Sport and politics on collision course at Paris 2024 Olympics over Russia's invasion of Ukraine and potential bans or boycotts

One year into Russia's war on Ukraine, and with a year or more until the Paris Olympics, the globe's athletes will find themselves increasingly in the political spotlight as governments in Europe and English-speaking nations apply mounting pressure on the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

A statement signed this week by the sports ministers of 35 nations, including Australia, urges the IOC to shelve plans designed to find a way for athletes from Russia and Belarus to compete in Paris as "neutrals", since the nations themselves have already been sanctioned by the Olympic body.

The statement came almost two weeks after a summit attended by the ministers heard an address from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

 

"While Russia kills and terrorises, representatives of the terrorist state have no place at sports and Olympic competitions," Zelenskyy said.

"And it cannot be covered up with some pretended neutrality or a white flag, because Russia is now a country that stains everything with blood — even the white flag."

While there was no ultimatum included in the statement, Olympic officials are cautious given Zelenskyy has previously suggested he would consider boycotting the games in Paris if athletes from the country he is fighting a war against are allowed to compete.

History of Olympic boycotts

Olympic boycotts have never ended a war.

U.S. athlete Jesse Owens (center) salutes after defeating Nazi Germany’s Lutz Long (right) in the long jump in Berlin. Japan’s Naoto Tajima (left) places third. AP Photo

One senior IOC member has warned any repeat of the Cold War-era boycott that impacted the 1980 and 1984 Olympics in Moscow and Los Angeles could destroy the Olympic movement altogether.

That sounds sensationalist, but those who lived through those years in Australia remember a country divided, where lifelong friendships were torn apart, teenage athletes were described in headlines and news reports as traitors, and Australian Olympic officials who voted in a split decision to go to Moscow - against the government's wishes — received death threats.

It was a similar story in the UK, from where the current push for the Olympic movement to choose sides is emanating.

Back then, the USA led a boycott of the Moscow 1980 games after the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. The Soviets, in turn, led a boycott four years later when the Games were held in the USA.

"If there was a significant boycott of Paris [2024] there would be countries that would side with … Russia," Australian IOC member John Coates told The Ticket when asked if comparisons could be made between the 1980s and the present day.

"And then they will do the tit for tat we saw four years later in Los Angeles and then it would blow the Olympic movement apart forever."

Forty-three years ago, it was believed a boycott would pressure Russia's withdrawal from Afghanistan. The war raged on for 10 years.

The boycott's biggest impact was felt by the athletes, including current IOC president Thomas Bach, who was unable to defend his gold medal in team fencing since West Germany was one of the boycotting nations.

Zelenskyy was only two years old at the time of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Australian Sports Minister Anika Wells was not yet born.

Australia's prime minister at the time, Malcolm Fraser, agreed to support a boycott of the games called by then-US president Jimmy Carter, but the Australian Olympic Federation - as the committee was then known - voted 6-5 to attend the Moscow Games against the wishes of the government.

SOURCE: nbc.au

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