Politics Enter the Olympic Arena
What are the geopolitical issues at play in the Paris 2024 Olympics?
On Monday, four days before the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics, hundreds of athletes in Paris for the 2024 games gathered in the Olympic Village to call for peace.
Athletes, including those from warring nations, held flags and wore scarves that read “give peace a chance.”
The tradition of “Olympic Truce” dates back to the ancient games and was reinstalled in the 1990s as a way to “harness the power of sport to promote peace, dialogue and reconciliation.”
Though the sentiment is hopeful and fits in with the intended ethos of the Olympics, there hasn’t been a modern games where politics didn’t loom over the sports arenas.
Here are a few of the ways geopolitical issues are seeping into the 2024 games:
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Israel was loudly booed during its national anthem at Wednesday’s pre-ceremony soccer game between Israel and Mali. The jeering got so loud that the speakers fought back, getting louder in an effort to drown them out.
In the front row, a group wearing white shirts and a single letter stood in unison to reveal a message: “FREE PALESTINE.” The Israeli-Palestinian conflict was so much at the center of this match that one observer remarked about how the “the Olympic spirit of unity seems distant, almost imagined.”
But these demonstrations were smaller than security officials had been bracing for. Armed guards marched Israelis to the field ahead of the match. Prior to the game, France’s security forces have been ramping up intelligence and on-the-ground protection. They are trying to ward off threats to any of the players, international groups, or wider terror attacks.
The French Interior Minister had previously said that Israeli athletes would have 24-hour security, provided by the branch in charge of counterterrorism and the protection of government officials. Israel already travels with their own security ever since a deadly attack carried out by a militant Palestinian organization at the 1972 games.
During the lead-up to these games, there have been growing calls for Israel to be banned altogether. The Palestinian Olympic Committee, several Arab states, and more than two dozen members of French government have made such calls. Since October 7, when Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis, the deadliest attack against Jews since the Holocaust, Israel has launched war against Gaza. More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed, including thousands of children, and most have been civilians.
Similar calls have been made at other international events, like the Eurovision Song Contest. Thousands of pro-Palestinian protestors marched outside of the final in Malmo, Sweden.
Some have criticized the IOC for being hypocritical for how they treat Israel compared to other warring nations. The Economist wrote: “The Olympic movement’s embrace of human rights, for example, has been undercut over the past couple of decades by its continued dealings with autocratic hosts, and this summer by the perceived inconsistency of banning Russia for invading Ukraine but giving Israel a free pass on Gaza.”
Meanwhile, the match between Israel and Mali (which broke off diplomatic ties years ago) ended in a 1-1 tie.
Afghanistan’s Presence at the Games
The Afghanistan Olympic Team represents a very different Afghanistan than of years past. There have been growing calls, including by one of the the first two women athletes to compete at the Olympics for Afghanistan, to ban them from taking part.
That’s because the Taliban is now in control of the country. When they came back to power in 2021, one of the first things they did was to bar women and girls from participating in sports. Since then, women athletes have faced physical abuse and raids on their homes.
Though there are three women represented on the country’s team, critics have said that they do not reside or train in their home country. What’s more, the government doesn’t even recognize these athletes.
"Only three athletes are representing Afghanistan," said Atal Mashwani, the spokesman of the Taliban government's sports directorate, referring to the male competitors told reporters.
"Currently, in Afghanistan girls' sports have been stopped. When girls' sport isn't practiced, how can they go on the national team?" he told AFP.
Friba Rezayee, who competed in women’s Judo for Afghanistan, said that the IOC “should stand with Afghanistan’s women athletes.” While she wants to see the country banned while under Taliban rule, she suggests allowing them to compete under the refugee banner.
Five out of the six athletes competing under Afghanistan live and train abroad.
Russian & Belarusian Athletes
After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the IOC announced a new ban on Russian athletes competing in the games. It followed a previous ban for their government-sponsored doping scheme in the 2016 Rio games.
And though the country was formally banned, abiding Russian athletes were still able to perform, just under a different flag.
Now, that standard returns, but with new protocols and a new flag. Athletes from Russia and Belarus (tight allies, to say the least) would be eligible to compete if they did not work with the military and made no demonstration of support for the war in any way. Even their social media would be scoured by officials.
In the end, 59 athletes from these countries have been approved. These “neutral” athletes will compete under a new banner: the Individual Neutral Athlete.