122-27-1mkwg23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433300/original/file-20211122-27-1mkwg23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433300/original/file-20211122-27-1mkwg23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Uyghur woman and child walk past a burned car following riots in Urumqi, western China’s Xinjiang province in July 2009. One million Uyghur, Kazakhs and other Muslims are estimated to be held in heavily guarded internment camps, also called ‘re-education’ camps, which the Chinese government describes as vocational training centres.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>It’s time for the governments to take action</h2>
<p>It is morally and politically wrong to let Beijing host the Olympic Games. Silence is complicity, but endorsement — by actually sending athletes to the Games — is something much worse. </p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/serenawilliams/status/1461408866697105413?s=20">Serena Williams</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/naomiosaka/status/1460723353174433793?s=20">Naomi Osaka</a> and many other high-profile athletes are speaking out in support of Peng, but they need the backing of world governments to help prevent what stands to be the worst case of <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-repressive-states-and-governments-use-sportswashing-to-remove-stains-on-their-reputation-100395">sport-washing human rights violations</a> since <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-nazi-olympics-berlin-1936">the Nazis hosted the 1936 Berlin Olympics</a>. </p>
<p>To many human rights activists, the disappearance of Peng further underlines the need for an international boycott of the 2022 Beijing Olympics. The CCP’s assaults on democracy activists in China and Hong Kong deserve more than wilful blindness.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172261/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The disappearance of Peng further underlines the need for an international boycott of the 2022 Beijing Olympics. The CCP’s assaults on democracy activists deserve more than willful blindness.MacIntosh Ross, Assistant Professor, Kinesiology, Western UniversityBiao Teng, Pozen Visiting Professor, University of ChicagoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1720452021-11-19T01:07:43Z2021-11-19T01:07:43ZA win for transgender athletes and athletes with sex variations: the Olympics shifts away from testosterone tests and toward human rights<p>The International Olympic Committee (IOC) this week <a href="https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Documents/News/2021/11/IOC-Framework-Fairness-Inclusion-Non-discrimination-2021.pdf">released</a> a much anticipated policy document aimed at making the Olympics more inclusive for transgender athletes and athletes with sex variations.</p>
<p>The new <a href="https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Documents/News/2021/11/IOC-Framework-Fairness-Inclusion-Non-discrimination-2021.pdf">framework</a> builds on more than two years of consultation with diverse athletes, advocates, and stakeholders.</p>
<p>The devil will be in the detail and implementation, of course. But this fresh approach, which places human rights at the centre, could herald a new era of gender-inclusive sports participation and governance.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/world-rugbys-proposed-ban-on-trans-athletes-is-wrong-history-shows-inclusion-is-possible-145540">World Rugby's proposed ban on trans athletes is wrong. History shows inclusion is possible</a>
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<h2>Why this new framework – and why now?</h2>
<p>One of the most prominent gender equity and human rights issues of recent years has been the inclusion of gender-minoritised people – those whose bodies and/or gender expression and identity do not neatly align with normative notions of the female/male binary. </p>
<p>This issue affects sport globally from grassroots to elite levels. Stakeholders have long called for change.</p>
<p>We work with sports organisations and athletes grappling with the question of inclusion in women’s sport. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19406940.2021.1955727">Our own research</a> has highlighted that many sports organisations develop policies with little to no knowledge of the complexity of the issue – and often without engaging the athletes affected.</p>
<p>The new IOC framework follows a long and much-critiqued history of efforts to define the boundaries of the female athlete category, dating back to the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/sex-testing-at-the-olympics-should-be-abolished-once-and-for-all-132956">nude parades</a>” of the 1960s. </p>
<p>In the past, the goal has been to find a “biological basis of womanhood” and relied on <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1357034X19865940">incomplete and controversial scientific evidence</a>. </p>
<p>Today, however, there is wider recognition of the fact science alone cannot provide a straightforward answer to such as socially and biologically complex question. </p>
<p>An alternative approach, reflected in the IOC’s new framework, is to build policy around the concept of human rights.</p>
<h2>What do the new guidelines say?</h2>
<p>The new framework recognise human rights as a fundamental responsibility of sports governing bodies.</p>
<p>It explicitly takes the approach athletes shouldn’t be excluded solely on the basis of their transgender identity or sex variations. It aims to ensure everyone can practice sport safely and free from harassment, irrespective of their gender or sex-linked traits. </p>
<p>Importantly, the framework attempts to move sports governing bodies away from relying on testosterone as a one-size-fits-all measure of eligibility. </p>
<p>In its place, it emphasises ten key principles to guide the policy development process: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>prevention of harm</p></li>
<li><p>non-discrimination</p></li>
<li><p>fairness</p></li>
<li><p>no presumption of advantage</p></li>
<li><p>evidence-based approaches to regulation</p></li>
<li><p>the primacy of health and bodily autonomy</p></li>
<li><p>a stakeholder-centered approach to rule development</p></li>
<li><p>the right to privacy </p></li>
<li><p>periodic review of eligibility regulations.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The relationship between testosterone and performance is so complex, sports governing bodies cannot realistically expect to rely on testosterone measures when defining eligibility.</p>
<p>There is just as much diversity among the bodies and performances of trans women and women with sex variations as we see among cisgender and normatively-bodied women athletes. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1460662931159404554"}"></div></p>
<p>The IOC’s <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-releases-framework-on-fairness-inclusion-and-non-discrimination-on-the-basis-of-gender-identity-and-sex-variations">spokespeople</a> were pragmatic: let’s take one step at a time, have faith in the ten principles, and see where they take us. </p>
<p>In this way, the new framework (and its underlying philosophy) moves us well beyond contentious <a href="https://stillmed.olympic.org/Documents/Commissions_PDFfiles/Medical_commission/2015-11_ioc_consensus_meeting_on_sex_reassignment_and_hyperandrogenism-en.pdf">testosterone thresholds introduced in 2015</a> and the 2003 <a href="https://stillmed.olympic.org/Documents/Reports/EN/en_report_905.pdf">Stockholm consensus</a>, which required athletes to have affirmation surgeries and “anatomical changes”.</p>
<p>In fact, the IOC now recognises the “severe harm” and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2159676X.2021.1920456">systemic discrimination caused by such eligibility criteria and policies</a>. </p>
<p>This includes the disproportionate burdens and harms that have been wrought upon women of colour from Global South nations in sports like track and field. </p>
<p>The question now is: how will other sports governing bodies, most notably the International Federations (IFs) that govern each Olympic sport, be brought on side? </p>
<p>The IOC now calls for IFs to take</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a principled approach to develop their criteria that are applicable to their sport.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>An important and welcome move</h2>
<p>This framework represents a step forward for gender-inclusive sport but there’s more work ahead. It doesn’t mention non-binary athletes at all, meaning it still frames elite sports participation within a strict gender binary.</p>
<p>It’s promising to see a shift away from a paradigm focused on particular scientific and medical approaches regulating exclusion of certain groups. The move toward a contemporary vision of gender-inclusive sport is promising. </p>
<p>This new approach is a positive move for gender equitable sport; both trans women and women with sex variations will be valuable allies in the fight to make sport safe and inclusive for all women.</p>
<p>Hopefully, it will help make grassroots a more welcome space for trans and gender diverse people. These groups report alarming levels of poor mental health and suicidal ideation and have a right to opportunities to improve wellbeing through sport.</p>
<p>Sport has a unique opportunity to advance progress and health outcomes for marginalised communities.</p>
<p>This move may offer hope to young people of diverse genders and sex that they too can strive to achieve greatness in a sport they love.</p>
<p><em>Independent researcher Payoshni Mitra contributed to this article.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-way-we-talk-about-olympian-laurel-hubbard-has-real-consequences-for-all-transgender-people-163418">Why the way we talk about Olympian Laurel Hubbard has real consequences for all transgender people</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172045/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ryan Storr works for/consults to Proud2Play. He is affiliated with Proud2Play. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sheree Bekker is an invited speaker at the International Olympic Committee World Conference on the Prevention of Injury and Illness in Sport, Monaco, 25-27 November 2021. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Madeleine Pape does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new IOC framework aims to ensure everyone can practice sport safely and free from harassment, irrespective of their gender or sex-linked traits.Ryan Storr, Research fellow, Swinburne University of TechnologyMadeleine Pape, Postdoctoral Researcher, Université de LausanneSheree Bekker, Assistant Professor, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1715552021-11-10T18:44:58Z2021-11-10T18:44:58ZOlympic Games are great for propagandists – how the lessons of Hitler’s Olympics loom over Beijing 2022<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431178/original/file-20211109-19-wz7uvf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C23%2C7651%2C5074&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Will anodyne reporting from the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics play into China's propaganda efforts? </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/women-practice-a-dance-routine-in-front-of-a-large-news-photo/1349382921?adppopup=true">Kevin Frayer/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On the morning of Aug. 14, 1936, two NBC employees met for breakfast at a café in Berlin. Max Jordan and Bill Slater were discussing the Olympic Games they were broadcasting back to the United States – and the Nazi propaganda machine that had made their work, and their visit to Germany, somewhat unpleasant. </p>
<p>Slater complained about all the staged regimentation and the obviously forced smiles everywhere. </p>
<p>“Why don’t they revolt? We wouldn’t stand for all this browbeating and bullying in America. I know that. Why do they stand for it here?” Slater asked Jordan. </p>
<p>As they were talking, three armed Nazi guards sat down at the next table. The whole café quieted. “It was as though a chill had come over those present,” Jordan later recalled. “In a nutshell, there was the answer to Bill’s question.”</p>
<p>I included the story Max Jordan recounted in his memoir <a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p082214">in my book on the Nazi origins of Olympic broadcasting</a> because it perfectly encapsulated the quandary facing American sports journalists whenever the International Olympic Committee pushes them to broadcast happy images provided by repressive regimes.</p>
<p>It’s now less than 100 days from the opening ceremony of the <a href="https://olympics.com/en/beijing-2022/">2022 Beijing Winter Olympics</a>, and therefore it’s time for an honest discussion about the ethics of sport journalism and the morality of American media’s complicity with authoritarian regimes that hide the active repression of their citizens.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431176/original/file-20211109-17-1oy0w0d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A 1936 sign from Germany saying Jews were forbidden to go to that year's Winter Olympics." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431176/original/file-20211109-17-1oy0w0d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431176/original/file-20211109-17-1oy0w0d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431176/original/file-20211109-17-1oy0w0d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431176/original/file-20211109-17-1oy0w0d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431176/original/file-20211109-17-1oy0w0d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431176/original/file-20211109-17-1oy0w0d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431176/original/file-20211109-17-1oy0w0d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A sign reading ‘Juden Zutritt verboten!’ forbidding entry by Jewish people to the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/sign-reading-juden-zutritt-verboten-forbidding-entry-by-news-photo/1277756265?adppopup=true">Photo FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Abundant evidence</h2>
<p>The world knows what China is doing right now. Courageous reporting has publicized the series of <a href="https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-cables/as-global-pressure-over-human-rights-abuses-in-xinjiang-picks-up-china-remains-defiant/">repressive domestic</a> and <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/operation-fox-hunt-how-china-exports-repression-using-a-network-of-spies-hidden-in-plain-sight">international actions taken by the Chinese government</a> over the past five years.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/08/world/asia/china-uighur-muslim-detention-camp.html">persecution of the Uyghurs</a> and other human rights abuses, the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/24/chinas-new-hong-kong-laws-a-breach-of-agreement-foreign-officials-say.html">abrogation of the Hong Kong treaty</a> along with the imposition of the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/hong-kong-europe-business-5a7f50d5d5027fda34f9addeb883e809">Chinese government’s repression</a> in that port city, and the prevention of <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/07/22/1019244601/china-who-coronavirus-lab-leak-theory">a comprehensive and transparent investigation</a> into the origins of COVID-19 are all well documented. </p>
<p>Thus, the Chinese government now wants good press in the West. And its efforts to ensure favorable coverage have prompted new concerns about media control and censorship during the Games, with <a href="https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/us-calls-china-not-limit-journalists-freedom-2022-beijing-winter-olympics-2021-11-04/">a U.S. government spokesman recently</a> urging Chinese government officials “not to limit freedom of movement and access for journalists and to ensure that they remain safe and able to report freely, including at the Olympic and the Paralympic Games.”</p>
<p>But, as was clear from the experience during the 1936 Olympics, if U.S. journalists go to Beijing and emphasize the beauty of its landscape, the happiness of its citizenry and its futuristic infrastructure, and fail to cover the more controversial realities in China, that would signal compliance with – and promotion of – Chinese propaganda. </p>
<p>This is American sports journalism’s Red Smith moment. </p>
<h2>Politics, meet sports</h2>
<p>On Jan. 4, 1980, Walter “Red” Smith, the veteran New York Times sports columnist, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1980/01/04/archives/boycott-the-moscow-olympics-sports-of-the-times-we-should-have.html">surprised his readership</a> with his endorsement of the boycott movement against that summer’s Moscow Olympic Games. Boycott advocates were protesting the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. </p>
<p>Smith’s stance was unexpected, as he had carefully sidestepped – or even ignored – many other moments he considered unhealthy political intrusion into international athletic competition. But Smith wrote that history had proved that America’s participation in the Nazi Games was a mistake – even if the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/day6/naming-heatwaves-custodians-vs-covid-19-nba-barbers-online-moderators-jesse-owens-granddaughter-and-more-1.5719784/remembering-jesse-owens-the-black-olympian-who-humiliated-hitler-1.5719794">great Black American runner Jesse Owens</a> redeemed the event in public memory.</p>
<p>“When Americans look back to the 1936 Olympics,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1980/01/04/archives/boycott-the-moscow-olympics-sports-of-the-times-we-should-have.html">Smith wrote in his famous column</a>, “they take pleasure only in the memory of Jesse Owens’ four gold medals.” Outside of that, he admitted, “we are ashamed at having been guests at Adolf Hitler’s big party.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1982/01/16/obituaries/red-smith-sports-columnist-who-won-pulitzer-dies-at-76.html">Smith was an old-school sports reporter</a>, already an old-timer in 1980 – he died in 1982. His reporting and columns reflected the influence of <a href="https://theathletic.com/1876184/2020/06/18/how-he-played-the-game-assessing-the-complicated-legacy-of-grantland-rice/">Grantland Rice</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1976/07/17/archives/paul-gallico-sportswriter-and-author-is-dead-at-78-founded-golden.html">Paul Gallico</a>, the giants who invented modern American sports writing in the 1920s. But there had always existed another group of sports reporters less afraid to point out obvious political unpleasantness.</p>
<p>For example, the great <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1973/12/06/archives/jimmy-cannon-columnist-dies-sportswriter-ranged-far-afield-protege.html">Jimmy Cannon</a> had no problem freely peppering political references and acerbic commentary throughout his columns. Westbrook Pegler detested the Nazis and <a href="https://olympic-century.blogspot.com/2016/11/arms-and-olympics-westbrook-pegler-and.html">criticized them relentlessly</a> throughout the 1936 Games. And Howard Cosell’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEg3uNqsTYQ">sharp commentaries</a>, on such issues as Muhammad Ali’s boxing suspension in the 1960s and the political activism that erupted in 1968 in Mexico City, remain a credit to his legacy.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fEg3uNqsTYQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">‘The U.S. Olympic Committee … is in the main a group of pompous, arrogant and medieval-minded men who regard the games as a private social preserve,’ said Howard Cosell.</span></figcaption>
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<p>That Red Smith had spent decades remaining largely apolitical in public made his support for the boycott surprising. That he was only the second sports columnist to be <a href="https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/walter-wellesley-red-smith">awarded a Pulitzer Prize</a>, and that his opinions were widely respected, gave his endorsement significant clout. </p>
<h2>‘The one lever we have’</h2>
<p>Smith opened the gates for others to point out the incongruity and obvious hypocrisy of celebrating the Soviet Union’s peaceful intentions while the Soviet army was invading and occupying Afghanistan. In his column, Smith quoted British Member of Parliament Neville Trotter, who led the boycott movement in Great Britain. </p>
<p>“This is the one lever we have to show our outrage at this naked aggression by Russia,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1980/01/04/archives/boycott-the-moscow-olympics-sports-of-the-times-we-should-have.html">Trotter told Smith</a>. “We should do all we can to reduce the Moscow Olympics to a shambles.” </p>
<p>One well-known and nationally respected sports journalist has explicitly and unambiguously called for boycotting the 2022 Beijing Games: Sally Jenkins. The Washington Post’s veteran columnist – who last year was a finalist for <a href="https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/sally-jenkins-washington-post">the Pulitzer Prize for commentary</a> – published a scorching column plainly stating that “ignorance is no longer an excuse.”</p>
<p>“It was a forgivable mistake to award an Olympics to Beijing in 2008,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2021/08/09/boycott-beijing-olympics">she wrote</a>. “It’s unforgivable to hold one there now.”</p>
<p>Red Smith’s boycott column remains one of his most important and lasting examples of public service. As a media historian, I believe that those who emulate his courage today, like Sally Jenkins, will likely be remembered in the same way tomorrow.</p>
<p>[<em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-newsletter-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171555/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael J. Socolow does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the face of China’s repression and human rights abuses, a scholar asks whether cheerful media coverage of the Beijing Olympics in February 2022 signals complicity with Chinese propaganda.Michael J. Socolow, Associate Professor, Communication and Journalism, University of MaineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1701672021-10-31T11:56:39Z2021-10-31T11:56:39ZA diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games could bring Huseyin Celil home<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428047/original/file-20211022-18-j95amh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C0%2C4977%2C3323&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children wave national flags and Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games flags during a welcome ceremony for the Frame of Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 in October, 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Andy Wong) </span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 175px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/a-diplomatic-boycott-of-the-2022-beijing-olympic-games-could-bring-huseyin-celil-home" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>As the 2022 Beijing Olympics approach, the plight of Canada’s Huseyin Celil needs to be a clear priority for our nation and government. </p>
<p>In 2000, Celil escaped from his unlawful imprisonment in the People’s Republic of China where he was being held as punishment for his <a href="https://www.amnesty.ca/huseyin-celil/">activism on Uyghur political and religious rights</a>. He then followed international protocols, obtaining <a href="https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/huseyin-celil-10042021174813.html">United Nations refugee status in 2001, then Canadian citizenship shortly after</a>.</p>
<p>In 2006, while visiting family in Uzbekistan, Celil was captured and repatriated to China. There, he was <a href="https://www.amnesty.ca/huseyin-celil/">denied access to proper legal representation and sentenced to life in prison</a> on trumped up terrorism charges, despite a <a href="https://www.hrichina.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/CRF.4.2006/CRF-2006-4_Profile.pdf">glaring lack of evidence</a>. </p>
<p>Although Celil’s sentence has been reduced, he has still languished in a Chinese prison for the last fifteen years. Celil’s wife, Kamila, and four children have been without a husband and father <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/4874245/canadian-detained-china-huseyin-celil/">for over a decade</a>. It’s time to pull out all the stops and make every conceivable effort to bring Celil home. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/4874245/canadian-detained-china-huseyin-celil/">recent interview with <em>Global News</em></a>, Kamila was optimistic about her husband’s future. “I was really happy when the two Michaels landed in Canada … I’m very positive for Huseyin’s case now. I’m very positive. I’m looking forward to bringing him home.”</p>
<p>The recent release of the <a href="https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/huseyin-celil-10042021174813.html">two Michaels</a> — Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor — was secured by the United States government through what appeared to be a quid pro quo agreement to release Huwawei executive Meng Wanzhou, who stood accused of financial fraud. Canada played a central role in Meng’s detention, resulting in the retaliatory, arbitrary arrest and imprisonment of the Michaels in China. </p>
<p>The fact that the release of Meng immediately resulted in freedom for the Michaels says volumes about China’s view of diplomacy. It’s a transactional process. We give them something, they give us something. </p>
<p>For the Canadian government, diplomatic participation in the 2022 Beijing Olympics is something worth putting on the table in exchange for Celil’s release. A new quid pro quo. Release Celil and Canada will send its diplomats to the Olympics.</p>
<h2>The Olympics and refugees</h2>
<p>It’s easy to get carried away by the euphoria of the Olympics. A festival with deep nationalistic meanings for governments, it takes the attention of the media and with it millions of people. We’re told to support athletes and, through their medals and records, celebrate Canadian excellence. </p>
<p>But it’s hard to revel in the Olympic spectacle of peaceful internationalism and global friendship from a jail cell. </p>
<p>Canada has already toed the Olympic line for the <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2008/04/09/harper_wont_back_call_for_boycott_of_olympics.html">2008 Beijing Olympics</a>, evidently buying into claims that the event would improve the human rights landscape in China.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People in red coats stand cheering" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428046/original/file-20211022-9457-eezv43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428046/original/file-20211022-9457-eezv43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428046/original/file-20211022-9457-eezv43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428046/original/file-20211022-9457-eezv43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428046/original/file-20211022-9457-eezv43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428046/original/file-20211022-9457-eezv43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428046/original/file-20211022-9457-eezv43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of the Bejing Olympic city bid team celebrate their winning bid for the 2008 Olympics, after hearing the results in Moscow in July 2001.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CP PHOTO/Fred Chartrand</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since 2008, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/refugee-olympic-team-rio-2016">embraced refugees</a> as part of the Olympic family. Beginning in 2016, refugees with UN status could apply to compete on a <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/refugee-olympic-team-rio-2016">separate Olympic team</a>. If Celil were an athlete, he’d meet the criteria. Unfortunately, the IOC’s decision to recognize UN status refugee athletes came shortly after they’d already granted Beijing the hosting rights for 2022, sending the Games to a nation where <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/hdy003">refugee status means virtually nothing</a>.</p>
<p>China routinely uses its economic and martial power to coerce other nations into assisting in the repatriation of the country’s refugees. As legal scholar Lili Song shows <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/hdy003">thorough analysis of China and refugees</a>, the Chinese Communist Party has successfully pressured numerous other nations, including Thailand, Nepal, Cambodia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia and Albania, into assisting with the capture and repatriation of Chinese nationals. </p>
<p>China also refuses to allow the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/ijrl/eex031">United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to access and support</a> the thousands of ethnic Kokangs and Kachins fleeing into China from Myanmar, and the hundreds of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/hdy003">North Koreans pouring over China’s northeastern border</a>.</p>
<h2>A diplomatic boycott could bring Celil home</h2>
<p>The IOC has a refugee team. The IOC also has a longstanding relationship with the UN. Yet, China is openly flouting <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/07/22/china-restarts-forced-returns-refugees-north-korea">UN protocols when it comes to refugees</a>. This provides a perfect opportunity for the Canadian government to point to the failures of the IOC, UN and China and support Celil’s basic human rights and freedoms. Put pressure on all three. </p>
<p>How? The threat of a firm, unwavering diplomatic boycott of the Games. Lawyer Chris McLeod, who represents Celil agrees — he told me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“There may never be another opportunity quite like this. The Canadian government can show its support for Huseyin through a diplomatic boycott of these Games. Every time a Canadian athlete competes, Celil’s struggle will be raised in the national and international media. That’s no small amount of pressure and China is very alert to its international reputation. They don’t want the Games to be a platform to ridicule their human rights record.”</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman wearing a hijab is pictured from the shoulders up, she is looking off into the distance" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428045/original/file-20211022-9823-ese797.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428045/original/file-20211022-9823-ese797.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428045/original/file-20211022-9823-ese797.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428045/original/file-20211022-9823-ese797.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428045/original/file-20211022-9823-ese797.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428045/original/file-20211022-9823-ese797.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428045/original/file-20211022-9823-ese797.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kamila Talendibaeva, wife of Huseyin Celil, is hoping her husband will be able to come home after the release of the two Michaels.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CP PHOTO/Fred Chartrand</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a scholar, I stand with McLeod and Celil’s family. I completely and whole-heartedly support a diplomatic boycott as part of a broader effort to secure Celil’s freedom, but a few voices won’t be enough. Politicians need to speak up.</p>
<p>Olympians and Paralympians can uplift the voices of Celil’s family and supporters by calling for his release over the next four months <a href="https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/sports/nbcsports/winter-olympics-2022-guide-with-beijing-dates-fun-facts-and-more/2658706/">before the 2022 Olympics begin</a>. Academics, journalists and activists should join in solidarity. </p>
<p>We need to be so loud that the Canadian government can’t help but listen. The Trudeau government, IOC and UN talk a big game when it comes to human rights, undeniably linking the Olympic Games with global peace efforts. Let’s hold them accountable and demand action.</p>
<p>If there is no freedom for Huseyin Celil, Canadian diplomats must stay home. Full stop.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170167/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>MacIntosh Ross does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Olympians and Paralympians can uplift the voices of Celil’s family and supporters by calling for his release over the next four months. Academics, journalists and activists should join in solidarity.MacIntosh Ross, Assistant Professor, Kinesiology, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1677572021-09-19T12:16:22Z2021-09-19T12:16:22ZA broadcast boycott is the last chance to mount serious resistance against the Beijing Olympic Games<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421976/original/file-20210918-97269-1immti9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C48%2C5361%2C3531&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Activists wearing masks of IOC President Thomas Bach and Chinese President Xi Jinping pose in front of the Olympic Rings during a street protest in India against the holding of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Sept. 7, <a href="https://nobeijing2022.org/olympia/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Beijing-2022-Joint-Broadcasters-letter-September-2021.pdf">a group of 200 human rights groups</a> wrote to Olympic broadcasters, including the CBC and NBC, asking them to cancel their coverage of the upcoming Beijing Winter Games and refrain from “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/beijing-olympics-human-rights-broadcasters-1.6167733">sport washing</a>” China’s lengthy list of <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/china-and-tibet">human rights abuses</a>. </p>
<p>In doing so, the human rights groups aim to hit the International Olympic Committee (IOC) where it hurts most — its bank account. The IOC’s sale of broadcasting rights accounts for a whopping <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/funding">73 per cent of its funding</a>. Much of this is distributed to National Olympic Committees, propping up the broader Olympic system.</p>
<h2>The COC and CPC can’t help</h2>
<p>The call for a broadcast boycott came months after a coalition of 180 human rights groups issued an <a href="https://tibetnetwork.org/nobeijing2022-open-letter-to-governments/">open letter</a> to international governments back in February, urging nations to withdraw from Beijing 2022. In Canada, the Liberal government passed the buck to leaders of the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) and Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC).</p>
<p>Reacting to the letter, the chief executive officers of the COC and the CPC — David Shoemaker and Karen O’Neill respectively — <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/olympics/article-beijing-2022-a-boycott-is-not-the-answer/">penned a joint op-ed</a> in <em>The Globe and Mail</em>, predictably recycling an old anti-boycott argument.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Boycotts don’t work. They punish only the athletes prevented from going, those they were meant to compete against and those who would have been inspired by them.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But that’s not exactly true.</p>
<p>Writing on the international community’s sporting boycott of Apartheid South Africa, <a href="https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Sport_Cultures_and_Identities_in_South_A/FhktPqiJ-PAC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=John+Nauright+South+Africa&printsec=frontcover">historian John Nauright suggests</a> that “the psychological impact of sporting sanctions had perhaps the most potent role in undermining white South African confidence and complacency.” </p>
<p>Although the Olympic boycott alone didn’t topple apartheid, it was part of an important range of sanctions that <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/08/the-olympics-used-to-be-so-politicized-that-most-of-africa-boycotted-in-1976/260831/">ultimately wore down</a> the racist regime.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Flagless poles stand in the foreground. Poles with country flags on them stand in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421420/original/file-20210915-19-o03olo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421420/original/file-20210915-19-o03olo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421420/original/file-20210915-19-o03olo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421420/original/file-20210915-19-o03olo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421420/original/file-20210915-19-o03olo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421420/original/file-20210915-19-o03olo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421420/original/file-20210915-19-o03olo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Flagless poles stand in the Olympic Village in Montreal in 1976. Dozens of countries, mainly from Africa, boycotted the Montreal Games to protest New Zealand’s sporting ties to the South African apartheid regime.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/File)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The COC and CPC’s response is to be expected. Both organizations are embedded in the Olympic industry and have a lot to lose. The COC is partially funded by the IOC, and the COC and CPC have already accepted funding from <a href="https://olympic.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/2019-Annual-Report.pdf">private sponsors</a> to prepare for 2022.</p>
<p>Both Shoemaker and O’Neill are beholden to their respective board of directors, limiting their ability to rock the Olympic and Paralympic boat. In fact, the head of every national Olympic committee is, by definition, an IOC mouthpiece.</p>
<h2>China’s human rights abuses are persistent and documented</h2>
<p>The situation in China remains grim. Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities are detained in <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/china-and-tibet">massive concentration camps and reduced to forced labour</a>. Tibetans continue to struggle under what Human Rights Watch terms “<a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/china-and-tibet">coercive assimilationist policies</a>” intended to strangle and extinguish their culture.</p>
<p>Pro-democracy activists from Hong Kong were recently <a href="https://apnews.com/article/democracy-hong-kong-jimmy-lai-china-asia-pacific-dd17218f4e242fcaf57db74d39450a3a">sentenced to up to five years in prison</a> for participating in an anti-government march in 2019. Freedoms of religion, assembly, expression and speech are <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/china-and-tibet">stifled</a>. And those who attempt to flee are subject to <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2021/07/morocco-authorities-must-not-deport-detained-uyghur-to-china/">recapture, imprisonment and torture</a>.</p>
<p>The IOC is likely well informed about China’s human rights abuses. After all, its report, “<a href="https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Document%20Library/OlympicOrg/News/2020/12/Independent_Expert_Report_IOC_HumanRights.pdf?_ga=2.77996500.1784783811.1631638988-1484801982.1626721502">Recommendations for an IOC Human Rights Strategy</a>” was co-authored by former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, who had first-hand experience working with the country. <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23206&LangID=E">Hussein lamented over</a> China’s lack of co-operation, noting that his staff “have not been given unfettered access to the country, including to the Tibetan Autonomous Region and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where the human rights situation is reportedly fast deteriorating.”</p>
<h2>The IOC won’t budge</h2>
<p>The IOC has a long history of paying lip service when it comes to human rights issues. For example, the Olympic Games routinely result in the <a href="https://issuu.com/cohre/docs/cohre_fairplayforhousingrights2007">displacement and abuse</a> of host populations. No amount of lobbying from rights groups makes a difference. The IOC views hosting decisions in dollars and cents, and the cancellation of a single Games would mean <a href="https://fortune.com/2021/04/07/us-boycott-olympics-2022-winter-beijing-human-rights-more-likely-than-not/">billions in lost revenue</a>.</p>
<p>When asked about China and human rights issues, IOC President Thomas Bach <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1943776835638">refused to denounce the country</a>, skirting the question with vague assurances of peaceful internationalism.</p>
<p>In 2015, just seven years removed from the human rights debacle that was the Beijing 2008 Olympics — including the <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2008/08/06/china-olympics-harm-key-human-rights">intimidation and imprisonment</a> of those who dared resist the event — the IOC once again awarded Beijing the Games, this time for the 2022 Winter Olympics. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Group of people holding protest signs that say 'Boycott Beijing Olympics' and 'Genocide Beijing 2022.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421427/original/file-20210915-17-4djibh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421427/original/file-20210915-17-4djibh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421427/original/file-20210915-17-4djibh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421427/original/file-20210915-17-4djibh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421427/original/file-20210915-17-4djibh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421427/original/file-20210915-17-4djibh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421427/original/file-20210915-17-4djibh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protesters hold signs during a demonstration by a coalition representing Tibetans, Uyghurs, Southern Mongolians, Hong Kongers, Taiwanese and Chinese rights activists in June to protest China holding the 2022 Olympic games.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Charles Krupa)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It was a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-olympics-2022-winner-idUSKCN0Q513P20150731">controversial decision</a>. Few nations <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2015/07/31/ioc-awards-2022-winter-olympics-to-beijing/">wanted the Olympics</a>, resulting in a two bid race between <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/china-and-tibet">China</a> and <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/kazakhstan">Kazakhstan</a>, neither of which boast a strong human rights record. By selecting Bejing, the IOC chose to be complicit in China’s violation of human rights. </p>
<h2>Bigger than sport</h2>
<p>The call for a broadcast boycott opens the door for international broadcasters to do something truly noble — take a stand in support of human rights and refuse to show the 2022 Beijing Olympics. As public and private national broadcasters respectively, the CBC and NBC are beholden to the general public above all else. Not national Olympic and Paralympic Committees. Not advertisers. Not the government. The people.</p>
<p>According to one recent poll, a majority of Canadians — <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/majority-of-canadians-support-or-somewhat-support-boycott-of-beijing-olympics-nanos-survey-1.5539087">amounting to 64 per cent of those surveyed</a> — either “support” or “somewhat support” boycotting the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games. Americans, meanwhile, <a href="https://www.thechicagocouncil.org/research/public-opinion-survey/american-public-divided-cooperating-confronting-china">are nearly split down the middle</a> with 49 per cent supporting a boycott. As the Games edge closer, and China’s human rights violations inevitably face heightened scrutiny, the support to boycott will continue to grow.</p>
<p>Many people want to support the Uyghurs, Tibetans, pro-democracy advocates and others struggling for their human rights in China. As national broadcasters, the CBC and NBC can help people do just that. If international broadcasters choose not to boycott the Beijing Olympic Games, they will be complicit in the human rights abuses ongoing in China.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167757/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Olympic broadcasters can help Canadians support the Uyghurs, Tibetans, pro-democracy advocates and others fighting for their human rights in China by cancelling their Olympic coverage.MacIntosh Ross, Assistant Professor, Kinesiology, Western UniversityHelen Jefferson Lenskyj, Professor Emerita of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1655802021-08-08T14:33:11Z2021-08-08T14:33:11ZFewer viewers, nervous sponsors: The Olympics must rethink efforts to stay relevant<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415108/original/file-20210808-27-oitz0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C5%2C3969%2C2634&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Olympic flag is lowered during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics – the first Games to be held without spectators because of concerns of spreading COVID-19. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> (AP Photo/David Goldman) </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>At the conclusion of every Olympics, there are reflections on the importance and relevance of the Games. There are always a wide range of opinions, from those who praise the movement as a <a href="https://theconversation.com/do-the-olympics-still-matter-90215">global humanitarian platform</a> to others who criticize the Games due to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/17/sports/olympics/tokyo-olympics.html">sustainability, environmental and human rights concerns</a>.</p>
<p>International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach called the Tokyo Games the “most challenging Olympic journey” <a href="https://www.westport-news.com/news/article/Mixed-bag-Erratic-Pandemic-Olympics-winds-to-a-16372498.php">during his speech at the closing ceremonies</a>. The Games were postponed a year, held during a pandemic emergency that barred fans from the stands and had reluctant support from the host country. And there are other challenges ahead for the Olympic movement. </p>
<p>Given all of the problems facing the Olympic movement, what is the relevance of the modern Olympic Games from a consumer, marketing, media and economic perspective?</p>
<h2>Eyeballs matter</h2>
<p>Olympic viewership dropped significantly this year, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/why-tv-audiences-are-tuning-out-tokyo-olympic-games-2021-07-30/">with some estimates</a> noting close to a 50-per-cent decline from the 2016 Rio Games — including for the lead television partner NBC Universal, which paid over US$7 billion to extend its U.S. broadcast rights for the Olympics through 2032.</p>
<p>Despite parallel streaming arrangements with all major Olympic network partners, viewers in North America and Europe were considerably fragmented, if not frustrated, with being many time zones away while major events were taking place live. The Canadian rights holder to the Games, the CBC, said it <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/cbc-tokyo-olympics-ratings-1.6135953#">had a record number of views via its digital platforms</a> after initial reports of a <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/2021/08/03/with-empty-stands-and-viewership-way-down-olympics-still-gold-for-advertisers-and-broadcasters.html">decline in ratings on traditional broadcast channels</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A beach volleyball game taking place in an empty stadium" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415059/original/file-20210806-19-i6foxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415059/original/file-20210806-19-i6foxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415059/original/file-20210806-19-i6foxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415059/original/file-20210806-19-i6foxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415059/original/file-20210806-19-i6foxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415059/original/file-20210806-19-i6foxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415059/original/file-20210806-19-i6foxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A women’s beach volleyball match in the empty Shiokaze Park at the Tokyo Olympics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More troubling for the International Olympic Committee is growing evidence of a general decline in interest in the Olympics from young people, <a href="https://www.ypulse.com/article/2021/06/10/this-is-how-many-gen-z-millennials-say-theyll-watch-the-olympics-this-summer/">including Generation Z</a>.</p>
<p>Support from key sponsors is also declining. Toyota announced on the eve of the Games that <a href="https://apnews.com/article/sports-2020-tokyo-olympics-business-health-coronavirus-pandemic-5eb0e254b9a0cac7ad57005677eebe66">it wouldn’t air any Olympic-themed TV ads in Japan</a>, even though it signed a US$1 billion sponsorship in 2015. Other sponsors are <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/tokyo-olympics-live-updates/2021/07/20/1018390493/toyota-and-other-big-olympics-sponsors-are-downplaying-their-ties-to-the-games">minimizing their Olympic commitments</a>, raising questions about the perceived value of the hefty partnership deals.</p>
<h2>Olympic economics</h2>
<p>The Olympic Games are a massive social and financial undertaking. It’s estimated the Tokyo Games will <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-tokyo-olympics-staggering-price-tag-and-where-it-stands-in-history-11627049612#:%7E:text=The%20average%20cost%20per%20event,million%3B%20%2439.2%20million%20for%20Winter">cost over US$20 billion</a>.</p>
<p>While cities once competed fiercely for the right to host the Olympics, the steep costs, coupled with waning public sentiment, has resulted in less countries willing to take on the multi-billion-dollar commitment. Case in point: when Brisbane, Australia, was recently <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2020-tokyo-olympics-sports-brisbane-australia-olympic-team-germany-olympic-team-cbaf0d0e504b8bb3861f35c2876b7bbb">announced as the host of the 2032 Olympics</a>, there were no other rival bids.</p>
<p>The economics and expenses of the Olympic Games has been generally well supported by a highly structured means of revenue, which is led by significant broadcast contracts, followed by the <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/faq/roles-and-responsibilities-of-the-ioc-and-its-partners/how-are-the-olympic-games-financed">The Olympic Partners (TOP) program</a> that was established following the highly successful 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. A small group of international partners in the TOP program each pay <a href="https://adage.com/article/special-report-olympics/faq-everything-you-need-know-advertising-marketing-sponsorship-athlete-pay-nbc-olympics-2020-2021/2351056">approximately US$200 million per four-year cycle</a> to be an Olympic partner, including multinational companies like Coca-Cola, Dow and General Electric.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Women holding up sign that says Brisbane 2032" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415058/original/file-20210806-90838-k920qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415058/original/file-20210806-90838-k920qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415058/original/file-20210806-90838-k920qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415058/original/file-20210806-90838-k920qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415058/original/file-20210806-90838-k920qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415058/original/file-20210806-90838-k920qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415058/original/file-20210806-90838-k920qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Australian politician Annastacia Palaszczuk celebrates after Brisbane was announced as the 2032 Summer Olympics host city during the IOC Session at Hotel Okura in Tokyo on July 21.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Toru Hanai/Pool Photo via AP)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The core profits from both the media and marketing partnerships are ultimately dependent on the interest and consumption of the Olympics.</p>
<p>Corporate and media investments are based on the premise that consumers around the globe are tuned in to the Games (and are watching key corporate partner messages), that major corporate partners want to be affiliated with the Olympics and all they represent, and that hundreds of thousands of tickets will be sold to people who want to attend the competitions.</p>
<p>Given the recent free-fall of interest and <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2021/07/2021-olympics-controversy-makes-the-games-hard-to-watch.html">global awareness of the Olympics</a>, this traditional Games revenue model will be significantly challenged moving forward.</p>
<p>It was <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-30/olympics-ratings-slump-forces-nbc-to-haggle-with-advertisers">recently reported</a> that Olympic advertisers are renegotiating with NBC given the less-than-promised viewing numbers. The U.S. broadcaster had expected to generate <a href="https://adage.com/article/special-report-olympics/faq-everything-you-need-know-advertising-marketing-sponsorship-athlete-pay-nbc-olympics-2020-2021/2351056">more than US$1 billion in ad sales</a> during these Games. Likewise, sponsors have sought make-good provisions from broadcasters and Games stakeholders to safeguard their expenditures.</p>
<h2>What now for the Olympics’ economic model?</h2>
<p>Given changing consumer, corporate and geopolitical sentiments, the current model of the Olympic Games is outdated. As Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Branch <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/17/sports/olympics/tokyo-olympics.html">recently wrote in the <em>New York Times</em></a>: “In some ways — too many ways, critics argue — the Olympics are stuck in time, a 19th-century construct floating through a 21st-century world.” </p>
<p>The Olympic movement, which has been called “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/05/business/media/nbc-olympics-tv-ratings.html#:%7E:text=The%20Olympics%20coverage%20is%20headed,in%20an%20interview%20on%20Thursday">the most complicated sports event in the world</a>,” will have to dramatically rethink its current strategy and economic model to stay relevant to its partners and fans.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165580/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Olympics will have to be adaptable in order to keep up with the rapidly shifting economic landscape and changing interest in the Games if it wants to continue to turn massive profits.Cheri L. Bradish, Professor of Sport Business, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityNicholas Burton, Assistant Professor, Sport Management, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1654512021-08-05T16:11:46Z2021-08-05T16:11:46ZBoycotting the next Olympics in Beijing will hurt athletes: Here’s a better idea<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414441/original/file-20210803-15-1vse00i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5000%2C3330&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Attendees wearing face masks to protect against the spread of the coronavirus look at an exhibit at a visitors center at the Winter Olympic venues in Beijing in February. Human rights groups have called for a boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics due to reported human rights abuses against ethnic minorities in China.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>With the Tokyo Olympics coming to an end, human rights activists are expected to step up their campaign against the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing in protest against the genocide of <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/09/09/interview-chinas-crackdown-turkic-muslims">the Uyghurs and other Turkic-speaking people</a> in Xinjiang, the colonization of Tibet and the suppression of democracy in Hong Kong. They will call upon the International Olympic Committee to cancel or move the Games that start in just six months, and if that fails, they’ll urge athletes to boycott. </p>
<p>As frightening as those human rights abuses are, they’re not likely to persuade the IOC or athletes to change their plans for Beijing. Cancelling, moving or boycotting the Beijing Olympics runs counter to the very purpose and history of the Olympic movement and places athletes in an untenable position.</p>
<h2>Choosing a different strategy</h2>
<p>Given the almost constant tensions in world politics and international sports, boycotts and threats of boycotts have almost been an accepted feature of the modern Olympics. The first occurred at the inaugural Games in Athens in 1896, when German gymnasts known as “turners” refused to participate because most of the events were British sport.</p>
<p>There have been feminist boycotts (<a href="https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Women_and_Sports_in_the_United_States/utWx5SNoxXAC?hl=en&gbpv=1">British women stayed away from Amsterdam</a> in 1928 when the IOC reneged on its promise to add 10 women’s events to the athletics program), podium protests against racism (<a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2016/08/07/the-forgotten-story-behind-the-black-power-photo-from-1968-olympics.html">Tommie Smith, John Carlos</a> and other U.S. athletes in 1968), so-called recognition boycotts (<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/taiwan-controversy-at-the-1976-montreal-olympics">Taiwan left in 1976</a> when the IOC refused to call it the “Republic of China”), anti-apartheid boycotts (29 African and Caribbean teams <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/08/the-olympics-used-to-be-so-politicized-that-most-of-africa-boycotted-in-1976/260831/">walked out of the Montreal Olympics in 1976</a> to protest a New Zealand rugby tour of apartheid South Africa) and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/sports-virus-outbreak-afghanistan-boycotts-cold-war-8b447c53e96621f1ca2b06e8621b351f">Cold War boycotts</a> in 1956, 1980, 1984 and 1988.</p>
<p>In 1936, an international coalition of socialists, labour unions and churches not only mounted a highly visible boycott campaign against the staging of the Games in Nazi Germany, but tried to hold a <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/protest-olympics-never-came-be-180978179/">counter-Olympics in Barcelona</a>. It was only cancelled when the Spanish general Francisco Franco led an armed attack upon the city on the morning of the opening ceremonies, starting what became the bitter, three-year Spanish Civil War.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Crowd of men and women in matching striped jackets standing in airport gate." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414439/original/file-20210803-19-1b5wrgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414439/original/file-20210803-19-1b5wrgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414439/original/file-20210803-19-1b5wrgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414439/original/file-20210803-19-1b5wrgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414439/original/file-20210803-19-1b5wrgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414439/original/file-20210803-19-1b5wrgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414439/original/file-20210803-19-1b5wrgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of the Nigerian Olympic team prepare for their journey home at Montréal’s Mirabel Airport after it was announced they would boycott the 1976 Olympic Games. The boycott came after the IOC refused to expel New Zealand from competition after its rugby team did a tour of apartheid South Africa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(THE CANADIAN PRESS)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While the Olympic movement is not indifferent to human rights, it seeks to bring representatives of every community in the world together for peaceful dialogue and sports — recognizing that there are very real political and ideological differences among nations.</p>
<p>To build such a big, inclusive tent, it makes few demands upon National Olympic Committees, the international federations that govern the sports or the host countries. It’s the sporting equivalent of the long-held principle of “non-intervention” in the internal affairs of nation states.</p>
<p>As the world has begun to contemplate the obligation of the international community to safeguard citizens from an abusive national state, activists are calling on the IOC to apply and enforce human rights upon National Olympic Committees, federations and host countries. That battle is far from won.</p>
<p>The IOC has been able to withstand boycotts because it selects its own members, a grossly undemocratic process that ironically has enabled it to stand up to the strongest governments. In 1980, in the face of intense pressure from U.S. President Jimmy Carter to cancel or move the Moscow Olympics, the IOC voted unanimously to go ahead. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Statue of a man in front of a sports stadium bearing the Olympic rings" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414440/original/file-20210803-23-165w8g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414440/original/file-20210803-23-165w8g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414440/original/file-20210803-23-165w8g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414440/original/file-20210803-23-165w8g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414440/original/file-20210803-23-165w8g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414440/original/file-20210803-23-165w8g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414440/original/file-20210803-23-165w8g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A statue of Lenin sits outside of Lenin Stadium, the main stadium for the 1980 Summer Olympic Games in Moscow. The United States and 65 other countries, including Canada, boycotted the Moscow Olympics in protest of Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While most athletes are concerned with human rights, an earlier generation learned in 1980 that governments, corporations and human rights activists are quick to volunteer them for symbolic actions, only to find that they’re the only ones who actually sacrificed something important.</p>
<p>In 1980, the government of Pierre Trudeau forced Canadian athletes to stay home, despite their strong objection, and then cut their funds afterwards. The oral history of that bitter experience looms large in the informal discussions about the proposed Beijing boycott currently taking place among Canadian athletes.</p>
<h2>A way forward without boycotting</h2>
<p>Is there a way for the Olympic community to attend the Games without legitimizing atrocities in China? As an Olympian and an academic who has studied the Olympic movement for decades, I believe there is.</p>
<p>Instead of the IOC knuckling under host country repression, as it did in Beijing in 2008 and Sochi in 2014, it should ensure that the freedom of expression now guaranteed in the revised <a href="https://olympics.com/athlete365/what-we-do/voice/athlete-expression-rule-50/">Rule 50</a> should be respected during the 2022 Winter Olympics. Activists should insist that no one will be penalized under the revised rule.</p>
<p>Secondly, the IOC should affirm the importance of human rights and full intercultural exchange in the opening ceremonies and the schedule of events and meetings in the Olympic Village, <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/pierre-de-coubertin/sport-as-a-human-right">as modern Olympic founder Pierre de Coubertin</a> always intended. That would give athletes and others concerned about human rights the opportunity to express their views freely with other Olympic participants and their hosts without constraint.</p>
<p>There is Olympic precedent that needs to be remembered and strengthened. In 1936, when he arrived in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany for the Winter Olympics, IOC president Henri Baillet-Latour found the city plastered with anti-Semitic, Nazi propaganda. He immediately met with Adolf Hitler and demanded that the posters and flags be taken down.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man lighting Olympic torch in foreground with lines of Nazi soliders lined up behind him." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414435/original/file-20210803-25-epojn1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414435/original/file-20210803-25-epojn1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414435/original/file-20210803-25-epojn1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414435/original/file-20210803-25-epojn1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414435/original/file-20210803-25-epojn1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414435/original/file-20210803-25-epojn1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414435/original/file-20210803-25-epojn1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">German Nazi soldiers line up at attention during the lighting of the Olympic torch at the opening ceremonies of the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hitler is said to have replied: “When one visits a home, one doesn’t immediately ask the host to redecorate.” Baillet-Latour rejoined: “Yes, Mr. Chancellor, but when the Olympics is held, it’s not a national city but an Olympic city, and should be held according to Olympic rules. The propaganda must come down.” It did.</p>
<p>Baillet-Latour also established the requirement that the host country must recognize every participant duly entered by a National Olympic Committee, regardless of their background, a stipulation that ensured full participation in Berlin and during the Cold War.</p>
<p>In the end, the 1936 Games were a tremendous propaganda victory for Hitler, and the world lost sight of the safeguards won by the IOC. But an updated version of that strategy would be useful today.</p>
<p>The IOC should make it clear that while it’s grateful to China for hosting the Winter Olympics, the Olympic movement guarantees the right to free speech — including the condemnation of genocide and other abuses — within the Olympic precincts. Activists should support it.</p>
<p>It would be an important step on the long road to human rights.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165451/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bruce Kidd is an honorary member of the Canadian Olympic Committee. </span></em></p>Instead of boycotting the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing, activists should pressure the IOC to let anyone attending the Games to express their views on China without fear of penalization.Bruce Kidd, Professor Emeritus of Kinesiology and Physical Education, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1656052021-08-05T05:12:57Z2021-08-05T05:12:57ZA brief history of asylum seekers at the Olympics — and why they are sometimes misunderstood<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414725/original/file-20210805-307-1a7uaxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=458%2C31%2C2326%2C1962&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Martin Meissner/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/belarusian-sprinter-krystsina-tsimanouskaya-takes-refuge-in-poland-after-defying-order-home">left Tokyo this week</a> after her Olympics were over, bound not for her home country, but a new home in Poland. </p>
<p>Tsimanouskaya was granted a humanitarian visa by the Polish government after claiming the Belarusian Olympic Committee was trying to force her back to Minsk where she was in danger for her life. According to Tsimanouskaya, “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/04/belarus-sprinter-krystsina-tsimanouskaya-poland">her team had ‘made it clear’ she would face punishment if she returned home</a>”. She wanted protection and asylum. </p>
<p>Tsimanouskaya was not the only athlete to attempt to flee in Japan. On July 16, the Ugandan weightlifter Julius Ssekitoleko left his training camp, with a note saying he hoped to find work in Japan. He is now <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/27/world/africa/ugandan-weight-lifter-olympics-detained.html">back in Uganda</a>, where he has been charged with <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/sport/olympics/ugandan-athlete-faces-fraud-charge-over-olympics-d3c648d3-72c5-4241-932f-d3bfa445f304">conspiracy to defraud</a> for allegedly travelling to Japan without having qualified for the games.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1420459425719070722"}"></div></p>
<h2>A history of asylum claims</h2>
<p>As the historian Barbara Keys <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/02/olympic-defectors-history/">notes</a>, international sporting competitions “provide a very attractive opportunity for people to escape difficult situations at home, most often political repression”.</p>
<p>While athletes claiming asylum often have overlapping political and economic motives, the most high-profile defections of athletes were strongly linked to geopolitics during the Cold War.</p>
<p>In the 1948 London Games, the gymnastics coach Marie Provazníková <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Provazn%C3%ADkov%C3%A1">became the first known defector</a> from the Olympics when she refused to return to Czechoslovakia after the communist coup that toppled the democratic Benes government. Provazníková said she sought asylum because of the “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1948/08/19/archives/woman-athlete-asks-asylum-here-leader-of-czech-contingent-at.html">lack of freedom</a>” in Prague. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1298980082585870336"}"></div></p>
<p>During the Cold War, athletes seeking to abandon communist states for the US or western Europe expressed diverse motivations, but newspapers mobilised the politicised language of “defection” as a catch-all phrase for these moves.</p>
<p>One of the largest numbers of asylum seekers at an Olympics were <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/08/02/by-taking-care-herself-simone-biles-may-transform-sports/">the Hungarians who defected</a> during the 1956 Games in Melbourne. </p>
<p>The Olympics came shortly after the bloody Soviet invasion of Hungary, which ended political reforms in that country. CIA planners helped convince Hungarian athletes to defect, even as the Hungarians battled Soviet athletes in the pool and on the track. However, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/08/02/by-taking-care-herself-simone-biles-may-transform-sports/">as historian Johanna Mellis explains,</a> some of those defectors soon discovered that life in America was not necessarily as good as in communist Hungary. </p>
<p>Laszlo Tabori, a Hungarian champion miler, for instance, shared a three-bedroom house with 12 other athletes in California. A quarter of the defectors eventually returned to Hungary. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"906547845003710465"}"></div></p>
<p>In 1972, over a hundred athletes <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2020-tokyo-olympics-krystsina-tsimanouskaya-belarus-asylum-8467db47e3dc84a0719e76a0eb0481a2">defected</a> during the Munich Olympics, but some reporters privileged political motives over other reasons <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1972/09/12/archives/rumanian-defects-in-munich.html">in telling their stories</a>. </p>
<p>And during the 1976 Montreal Games, Soviet diver Sergei Nemtsanov <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1976/08/01/archives/ussr-drops-threat-to-withdraw-ussr-threat-to-quit-dropped.html">sought asylum in Canada</a>, but his defection <a href="https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=DS19760803.2.114&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1">seemed motivated by love</a> rather than by politics. When his American girlfriend broke up with him, he returned broken-hearted to the Soviet Union.</p>
<h2>The role of international law</h2>
<p>Under the 1967 protocol of the UN Convention Relating to the Status of a Refugee, a <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/rights-and-freedoms/publications/asylum-seekers-and-refugees">refugee is defined</a> to be </p>
<blockquote>
<p>anyone who is outside their own country and is unable or unwilling to return due to a well-founded fear of being persecuted because of their race, religion, nationality, membership to a particular social group, or political opinion.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Signatories to that convention have the obligation to not return refugees to their country of origin. Other international treaties offer rules and guidelines on the treatment of refugees in host countries. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-olympic-movement-claims-political-neutrality-in-reality-that-ideal-is-often-selectively-applied-164558">The Olympic movement claims political neutrality. In reality, that ideal is often selectively applied</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The crux of many of these agreements is that asylum seekers need to be physically in another country to claim asylum and their reason for not wanting to return home is linked to political, ethnic or other forms of persecution, not economics. </p>
<p>Because of their greater mobility, athletes are more able than most to be in a position to ask for asylum. Before finally defecting at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, for instance, Iraqi weightlifter Raed Ahmed had sought international competitions “as the best way to get out of Iraq for good”, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/weightlifting/57656658">according to one report</a>.</p>
<p>As a result, countries hosting international sporting competitions have long prepared for athletes to defect. Even so, officials can still be caught off-guard. </p>
<p>More than a dozen athletes sought asylum during the 2012 London Olympics, and over three years later, the government was <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/597288/Asylum-seekers-Olympics-2012-London-still-Britain-refugee">still adjudicating their claims</a>. Many athletes who seek asylum face difficult circumstances, including <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210727-cameroon-refugee-achieves-olympic-dream-after-uk-ordeal">homelessness</a>.</p>
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<p>The number of athlete asylum seekers seems to be going up, as well. At the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2006-04-26/commonwealth-games-athletes-seek-asylum-in/1739568">26 athletes and officials sought asylum</a>. At the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games a little over a decade later, the <a href="https://qz.com/africa/1285913/african-athletes-missing-in-australia-after-commonwealth-games-from-cameroon-rwanda-uganda-ghana/">number was over 200</a>. The government eventually <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1086415/gold-coast-2018-asylum-claims-rejected">rejected almost all of the claims</a>. </p>
<p>Ironically, many countries happily welcome successful migrant athletes into their fold if they can win gold medals. Qatar and Bahrain have recently fielded Olympic teams full of migrants. In fact, 23 of the 39 Qatari athletes at the 2016 Rio Games <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-qatar-olympics-nationality-idUSKCN11015P">were foreign-born</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/athletes-seek-asylum-at-almost-every-games-as-is-their-right-94986">Athletes seek asylum at almost every games, as is their right</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The IOC and Refugees</h2>
<p>The International Olympic Committee’s uneven approach to refugees complicates how nations respond to athletic asylum claims. </p>
<p>Officially, the IOC keeps no official tally of asylum seekers at the games. In response to a German media outlet in 2012, the IOC <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/switching-sides-defections-at-the-olympics/a-16133453">said</a> </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is no stipulation relating to this subject contained in the Olympic Charter. The IOC does not keep a record of cases where athletes, other members of team delegations, or sporting officials may have defected while attending the Olympic Games.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Nevertheless, for over 25 years, the IOC has worked closely with the UN Human Rights Commission to promote athletics in refugee camps and there is now even an Olympic refugee team that competes at the games. </p>
<p>This team nearly won its first medal in Tokyo when the Iranian refugee <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/25/sport/kimia-alizadeh-tokyo-olympics-spt-intl/index.html">Kimia Alizadeh lost in the bronze-medal match</a> in taekwondo. She left Iran <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-olympics-taekwondo-refugee/31382517.html">in response</a> to the regime’s severe restriction of women’s rights: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Whenever they saw fit, they exploited me […] I am one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran who they have been playing with for years.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>At the same time, however, the IOC <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/sport/miscarriage-of-justice-australian-leads-call-for-olympics-to-kick-out-iran-20200918-p55wxg.html">did not heed international calls</a> to punish Iran after a wrestler was executed for what human rights activists say were <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2020-tokyo-olympics-sports-middle-east-iran-iran-olympic-team-c1df03dad25089e51af4f542183e0b9a">political reasons</a>. (The IOC says its president made appeals to Iran’s leaders to show “mercy” to the wrestler.)</p>
<p>The IOC has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/aug/03/ioc-belarus-report-sprinter-krystsina-tsimanouskaya-refused-to-go-home">opened an investigation</a> into Tsimanouskaya’s case and has demanded Belarus respond to allegations it tried to force the sprinter onto a plane back to Minsk last week. The IOC could sanction Belarus over the incident, but this remains to be seen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165605/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keith Rathbone does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Belarus sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya is part of a long history of athletes seeking protection or the chance to start a new life at the Olympics.Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1651422021-07-29T12:16:38Z2021-07-29T12:16:38ZThe politics of the Olympics: How a counter-movement in 1963 changed the Games forever<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413573/original/file-20210728-13-izw15r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C3%2C2384%2C1349&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The 1964 Olympics in Tokyo banned all athletes who took part in a counter-competition a year earlier called the Games of the New Emerging Forces, which were dubbed the left-wing Olympics </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 175px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/the-politics-of-the-olympics--how-a-counter-movement-in-1963-changed-the-games-forever" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The Olympic Charter states one of the fundamental principles of Olympism is that “<a href="https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Document%20Library/OlympicOrg/General/EN-Olympic-Charter.pdf?_ga=2.207253267.1863595436.1627389884-1889120417.1624282455">sports organizations within the Olympic Movement shall apply political neutrality</a>.” In reality, the Olympics and politics are inseparable — and a movement in Asia almost 60 years ago has had a lasting impact on how the Olympics have become heavily politicized. </p>
<p>In the 1960s, some 36 countries embraced a new counter-Olympics: <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26549192">GANEFO, the Games of the New Emerging Forces</a>. GANEFO formed to challenge the International Olympic Committee, “a tool of the imperialists and colonialists,” in the words of then Indonesian president Sukarno. After GANEFO, the IOC was forced to accept that sports were often political. There was no going back. </p>
<p>GANEFO presented the IOC with an unprecedented challenge. “Sports cannot be separated from politics,” Sukarno declared. <a href="https://library.olympics.com/Default/doc/SYRACUSE/40898/the-olympic-movement-s-response-to-the-challenge-of-emerging-nationalism-in-sport-an-historical-reco?_lg=en-GB">IOC President Avery Brundage deplored</a> this “challenge to all international amateur sports organizations, which cannot very well be ignored.” There was “such a thing as rules and regulations,” he sniffed. </p>
<p>GANEFO, not the <a href="https://olympics.com/en/olympic-games/tokyo-1964">Tokyo Olympics of 1964</a>, was the first major global sporting event held in Asia. While Japan threw a “coming out” party that symbolized its return to the global stage after the Second World War as a rules-abiding country, Indonesia and its GANEFO allies (initially Cambodia, China, Guinea, Indonesia, Iraq, Mali, Pakistan, Vietnam, and the Soviet Union) rejected the rules of the game. </p>
<p>GANEFO posed a new way for the world to organize and understand global sports. Its origins lie in the Asian Games, a regional competition held every four years between the Summer Olympics.</p>
<p>Eleven national teams took part in the <a href="https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/1951-first-asian-games-in-india/285751">first Asian Games</a> in 1951, with Japan topping the medal count. The host, India’s Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=JWmHDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">identified a very political goal</a>: sports “bring together the youth of many countries and thus help, to some extent, in promoting international friendship and cooperation.” Subsequent Asian Games in Manila and Tokyo embraced Olympian language of friendly competition along with promotion of the host country’s global role. </p>
<p>That changed when the <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1068999/controversy-ruled-the-last-time-jakarta-hosted-the-asian-games-in-1962">Third Asian Games</a> opened in Indonesia in 1962. Sukarno’s government refused admission to Israel and Taiwan in response to the wishes of the Arab states and China. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A poster showing an arm holding a torch with GAMEFO at the top of the poster." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413403/original/file-20210727-19-1sx10qp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413403/original/file-20210727-19-1sx10qp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413403/original/file-20210727-19-1sx10qp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413403/original/file-20210727-19-1sx10qp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413403/original/file-20210727-19-1sx10qp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413403/original/file-20210727-19-1sx10qp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413403/original/file-20210727-19-1sx10qp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A poster from the 1963 Games of the New Emerging Forces.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Consequently, the IOC refused to recognize the Games. With athletes and national delegations already in Jakarta, they went ahead regardless. Hometown fans thrilled at the sight of Indonesia finishing second to Japan in the medal count. The IOC expelled Indonesia. </p>
<p>Brundage was furious. “Are governments going to expand the Cold War onto playing fields?” he asked. Sukarno shot back that the IOC was already political, a Cold War organization that excluded China and North Vietnam because both were under Communist rule. </p>
<p>That was when <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26549192">Sukarno called the IOC</a> “a tool of the imperialists and colonialists” that betrayed the founding Olympics ideals and falsely claimed to keep sports and politics separate, while in fact imposing an anti-Communist purity test. So he called for another sporting event, GANEFO, in 1963. </p>
<p>It was, he argued, a way to even the playing field for the athletes and aspirations of Third World nations, and a chance for Indonesia to use sports as a way to build national infrastructure and national swagger. “Boy, what kind of a nation do they think we are?” Sukarno asked of the IOC. “I have repeatedly said that we are not a bean-cake nation!” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A cartoon that shows a steam roller chasing members of the IOC." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413406/original/file-20210727-13-zf3azw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413406/original/file-20210727-13-zf3azw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413406/original/file-20210727-13-zf3azw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413406/original/file-20210727-13-zf3azw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413406/original/file-20210727-13-zf3azw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413406/original/file-20210727-13-zf3azw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413406/original/file-20210727-13-zf3azw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Indonesian political cartoon shows the conflict between the organizers of GANEFO and the International Olympic Committee.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Opinions differ on the GANEFO’s success. Most athletes came unofficially, and the event featured almost as many dancers and musicians as athletes. China led the Soviet Union and Indonesia atop the medal table. What GANEFO did achieve, however, was its goal of nation-building through sports. </p>
<p>Indonesia did not prevail in its challenge, but it did not suffer any damage. It gained readmission to the IOC in time for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics — but <a href="http://www.olympedia.org/definitions/57">chose to boycott the Games</a> after the IOC refused to allow athletes who competed at GANEFO to take part in the ’64 Olympics.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the rules of global sports were changing. It would be difficult to pretend that international sports were apolitical after this point. </p>
<p>The IOC <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/18/newsid_3547000/3547872.stm">barred South Africa</a> from the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 and sports <a href="https://www.universal-rights.org/by-invitation/from-apartheid-south-africa-to-the-euro-2020-football-championship-how-sport-and-human-rights-make-for-natural-teammates/">boycotts of South Africa</a> played a role in mounting global pressure to end apartheid.</p>
<p>The Olympics, <a href="https://theconversation.com/england-v-south-africa-a-history-of-tough-tackling-and-political-turmoil-126148">rugby and other sports</a> would become arenas of international political confrontation and boycotts on a regular basis, nearly derailing, for instance, the <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/sports/montreal-olympics-african-boycott-of-1976-games-changed-the-world">1976 Olympics</a> in Montréal. Indigenous peoples continually point out the troubles with “apolitical” framing of the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jsporthistory.46.2.0224">Winter Olympics held in Canada</a>.</p>
<p>Organizers awarded the second GANEFO to Egypt, but had to cancel the event as war with Israel loomed. Instead, Cambodia hosted an “Asian GANEFO” in 1966. The <a href="https://youtu.be/sTbZOPFnXqI">opening ceremonies</a> attempted to evoke the same nation-building efforts as Indonesia’s GANEFO.</p>
<p>With the end of this last hurrah, GANEFO faded from the scene. One can see its legacy, however, in the way that Third World governments would subsequently use sports as one avenue to pursue international political goals. In this sense, GANEFO won the day.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165142/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Webster does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Olympics claim not to be political, but in the 1960s a counter movement organized by left-leaning countries put politics front and centre.David Webster, Associate Professor of History / Professeur Agrégé, Département d’Histoire, Bishop's UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1643892021-07-22T20:08:10Z2021-07-22T20:08:10ZAs the Tokyo Games begin, the stakes could not be higher for Japan — and the Olympics themselves<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412580/original/file-20210722-23-1ig9yug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=161%2C22%2C4606%2C2516&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Martin Meissner/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>History shows there nothing in sport quite like an Olympics. Equally, there is nothing in Olympic history quite like what is happening now in Tokyo at the most expensive — and likely the most fraught — summer games of all time. </p>
<p>When Tokyo bid for the games a decade ago, many of the political elite saw the Olympics as a way to promote <a href="https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/the-symbolism-of-the-olympic-games">Japan 2.0</a>. The games would reinvigorate a country beset by nuclear and natural disasters, economic stagnation and geopolitical concerns about China’s rise.</p>
<p>Japan’s leaders were part of its post-second world war generation. They witnessed the benefits in hosting the 1964 Tokyo Games, and thought the same could happen in 2020. </p>
<p>But COVID-19 has seen the anticipation and feel-good factor of the Olympics replaced by anxiety and fear. The city’s stadiums and train lines are empty, as are its coffers, with the lack of ticket sales and tourism income. </p>
<p>Any diplomatic or soft power advantage Japan might have sought over China will be offset by the fact the next Olympics to be held in front of cheering crowds will likely be the 2022 Winter Games in <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/jingoistic-posturing-out-of-china-hasn-t-sent-the-usual-olympic-message-20210719-p58ax7.html">Beijing</a>.</p>
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<h2>The most expensive Summer Games on record</h2>
<p>Now that attention is about to shift to the spectacle of the opening ceremony and athletic competitions, it’s worth keeping in mind the enormous cost of these games to the Japanese public. </p>
<p>When it won the bid for the games in 2013, Tokyo said they would cost <a href="https://apnews.com/article/national-governments-tokyo-coronavirus-pandemic-2020-tokyo-olympics-japan-089b35abee216b46c8fe39993972fcfb">US$7.3 billion</a> (A$9.9 billion). In 2019, a report by Japan’s <a href="https://www.ksl.com/article/46693595/tokyo-olympics-say-costs-126b-audit-report-says-much-more">national auditor</a> said the costs would be nearly twice that amount. </p>
<p>Then, in December 2020, the organisers admitted the official spend would be closer to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/tokyo-coronavirus-pandemic-2020-tokyo-olympics-japan-olympic-games-3c46bce81928865d9aae0832b5ddd9e3">US$15.4 billion</a> (A$20.9 billion) after factoring in the costs of the COVID postponement. Government audits over the past several years suggest the true cost, however, will actually be <a href="https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20201230/p2g/00m/0sp/070000c">US$25 billion</a> (A$33.9 billion). </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/most-expensive-greatest-gender-parity-most-sports-tokyo-olympics-by-the-numbers-164491">Most expensive, greatest gender parity, most sports: Tokyo Olympics by the numbers</a>
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<p>Egregious cost overruns have been a feature of most Olympics, but as COVID-related precautions continue to bloat its budget, Tokyo has already surpassed the London games of 2012 as the most expensive summer games on record, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/sports-virus-outbreak-sports-asia-2020-tokyo-olympics-olympic-games-cfd618b2fba9109d01103bd9ecae33a3">according to one study</a>. It is the one gold medal the International Olympic Committee did not want to award.</p>
<p>Under the terms of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-the-olympics-still-be-cancelled-yes-but-the-legal-and-financial-fallout-would-be-staggering-161739">host city contract</a> between the Tokyo Organising Committee and the IOC, the costs of hosting the games and underwriting all associated contingencies — including their <a href="https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/iocs-bach-lauds-medical-workers-says-games-will-send-powerful-message-peace-2021-07-20/">abandonment</a>, which is <em>still</em> a possibility — lie with the hosts.</p>
<p>This diversion of resources — both in terms of money and healthcare personnel — has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/17/tokyo-olympics-more-than-80-of-japanese-oppose-hosting-games-poll">annoyed the Japanese public</a>. And yet, the oft-quoted polls suggesting three-quarters of the Japanese public do not want the games to take place should not be taken as anti-sport in sentiment. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412583/original/file-20210722-17-31127z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412583/original/file-20210722-17-31127z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412583/original/file-20210722-17-31127z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412583/original/file-20210722-17-31127z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412583/original/file-20210722-17-31127z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412583/original/file-20210722-17-31127z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412583/original/file-20210722-17-31127z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">In a new survey, only 21% of Japanese respondents said they believe the games can be held safely.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hiro Komae/AP</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Indeed, <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2021/03/21/olympics/summer-olympics/japanese-fans-safe-coronavirus-olympics/">well-attended sports events</a> continue to take place in Japan despite various states of emergency, rising COVID infections and sluggish vaccination rates. The polls on the Olympics are an expression of understandable unease among the Japanese public about hosting a global sporting event during a global pandemic and the considerable costs they’ve had to bear.</p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0193723514530565">Unease over the costs</a> is not unusual for Olympic hosts. In the past, this has been quickly tempered by the games themselves. The atmosphere invokes a national pride as the host nation’s best athletes compete against the world and the host city gets to show off its iconic landmarks and newly minted sporting and urban infrastructure.</p>
<p>The tangible benefits promised to the hosts are then realised in the millions spent by visitors on hotels, restaurants, bars and most importantly tickets. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/money-money-money-cost-tokyos-pandemic-delayed-olympics-2021-06-10/">Ticketing</a> is one of the few areas of economic value in an Olympics that the IOC leaves exclusively to the host to exploit. With no tourists or spectators permitted for the Tokyo Games, the organisers will miss out on an estimated <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/no-fans-at-the-tokyo-olympics-will-lead-to-at-least-800-million-in-ticket-sale-losses-analyst-says-11625854693">US$800 million (A$1.08 billion) in revenue</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412581/original/file-20210722-13-1jz5rwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412581/original/file-20210722-13-1jz5rwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412581/original/file-20210722-13-1jz5rwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412581/original/file-20210722-13-1jz5rwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412581/original/file-20210722-13-1jz5rwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412581/original/file-20210722-13-1jz5rwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412581/original/file-20210722-13-1jz5rwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Most events at the games will be held in empty stadiums and arenas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Keita Iijima/AP</span></span>
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<h2>Reputational damage to the IOC</h2>
<p>The impact of COVID, of course, could not be helped by the IOC. But the IOC has not helped itself in how it has managed the postponed games. Its adamant insistence that the Olympics go ahead has been seen as <a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-coronavirus-pandemic-olympic-games-sports-dfd91e85b3af2d97404fde45d6fab341">arrogant</a> and unsympathetic to Tokyo. The host city contract and insurance policies may mitigate any economic risks to the IOC of pressing ahead, but neither will do much to repair the reputational damage.</p>
<p>Public disquiet over the games has already led <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/jul/19/toyota-scraps-olympics-tv-ads-amid-lukewarm-support-in-japan">Toyota</a>, one of the Olympics’ most important global sponsors, to cancel its Olympic television advertising and decide against sending its executives to the opening ceremony. </p>
<p>Its stance may have a domino effect and see other corporate sponsors follow suit. Approximately <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/money-money-money-cost-tokyos-pandemic-delayed-olympics-2021-06-10/">60 Japanese companies</a> have paid a record US$3 billion (A$4.08 billion) to sponsor the games. This had to be topped up by another US$200 million (A$272 million) to extend contracts after the Olympics were postponed. Goodwill among such sponsors towards the IOC is <a href="https://apnews.com/article/japan-newspapers-olympic-games-entertainment-health-3e0cccf19bc042f4f58e39ac753306ff">running low</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1417948763969277954"}"></div></p>
<p>The vast bulk of the revenue generated by the IOC is not from sponsorship, but television broadcasting deals. In the last Olympic cycle (2013-16), broadcasting rights raised four times more in revenue (US$4.1 billion or A$5.6 billion) than the IOC’s official <a href="https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Documents/International-Olympic-Committee/IOC-Marketing-And-Broadcasting/IOC-Marketing-Fact-File-2021.pdf">sponsorship program</a>. </p>
<p>The importance of the broadcasters, especially the US television networks, is reflected by the fact that in making the decision to postpone the games, little to no consideration was given to the option of spreading it out over a longer period of time. This would have provided scheduling flexibility to allow for COVID-related spikes (like the one Japan is currently experiencing). </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tokyo-2020-how-japans-bid-for-soft-power-victory-has-been-roundly-defeated-by-the-pandemic-164173">Tokyo 2020 – how Japan's bid for soft power victory has been roundly defeated by the pandemic</a>
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<p>But this has not happened. The games are only viable (financially) if they fit a tight window dictated by the US networks. And given the fact crowds have now been banned at most events in Tokyo, this means the games will now almost exclusively be a made-for-TV event.</p>
<p>The main bulk of those allowed to attend events will be members of the IOC executive elite. The image of such executives looking down on competing athletes may reinforce the view that, while the predominately amateur participants have had to endure disruptions to their lives and training schedules and isolate for weeks in order to get to the Olympics, the IOC elite lives in a permanent bubble.</p>
<p>Moreover, as the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-20/third-athlete-tests-positive-in-tokyo-olympic-village/100306142">number of COVID infections</a> among athletes and officials increases, the risks and responsibilities that the IOC has assumed in pushing ahead with the games become more onerous. </p>
<p>Getting athletes to sign waivers may absolve the IOC from its narrow legal responsibility to ensure the health and safety of athletes, but not its moral obligations. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1416976806138155013"}"></div></p>
<h2>Where does the Olympic movement go from here?</h2>
<p>In the longer term, the legacy of the Tokyo games may be quite complex for the IOC. International sports federations will surely have to rethink whether it is wise <a href="https://playthegame.org/news/news-articles/2020/0644_how-federations-share-the-revenues-from-the-olympic-games/">to rely so heavily</a> on the redistribution of revenue generated by one event every four years and controlled by one dominant, highly political entity - the IOC. </p>
<p>As for future games — even for Brisbane in 2032 — who knows what impact climate change will have on a country’s capacity or willingness to host an event that is responsible for <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-journal-of-international-law/article/carbon-footprint-of-the-games-international-climate-change-law-and-the-olympics/0387DED9FA41AB026660514406896B84">large amounts of carbon emissions</a> through air travel, energy use and construction.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/leaner-cost-effective-practical-how-the-2032-brisbane-games-could-save-the-olympics-162606">Leaner, cost-effective, practical: how the 2032 Brisbane Games could save the Olympics</a>
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<p>As the games begin, the spotlight rightly focuses on the diverse array of talented athletes from around the globe. For many of us, our love of sport began by watching an Olympics. As a 10-year-old, I sat transfixed when John Treacy of Ireland <a href="https://www.rte.ie/archives/2014/0812/636602-john-treacy-wins-olympic-silver/">won silver in the marathon</a> at the 1984 Los Angeles games. As he entered the final straight, the local commentator listed Irish medallists of the past. I still know them by heart.</p>
<p>But if the Tokyo games have made clear, the IOC’s slogan of “<a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/olympic-motto">Citius, Altius, Fortius</a>” is no longer as potent as it once was. For future hosts, there might be an alternative version to reflect the rather more circumspect view of the IOC and its games – “caveat emptor”, or buyer beware.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164389/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jack Anderson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>These will not only be the most expensive Summer Games ever, they have likely come at a tremendous reputational cost for the IOC.Jack Anderson, Professor of Sports Law, Melbourne Law School, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1645582021-07-22T20:07:16Z2021-07-22T20:07:16ZThe Olympic movement claims political neutrality. In reality, that ideal is often selectively applied<p>More than 200 nations are represented at the Tokyo 2021 Olympics. As ever, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) asserts the games are a means of unifying humanity through elite sport. At the same time, though, IOC president <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/sport-and-politics-my-experiences-as-an-athlete/">Thomas Bach concedes</a>:</p>
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<p>The Olympic Games cannot prevent wars and conflicts. </p>
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<p>Instead, he says, the games are unifying by way of symbolism: </p>
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<p>[…] they can set an example for a world where everyone respects the same rules and one another.</p>
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<p>The inference here is that the Olympics, with a rule-based platform for nations and athletes to come together respectfully and cohesively, provide an opportunity for dialogue and friendship that resonates beyond sport.</p>
<p>The confluence of nations at the Olympics also underscores the IOC’s much-vaunted position that the games must be <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/president-bach-the-ioc-s-political-neutrality-and-the-korean-peninsula">politically neutral</a>. Indeed, as a practical demonstration of that aspiration, both the IOC and the United Nations promulgate the goal of an <a href="https://gtimg.tokyo2020.org/image/upload/production/gpoufrzpdiqld5hhyxuu.pdf">Olympic Truce</a> for a period of seven days before the Olympics until seven days after the Paralympics.</p>
<p>Thus, there is an expectation that UN member states will “<a href="https://olympics.com/en/news/united-nations-adopts-tokyo-2020-olympic-truce-resolution">cease hostilities</a>”, ostensibly to protect athletes competing at the Tokyo games.</p>
<p>However, that anti-political idealism is confounded by a sobering reality: nations and athletes come together to compete at the Olympics, but they can hardly leave behind a range of tensions and conflicts in global geopolitics. </p>
<p>Indeed, beneath the hubris of Olympic evangelism, the realpolitik of corruption, conflict, domination or genocide permeate numerous countries that are an integral part of the so-called “Olympic family”. Among them, Myanmar and Iran provide compelling examples.</p>
<h2>Myanmar</h2>
<p>The Facebook site of the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/nocmya.naypyitaw/">Myanmar Olympic Committee</a> highlights an invitation to athletes at Tokyo to sign the Olympic Truce Mural. However, this hardly seems a straightforward matter for the <a href="https://www.gnlm.com.mm/three-myanmar-athletes-qualify-for-tokyo-olympics/amp/?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=pmd_ede11f97dc85d13432f4b107f56855f9afec7e0a-1626767599-0-gqNtZGzNAo2jcnBszQhO">three qualified athletes</a> from Myanmar.</p>
<p>Back home, the country’s military dictatorship has shown <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/23/myanmar-is-still-committing-genocide-against-rohingya-says-rights-group">genocidal intent</a> against the (largely) Muslim Rohingya community, while <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/myanmar-anti-coup-activists-protest-us-seeks-regional-action-2021-07-14/">Myanmar’s armed forces</a>, reacting against pro-democracy activists, have reportedly “killed more than 900 people since the coup and detained thousands”.</p>
<p>The IOC, meanwhile, will welcome to Tokyo 2021 Myanmar’s deputy minister for health and sports, <a href="https://www.gnlm.com.mm/three-myanmar-athletes-qualify-for-tokyo-olympics/amp/?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=pmd_ede11f97dc85d13432f4b107f56855f9afec7e0a-1626767599-0-gqNtZGzNAo2jcnBszQhO">U Myo Hlaing</a>, thereby providing sanction to the country’s repressive regime.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-why-the-un-has-found-myanmars-military-committed-genocide-against-the-rohingya-102251">Explainer: why the UN has found Myanmar’s military committed genocide against the Rohingya</a>
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<p>For Win Htet Oo, an expatriate swimmer living in Melbourne with his family from Myanmar, the hypocrisy of representing a country that is wantonly killing its own people proved too much to bear. Win Htet initially wrote to the IOC with a request that he be allowed to swim as a “<a href="https://www.scmp.com/sport/other-sport/article/3132303/tokyo-2020-myanmar-swimmer-win-htet-oo-abandons-olympic-dream">neutral athlete</a>”, independent of any country. </p>
<p>But this was denied, presumably because he was not a refugee. The “politically neutral” IOC was not about to allow a citizen-athlete to claim neutrality from their country. Unable to disassociate himself from a murderous regime, Win Htet <a href="https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2021/04/85f956592756-myanmar-swimmer-to-forgo-tokyo-olympics-in-protest-at-junta-violence.html">withdrew from selection</a> for the Tokyo games, declaring: “I shall not march in the parade of nations under a flag steeped in my people’s blood.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412574/original/file-20210722-13-8hb6af.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412574/original/file-20210722-13-8hb6af.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412574/original/file-20210722-13-8hb6af.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412574/original/file-20210722-13-8hb6af.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412574/original/file-20210722-13-8hb6af.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412574/original/file-20210722-13-8hb6af.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412574/original/file-20210722-13-8hb6af.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Rohingya refugees at the border of Myanmar and Bangladesh in 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nyein Chan Naing/EPA/AAP</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>By contrast, Thet Htar Thuzar, a badminton player, is committed to representing Myanmar at the Tokyo Olympics. In a <a href="https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14394109">social media post</a>, she wrote that her “long-cherished dream has come true”. Thet Htar was not merely self-absorbed: she hoped to “make her compatriots smile even for just a moment amid the hardships they are facing”. </p>
<p>However, many <a href="https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14394109">respondents on social media</a> were unimpressed, seeing “participation in the games by local athletes as a gesture of subservience to the Myanmar military”.</p>
<p>Unlike Win Htet, though, Thet Htar and her family live in Myanmar under a dictatorship. With the military regime talking up her role in the Olympics, she may have been in no position to talk it down.</p>
<h2>Iran</h2>
<p>Wrestling is a sport in which Iranians have performed extremely well. The country’s official news agency reports that <a href="https://en.irna.ir/news/84402117/Six-Iranian-freestyle-wrestlers-to-compete-in-Tokyo-Olympics">six wrestlers</a> will represent the republic at Tokyo 2021. </p>
<p>However, champion Greco-Roman wrestler <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-54129949">Navid Afkari</a> cannot be among them. In September 2020, he was executed by the Iranian government. The execution was widely seen by critics as <a href="https://irannewswire.org/navid-afkaris-brutal-execution-will-have-repercussions-for-iran-regime/">retribution</a> for Navid’s high-profile participation in mass protests against an oppressively authoritarian regime.</p>
<p>The IOC was deeply disappointed that its <a href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/wrestling/54099514">diplomatic representations</a> to the Iranian government, seeking clemency for Navid, were ignored. Capital punishment is, of course, part of state power in many countries that take part in the Olympics. But critics contended that Navid’s <a href="https://www.iranhumanrights.org/2020/09/execution-of-navid-afkari-irans-judiciary-is-a-tool-of-political-repression-and-violence-and-a-threat-to-the-people/">trial was a sham</a>. For them, this punishment amounted to a political execution.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412576/original/file-20210722-27-rh0k4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412576/original/file-20210722-27-rh0k4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412576/original/file-20210722-27-rh0k4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412576/original/file-20210722-27-rh0k4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412576/original/file-20210722-27-rh0k4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412576/original/file-20210722-27-rh0k4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412576/original/file-20210722-27-rh0k4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Champion Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari had hoped to compete in Tokyo. However, he was executed in September 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/EPA/NWRI handout</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Navid had aspired to be at the Tokyo Olympics. Exiled Iranian <a href="https://www.trtworld.com/life/self-exiled-iranian-athletes-seek-a-ban-on-iran-from-entering-the-olympics-48498">activists</a> argued that, in the wake of this athlete’s execution, the IOC should ban their country from the 2021 games. </p>
<p>Yet this did not happen. Discussing the case, the IOC vice president, John Coates, personified the IOC’s naïveté when <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1098447/navid-afkari-execution-olympic-ban-iran">he noted</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The difficulty for us is this execution didn’t relate to a sporting event. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, he pointed out that when Iranian athletes refused to compete against Israeli athletes, a suspension ensued. In terms of Navid, though, Coates sat firmly on the IOC’s neutrality fence: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We’ve been getting two sides to the story as to whether he got a fair go or didn’t get a fair go. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Gaming the Olympics</h2>
<p>Although the Olympic Truce is a public relations metaphor rather than a declaration with practical salience, the games environment may inadvertently provide safe haven opportunities for athletes from countries with repressive political regimes. </p>
<p>The best-known example of this was the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, which featured the <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/ypy3k5/defections-hungary-at-the-melbourne-olympics-1956">defection</a> of some 55 Hungarian athletes to the West in the wake of the Soviet invasion of Hungary. However, <a href="https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/31434/brief-history-olympic-defectors">political asylum at the Olympics</a> is relatively uncommon and, in the context of the Tokyo games, unlikely. The Japanese government has no appetite for <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2021/03/japans-changing-immigration-and-refugee-policy/">political refugees</a>, with long-term detention the norm.</p>
<p>The IOC, meanwhile, has conceived its own safe haven for a small number of Olympic athletes who have fled conflict and assumed the status of refugees. The <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/refugee-olympic-team">IOC Refugee Olympic Team</a>, which began at the Rio Olympics of 2016, has now been selected for Tokyo. It features <a href="https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/en/news/ioc-refugee-olympic-team-announced-tokyo-2020">29 athletes</a>, of whom four are originally from Iran. The best known of the Iranians is taekwondo star <a href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/taekwondo/51090585">Kimia Alizadeh</a>, who absconded during athletic competition in Europe. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-olympics-have-always-been-a-platform-for-protest-banning-hand-gestures-and-kneeling-ignores-their-history-129694">The Olympics have always been a platform for protest. Banning hand gestures and kneeling ignores their history</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<p>Notwithstanding the IOC’s commitment to “political neutrality”, Kimia’s claims of oppression by the Iran regime are manifest in their profile of her as a “<a href="https://olympics.com/en/featured-news/kimia-alizadeh-refugee-olympian-fighting-for-equality">refugee Olympian</a>. So, in a decidedly political pivot, the IOC welcomes Iran to the Tokyo Olympics, along with four Iranian athletes who fled to seek political asylum.</p>
<p>Notwithstanding the Olympic ideals of friendly dialogue during the games, the schism between political refugees and their original countries is hardly going to evaporate. </p>
<p>More generally, the IOC’s selectively applied position of political neutrality is certain to provide ongoing consternation given that the world’s most repressive regimes are welcomed into the Olympic family. Arguably, the IOC’s apolitical position actually emboldens dictatorships and human rights abuses. It offers no consequences except in the case of athletes prevented from playing sport.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164558/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daryl Adair does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The IOC welcomes repressive regimes to the Olympic games. This means athletes from those countries are often placed in an invidious posiiton.Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1642912021-07-21T11:50:51Z2021-07-21T11:50:51ZThe WHO and the IOC are playing with lives at state-of-emergency Tokyo Olympics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411719/original/file-20210716-13-jcmr7m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5389%2C3589&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A station passageway is crowded with commuters wearing face masks during rush hour at Shinagawa Station. A recent survey suggests that 83 per cent of Japanese citizens don’t want the Olympics to proceed as scheduled, fearing a surge in case numbers. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Bianca Andreescu, Canada’s celebrated tennis star, recently announced she <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/summer/tennis/bianca-andreescu-withdraws-from-canadas-olympic-tennis-team-citing-pandemic-1.6099768">would not attend</a> the Tokyo Olympic Games due to the health risks posed by COVID-19. </p>
<p>It’s hard to argue against such a decision. Cases are surging and only <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/19/most-japanese-medical-workers-not-fully-vaccinated-as-olympics-looms.html">30 per cent</a> of health-care workers in Japan are vaccinated. Only <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations">one quarter</a> of the global population has received at least one vaccine dose. Travellers from Canada and 158 other countries are banned from entering Japan, except under <a href="https://www.mofa.go.jp/ca/fna/page4e_001053.html#section1">“exceptional circumstances.”</a></p>
<p>Had she chosen to do so, Andreescu, as well as thousands of other foreign nationals, could have been admitted to Japan for the Games. Indeed, athletes will account for about 15,400 entries alone. When coaches and support staff are added to the equation, the figure will rise considerably higher. </p>
<p>Japanese nurses and physicians are understandably <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/tokyo-olympics-osaka-hospitals-buckling-1.6038450">sounding the alarm</a>, informing Olympic officials that the health-care system lacks the resources to effectively protect the people of Japan and cater to Olympians and their teams.</p>
<p>Despite the rising rate of infection in Japan, the World Health Organization has merely <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1109736/who-call-for-caution-olympics-covid">urged those attending</a> the Olympics to exercise “caution.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A sign that says 'COVID-19 countermeasures' across the top is framed between two men." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411339/original/file-20210714-27-3dzedg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411339/original/file-20210714-27-3dzedg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411339/original/file-20210714-27-3dzedg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411339/original/file-20210714-27-3dzedg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411339/original/file-20210714-27-3dzedg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411339/original/file-20210714-27-3dzedg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411339/original/file-20210714-27-3dzedg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A sign for COVID-19 countermeasures at the Main Press Centre for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A longstanding history</h2>
<p>The WHO has a long-standing relationship with the IOC, stretching back to a memorandum of understanding signed in 1984. The WHO’s advisory role in Olympic safety, however, has come under attack in recent years. </p>
<p>When the Zika virus ravaged Brazil leading up to the 2016 Rio Olympics, a group of 150 physicians and academics wrote an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2016/05/Zika-Olympics-Open-Letter-to-WHO-current2.pdf?itid=lk_inline_manual_17">open letter</a> urging the WHO to hold transparent discussions about the risk of Zika transmission at the Games. The letter suggested the WHO’s close relationship with the IOC was preventing it from making a neutral assessment of the risks posed by Zika. </p>
<p>The 2016 Rio Olympics, of course, went ahead. The WHO was correct. The event was safe. Transmission of the Zika virus, at least to visitors, was seemingly non-existent.</p>
<p>The nature of this relationship between the WHO and IOC has evolved over time. A <a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/07-01-2011-who-and-the-international-olympic-committee-sign-agreement-to-improve-healthy-lifestyles">2010 memorandum of understanding</a> emphasized a partnership “to promote healthy lifestyle choices, including physical activity, sports for all, tobacco-free Olympic Games and the prevention of childhood obesity.” The focus was on noncommunicable diseases like cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes. </p>
<p>This memorandum expired before the 2016 Rio Olympics, but the WHO committed itself to a careful and thorough assessment of health risks associated with that event, illustrating that — with or without a formal agreement — it was committed to protecting the physical well-being of the citizens of Brazil and the rest of the attendees.</p>
<h2>The stakes are higher than ever</h2>
<p>Something feels very different this year. For one, the stakes are considerably higher for the IOC, the WHO and the people of Japan.</p>
<p>Although COVID-19 has led the Tokyo Organizing Committee to largely bar spectators from stadiums, the event is going forward despite significant resistance from Japanese citizens and a low national rate of vaccination. </p>
<p>A recent survey suggests that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/18/world/asia/covid-japan-olympics-poll.html">83 per cent of Japanese citizens</a> don’t want the Olympics to proceed as scheduled, fearing a surge in case numbers. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Protester holding a sign that says 'Olympics kill the poor.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411335/original/file-20210714-17-78qkpz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411335/original/file-20210714-17-78qkpz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411335/original/file-20210714-17-78qkpz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411335/original/file-20210714-17-78qkpz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411335/original/file-20210714-17-78qkpz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411335/original/file-20210714-17-78qkpz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411335/original/file-20210714-17-78qkpz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People against Olympic Games protest near Komazawa Olympic Park, where the unveiling ceremony for the Olympic Flame torch relay was held on July 9 in Tokyo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The fact that the IOC stands to reap a <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/162952/cancel-tokyo-games-abolish-olympics">tremendous financial gain</a>, while Tokyo struggles to manage a state of emergency — unable to even generate ticket revenue to offset some of its investment in the Games — is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/11/holding-tokyo-olympics-amid-covid-pandemic-threat-is-about-corporate-revenue-not-athletes/">spurring accusations</a> that the Olympic powers are acting in the interest of money, not health, and sacrificing the well-being of the Japanese people on the altar of capitalism.</p>
<p>It certainly appears as though the IOC’s actions, and the WHO’s tacit support, are incompatible with the organizations’ most recent <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-and-who-strengthen-ties-to-advocate-healthy-lifestyles">2020 memorandum of understanding</a>. It’s unclear how forging ahead during a pandemic meets the shared commitment to “strengthen the health preparedness and legacy of the Olympic Games.” </p>
<h2>Health concerns go beyond the physical</h2>
<p>In a <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/-olympic-refuge-foundation-sport-can-offer-hope-to-displaced-communities-during-the-covid-19-pandemic">news release</a> last May regarding the agreement, IOC President Thomas Bach said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Over the last few months in the current crisis, we have all seen how important sport and physical activity are for physical and mental health. Sport can save lives.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The IOC used mental health, a relatively new concern for them, to double down on its collaboration with the WHO by pledging both organizations “to work on new projects addressing emerging issues such as mental health.” This newfound regard for mental health was notably absent in 2016, when both organizations celebrated the Olympics as a success despite a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/03/forced-evictions-vila-autodromo-rio-olympics-protests">well-documented assault on favela communities</a>, decimating the well-being of some of the city’s more vulnerable people. </p>
<p>If the WHO is correct that a high degree of caution, not outright cancellation, will be enough to prevent the spread of disease at the Olympics, the question of its commitment to mental health still remains. In Tokyo, as in so many past host nations, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2020/07/06/inside-troubling-legacy-displacing-poor-communities-olympic-games-one-villages-resistance-brazil/">residents are being displaced to make way for the Olympic Games</a>. </p>
<h2>Nothing short of lives are at stake</h2>
<p>The Japanese public’s massive call for cancellation is indicative of the anxiety already spurred by the Games. Realistically, if this is what a commitment to mental health looks like, can folks be blamed for believing this new component of the IOC/WHO partnership is just for optics?</p>
<p>One thing is perfectly clear — nothing short of people’s lives are at stake. No amount of money can justify a single preventable death. Furthermore, an Olympic super-spreader event, a widespread mental health emergency or a combination of the two could do further damage to the already tarnished reputations of both the IOC and WHO. </p>
<p>Make no mistake, the IOC could do a lot of good in the world, especially with the help of the WHO. Physical activity can be an important boon to mental and physical health. Yet, when the IOC and WHO support a global mega-event held during a pandemic, it’s difficult to believe that the well-being of the host nation remains a priority.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164291/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>MacIntosh Ross does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Let’s make one thing perfectly clear — nothing short of people’s lives are at stake at the Tokyo Olympics. No amount of money can justify a single preventable death.MacIntosh Ross, Assistant Professor, Kinesiology, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.