The end of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games arrived with great style! Emotional stories, gold medals, and huge concerts stood out in this year’s competition, however, some events left the audience with some questions, especially when the subject is a country ban from the competition.
To better understand it, let’s go back to the beginning. Athens, 1896, was where the first-ever Modern Olympic Games happened. By the time, Greece held this event with 14 nations and 241 athletes.
Almost 128 years and 30 competitions later, the Olympics still make the world’s population get together to watch a bunch of different nations compete in a variety of sports. On top of that, even after all these years, the values of Olympism are still the same: excellence, respect, and friendship.
international olympic comitee
Even though the games are great to watch, someone must ensure that all the rules are being followed, and that is the role of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which has the same mission in all the Olympic Games: to ensure the uniqueness and the regular celebration of the Olympic Games; to put athletes at the heart of the Olympic Movement; and to promote sport and the Olympic values in society, with a focus on young people.
The task of the committee revolves around 18 principles, from protection to neutrality, the IOC is very clear on what they want to ensure in the Olympics, being:
- to cooperate with competent public or private organizations and authorities in the endeavor to place sport at the service of humanity and thereby promote peace.
- to take action to strengthen the unity of the Olympic Movement, to protect its independence, to maintain and promote its political neutrality, and to preserve the autonomy of sport.
- to protect clean athletes and the integrity of sport, by leading the fight against doping, and by taking action against all forms of manipulation of competitions and related corruption.
- to oppose any political or commercial abuse of sports and athletes.
Still, even if the Olympic games can be seen as “magic” to those who are watching, some IOC decisions are being questioned by the public, like the ban on Russia and the lack of banishment on Israel.
Getting banned
In the Olympics, a country banishment is a very rare thing, since the games are a showcase of different cultures to the world. However, three main things can get a nation out of the competition, which are: not following the IOC rules, violation of doping, and political conflicts at the time of the games. That was the case with Russia, which has a long history with banishment in the competition.
It all started in 2014, when the Federation of the Olympics found out that Russian athletes were using doping to boost their abilities in sports. Not just that, it was discovered that the use of the substance was sponsored and encouraged by the State.
Years later the story continues, but it does not end like a fairy tale, since the biggest country in the world got banned from competing in Paris. This time, Russia got suspended because of its war with Ukraine. The IOC claims that Russia broke the “Olympic Truce”, by taking control of the regional Olympic organizations of the Ukrainian Land.
This “truce” is a Greek tradition that makes all the political and armed conflicts cease during the period of the truce, which begins seven days before the opening of the Olympic Games and ends one week after the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games. Still, if you analyze it, this decision was made by the IOC in March this year, months before the “seven-day prior”. Which made the decision look questionable to the public.
israel x russia
And why is the decision questionable, you may ask. Let’s use a situation that is happening at this present moment as an example, shall we? The country of Israel, a contestant nation at this year’s Olympic Games, has been facing a war against Hamas since October 2023. The conflict has caused a lot of violence and deaths, so that means they were also breaking the “Olympic Truce”, right?
Well, not in the IOC’s eyes. The committee argues that the situation in Gaza is “completely different” because Russia took control of Ukraine’s sports organizations and Israel did not take this kind of action. That comment did not make the public happy and just attracted protests, questions, and hard comments toward the committee.
Despite Israel not taking control of Gaza’s sports organizations, the Israeli country destroyed most of the infrastructure of the region. Because of that, Palestinians did not have any sports centers to train, so they didn’t have the opportunity to “cooperate with competent public or private organizations and authorities in the endeavor to place sport at the service of humanity and thereby promote peace”, because everything was taken from them. Not only that, the Palestinian Olympic Committee affirms that 300 athletes were killed by the war. So, let this question be asked: If the Israeli athletes do not have to pay for their government actions, why do the Russians?
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The article above was edited by Isadora Mangueira.
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