Scott Stinson: The IOC really doesn't like politics at the Olympics. Good luck with that in Milan
From Greenland to ICE to Ukraine, there is no lack of topics that might intrude on the sports bubble
By: Scott Stinson
For an event that is explicitly determined to remain apolitical, the Olympics still manage to get mixed up in politics a lot.
Jesse Owens giving Adolf Hitler the business in Berlin in 1936. The pair of American sprinters who raised fists on a podium in Mexico City in 1968. Any number of Cold War-era battles between the forces of light and darkness. Over and over, the idea that the Olympics can somehow exist in a bubble that is oblivious to the outside world is proven wrong.
Four years ago in Beijing, the folly of the International Olympic Committee’s see-no-evil policy was exposed in moments big and small. A number of Western nations, Canada among them, refused to send diplomatic delegations to China’s Winter Olympics over concerns of human-rights abuses against ethic-minority Uyghurs. China responded to the slight by inviting Vladimir Putin to be a guest of Xi Jinping at the opening ceremony.
Putin sat next to Xi in a luxury suite in the Bird’s Nest, a shit-eating smile on his face, as the athletes of Beijing 2022 were introduced. Russian troops were massing on the Ukrainian border at the time. They would invade weeks later.
Olympic participants had been warned about saying anything political in nature during those Games, with the IOC worried about offending its hosts. But at an IOC press conference near the end of the games, an official with the Beijing organizing committee took great umbrage at questions — that were not directed at her — on a number of subjects: the Uyghurs, Taiwan, that kind of thing. “These questions are based on lies,” she said, and “Taiwan is an indivisible part of China.”
The next morning, the daily IOC press briefing did not include a member of the local organizing committee.
The IOC really just wants the focus to be on the athletes, you see. But, on the eve of Milan-Cortina 2026, it’s impossible to imagine a scenario where everyone spends a couple of weeks sticking to sports.
The world as it is, to borrow a phrase from a certain prime minister, is one with deep geopolitical divisions. In classic IOC fashion, it sought to deal with Russia’s war of aggression on its democratic neighbour not by banning Russian athletes outright, but by seeking a compromise. Only Russians who had not publicly supported the war, or the Putin government, would be invited. About 30 of them cleared that bar; only half agreed to come, others protesting what they said was unfair treatment of their would-be teammates.
Still, the potential for fireworks remains. Some Ukrainian athletes have said they want no part of competing against Russians while their country is being repeatedly bombed. Good luck to the IOC official who gets to tell such a Ukrainian that they need to compartmentalize those feelings for a bit.
And yet, given the relative lack of Russian presence in Milan, it will be a different team that is likely to adopt the mantle of Olympic villain: Team USA. That’s the country, of course, that has made an enemy of its nearest neighbour and closest ally, while breaking from Europe as part of Donald Trump’s smash-everything-all-at-once style of governance.
Trump hasn’t just mused about annexing Canada and taking Greenland away from Denmark, he has crapped on Europe to a remarkable degree, calling its leaders weak and its nations overrun by immigrants — he is married to a Slovenian, mind you — while pivoting to a national security strategy that emphasizes its own interests in the Western Hemisphere over its traditional NATO allies. There are dozens of countries whose athletes might use the platform of the Olympics to say a thing or two about America’s newfound imperialism, especially after Trump recently waved off the contributions of NATO allies in Afghanistan as countries who didn’t do much fighting, a claim that was equal parts ignorant and insulting.
The anti-American sentiment is also coming from within the house, thanks to Trump’s anti-immigration crackdown in Minnesota and elsewhere, which included the shooting deaths of two protesters at the hands of federal agents last month. Professional American athletes have begun speaking out against the Trump administrations and, for example, holding up “ABOLISH ICE” signs during pre-game ceremonies; for many Olympians these Games will be the one chance they have to make a similar statement in front of a huge audience.
Spare a thought, while we’re here, for Nicolas Claveau-Laviolette, a cross-country skier who is the sole Venezuelan athlete in Milan. He would normally be one of the countless Olympians who competes without much fuss, but he will be one of the most highly sought athletes at the Games as reporters try to get Claveau-Laviolette, who was raised in Canada, to say something about America’s evident intention to run Venezuela by proxy (and loot its oil).
The days before an Olympics are usually a time for the world’s media to descend on the host city, start poking around, and produce stories about the scrambled last-minute preparations, the pending transit nightmare, and the massive cost overruns. Milan, it would appear, is checking all of those boxes, but those on the ground this time around have also noted the awkward mood. The unsettled vibes.
Usually, once the fireworks of the opening ceremony have finished and the actual Games begin, all of the pre-competition fretting is overtaken by the spectacle, the thrilling wins and the heartbreaking losses. This time I’m not so sure.
And, even if the IOC does manage to keep a lid on things for the next couple of weeks, the closing ceremony will include the usual handover to the next Olympic host. That would be the United States, and the city of Los Angeles.
Millions will watch as some American official will talk about how excited they are to host the world two years from now. And we’ll collectively wonder just what the place will look like in 2028.
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The IOC is a corrupt organization filled with internal rot and bandit bureaucrats. Not at all surprising that politics would be a part of the mix.
I'll choose ICE shoots someone for 1000 please, Alex