Echoes act 33/20/2023 Security Council member and can veto proposed resolutions. The IOC’s counter point is that South Africa was under U.N. Most famously, South Africa was banned by the IOC from competing at any Olympics from 1964-88 because of its apartheid system of racial discrimination laws.Ĭritics of the IOC’s current stance on Russia point to the South African case. The boycott era almost fatally damaged the Olympic brand and is seared on the memory of Bach who has presided over an era of continued commercial success. Payback four years later saw the Los Angeles Olympics snubbed by the Soviet Union and Eastern European allies. IOC president Thomas Bach was among the West Germany athletes who could not go, denying him the chance to defend the team fencing title. More than 60 teams refused to go to Moscow after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. The United States led the largest boycott in 1980. That closed a different period in Olympic history after significant boycotts at each Summer Games from 1976 through 1984.Ī swath of African countries stayed away from Montreal in 1976 because New Zealand would be there soon after its iconic rugby team toured South Africa. No team has boycotted the Olympics since North Korea snubbed the neighboring South for the 1988 Seoul Summer Games. then the NOC has to be suspended,” said Sylvia Schenk, a lawyer and sports governance expert from Germany who advises the IOC on human rights.Īny NOC can choose to boycott an Olympics on a point of honestly held principle - knowing that in Lausanne the act will not easily be forgotten or forgiven. “There is nothing in the Olympic Charter saying if a government starts a war that is opposed by the U.N. What it does not say is any kind of clear framework for acting against Russia and Belarus in the current situation. It does say that each of 206 national Olympic committees (NOCs) is obliged to participate in the Olympic Games by sending athletes. It is the document of rules that “governs the organization, action and operation of the Olympic Movement and sets forth the conditions for the celebration of the Olympic Games.” The IOC has pointed to its own rules and Olympic history to make its case. Pushback has been fierce in the 10 days since the IOC set out its preferred path for Russian and Belarusian athletes who do not actively support the war to try to qualify for Paris as neutrals.īy citing human rights arguments - that no athlete should face discrimination just for the passport they hold - the IOC has seemed ready to punish the protesting parties rather than the aggressors in the war. The IOC responded in a statement that “it is regretful that politicians are misusing athletes and sport as tools to achieve their political objectives.” Ukraine has stepped up efforts to lobby international sports leaders against Russian participation in next year’s Paris Olympics as indications mount that the games could see the biggest boycott since the Cold War. (RIA-Novosti, Mikhail Klimentyev, Presidential Press Service via AP, file) Mikhail Klimentyev/AP Show More Show Less 2 of5 FILE - Olena Kostevych and Bogdan Nikishin, of Ukraine, carry their country's flag during the opening ceremony in the Olympic Stadium at the 2020 Summer Olympics, on July 23, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. 27, 2023 by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. ![]() The Bach-led International Olympic Committee's support this week for some Russians to compete in Paris as neutrals was publicly challenged Friday, Jan. Just as it has now for five straight Olympics during Thomas Bach’s leadership of the IOC. ![]() The question of if and how Russia competes at the Olympics hangs over the 2024 Paris Summer Games. 15, 2014 file photo Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and IOC President Thomas Bach meet in the Bolshoi Ice Dome in Sochi, Russia.
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