Worried of “bring the world together”the IOC has avoided boycotts and exclusions to bring together delegations from around the world at the Paris Olympics, but it has yet to succeed in making the event a peaceful bubble.
At a time when all “political propaganda” is prohibited by the Olympic Charter on the field or podiums, but permitted in the Olympic Village and during press conferences, can the Games be caught up in ongoing conflicts, notably the wars in Ukraine and Gaza?
“Neutral” and scrutinized Russians
The Russian invasion of Ukraine with the support of Belarus, in February 2022, has long seemed to rule out any possibility of having athletes of the three nationalities coexist in Paris: Russians and Belarusians have been banned from world sport until March 2023 , and Ukrainians threatened to boycott the Games if they participated.
But once this position was abandoned by kyiv, in the summer of 2023, the IOC orchestrated a gradual reintegration of Russians and Belarusians into international competitions, under strict conditions: as individuals, under a neutral flag, and provided that they had not “actively supported the war in Ukraine” and are not under contract with the military or security agencies.
The body, which also banned them from parading on the Seine during the opening ceremony, has so far validated the qualification of 28 Russians and 19 Belarusians under the neutral banner, a list currently limited to nine disciplines (wrestling, trampoline, cycling, weightlifting, shooting, tennis, rowing, judo and canoeing) and which is set to be completed.
In any case, it is a drop in the bucket compared to the 330 Russians and 104 Belarusians at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. And these “neutral athletes” are promised permanent surveillance: any demonstration of support for the offensive in Ukraine, for example a “Z” symbol of the invasion, would result in a procedure which could go “until immediate exclusion from the Games”warned the head of the IOC, Thomas Bach, to AFP at the end of April.
Palestinians want a platform
Since the fall, the IOC has tried to stay away from the war between Israel and Hamas by hiding behind its “two-state solution”since the Israeli and Palestinian National Olympic Committees (NOCs) have coexisted since 1995, a legacy of the Oslo peace process. He has therefore never considered having Israeli athletes compete under a neutral banner, although Israeli bombings in retaliation for the bloody October 7 attack by Hamas destroyed Gaza’s main sports institutions and killed Palestinian sports figures, according to the Palestinian Olympic Committee.
The body, which according to the IOC should have “six to eight representatives” through the game of invitations, nevertheless intends to make the Olympics a platform. “Paris is a historic and important moment to go and tell the world […] : “enough is enough”declared its president, Jibril Rajoub, in mid-June. On the Israeli side, the issue is above all security, as at every Olympic edition since the deadly hostage-taking in Munich in 1972: for the moment, the delegation plans “to participate in the opening ceremony like any other team”according to its Olympic committee.
Afghanistan without the Taliban
The return of the Taliban to power in Kabul in the summer of 2021 has put sports authorities in a dilemma: how to balance dialogue and pressure to help athletes and their entourage, in exile or remaining in the country, without endorsing the ban on women practicing sport?
In mid-June, the IOC announced that it had obtained the presence in Paris of an Afghan team of three men (in athletics, swimming and judo) and three women (athletics and cycling), without revealing their identity. All live abroad, except the judoka, then clarified the director general of the Afghan Olympic committee, Dad Mohammad Payenda Akhtari.
“As women’s sport is suspended in Afghanistan”the three women “were not sent from the country”he explained. The echo that will be given to their performances remains one of the unknowns of the Games, especially since the IOC intended in mid-June “to launch a very strong symbol to the world and to Afghanistan”according to its spokesperson Mark Adams.
Afghanistan, which has the third largest contingent of exiles in the world, will also have five representatives on the Refugee Olympic Team, including its captain, cyclist Masomah Ali Zada. The young woman plans to go and encourage her compatriots under the Afghan flag: “I’m so happy that there are three Afghan women at the Olympics and that they are on par with the men”she recently confided to AFP.
