The Olympic Games remain the most watched sporting event worldwide. As a result, geopolitics increasingly come into play, and Paris 2024 is no exception, with notable examples being the conflict in Ukraine, the return of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and the war between Hamas and Israel.
A few days before the opening of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, French President Emmanuel Macron stated: "Sport should not be politicised." However, the history of sports is replete with major political events, making such a statement more of an idealistic hope or even a mere posture.
Macron, who will officially open the Paris Olympic Games on 26 July, is well aware of the current geopolitical constraints on this global event. Since the media coverage of the Olympics after World War II, the geopolitical dimension has emerged, peaking with the boycotts of the 1980 Moscow Olympics and the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics by the US and the USSR, respectively. Hosting the Olympics remains a significant geopolitical challenge.
Geopolitics at the Olympics
In 1956, seven countries decided to boycott the Melbourne Olympics for various reasons. The People's Republic of China abstained to protest the Republic of China (Taiwan) being allowed to compete. Egypt, Iraq, and Lebanon boycotted in response to the invasion of Egypt by Israel, France, and the UK during the Suez Canal crisis. The Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland withdrew in protest of the Soviet Union's invasion of Hungary during the Budapest uprising and the Soviet presence at the Games.
Another example occurred in 1976 in Montreal, where numerous African countries chose not to attend Canada's Games to protest New Zealand's sporting relations with apartheid South Africa, which had been excluded by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
During the Cold War, the Olympics became a battleground between capitalist and socialist blocs as soon as the USSR joined the Olympic movement in the early 1950s. Today, the conflict in Ukraine is at the forefront. Russian forces attacked Ukraine in February 2022, leading to a cascade of sanctions from international sports organizations against Russian athletes.
No Russian Flag
On 27 June, the IOC authorized 22 Russian athletes and 17 Belarusian athletes to participate in the Paris Olympics under a neutral banner. These "neutral individual athletes" had to pass qualifications and undergo rigorous checks by international federations and the IOC to ensure they did not actively support the offensive in Ukraine and had no ties with the Russian military. In 2023, Macron stated that there could be no Russian flag at the 2024 Olympics. Ultimately, Moscow decided not to boycott the Paris Games.
In March, the IOC predicted that 36 Russians and 22 Belarusians would participate in Paris, "according to the most probable scenario," with respective maximums of 55 and 28. This represents a significantly smaller presence than at the Tokyo 2021 Olympics, where there were 330 Russians and 104 Belarusians. Deprived of their official colors, the "neutral individual athletes" will not parade on the Seine during the opening ceremony and will not appear in the medal table. The IOC assigned them a dedicated flag in March, bearing the letters "AIN" on an apple green background, along with a short, wordless composition to serve as their anthem in case of an Olympic title.
Afghanistan in the spotlight
Afghanistan will also draw attention at the Paris Olympics. A small delegation of male and female athletes will represent this mountainous country, marking the first Olympics since the Taliban returned to power, which the United Nations describes as imposing "gender apartheid" in Kabul. As this government, which came to power in the summer of 2021, is not recognized by any country in the world, Afghan delegations at international sporting events are closely scrutinized.
Three women and three men will be present in Paris, as announced in mid-June by the IOC, which has required a gender-balanced team since the Taliban's return. Neither the IOC nor the Afghan National Olympic Committee (ANOC) have revealed their names so far, but the ANOC's Director General, Dad Mohammad Payenda Akhtari, based in Kabul, claims that all, except for one judoka, live abroad.
Since women's sports are suspended in Afghanistan, female athletes were not sent from the country. "They all live abroad and were sent by the IOC," which financially supports most Afghan athletes, he added in an interview with Agence France-Presse. The black, red, and green flag of the Republic overthrown by the Taliban will be hoisted, although the Taliban now fly a black and white banner in Kabul.
The Taliban government regularly claims to support athletes representing Afghanistan internationally, even under the flag they brought down.
However, they forbid women from practicing sports, visiting parks, or attending gyms, and have banned girls from education beyond primary school and from certain jobs. "No representative of the Taliban government will be accredited for the Paris Olympic Games," announced Mark Adams, the IOC spokesperson. Afghanistan, which has the third-largest contingent of exiles in the world with eight million nationals in 103 countries, will also have five representatives in the Olympic refugee team (EOR).
Palestinian Athletes in Paris?
The ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, triggered by a deadly attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on 7 October, has garnered significant international attention.
On 12 June, Jibril Rajoub, President of the Palestinian Olympic Committee, called for the Paris Olympics to highlight the war in Gaza and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. "Paris is a historic and important moment to go there and tell the world that it's time to say: 'Enough is enough,'" Rajoub said during a press conference in Ramallah. He also mentioned the intention to include athletes from Gaza in the Olympic delegation.
Rajoub argued that Israel has forfeited its moral and legal right to participate in the Olympic Games due to ongoing actions against Palestinians, citing the deaths of 300 athletes, employees, and volunteers in Gaza, the destruction of sports infrastructure, and the use of stadiums as detention centers by the Israeli army. He also criticized travel restrictions that hinder Palestinian athletes from accessing international events or training abroad.
Despite these challenges, Rajoub highlighted the qualification of Omar Ismail in taekwondo and expressed hope that between six and eight Palestinian athletes would compete in Paris, potentially receiving invitations from the IOC if they did not qualify directly. In April, IOC President Thomas Bach assured that the Palestinian Olympic Committee would receive invitations if no athletes qualified.
In response to calls from some French left-wing deputies for Israeli athletes to compete under a neutral banner, the IOC did not consider sanctions against Israel for the Paris Olympics.
Yael Arad, President of the Israeli Olympic Committee, stated during a recent press conference in Tel Aviv: "We just want our athletes to do what they have to do, which is to compete."
