Fri Jul 26

Where the Paris Olympics’ flashpoints will be

Written by Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University

Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games.

On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted ^[1] by a group of men.

On Monday, two employees of Channel 9 were attacked ^[2] during an attempted robbery.

In response, the Australian Olympic Committee has advised athletes ^[3] not to travel solo or to wear their team uniform outside of the Olympic village.

The French government has prepared for a rise in crime during the games but security services have focused their energies on safeguarding events ^[4] from possible terrorist attacks.

At the same time, while the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is especially mindful of the way sporting events raise the prospect of terrorism, they are also wary of how sport can provide avenues for international rivalry and individual political protest.

There have been several worrying incidents in the lead-up to the Paris Olympics.

So as the games prepare to officially launch, what’s happening in Paris?

Security

The Paris Olympics have already kicked off with rugby sevens and soccer but even that didn’t go smoothly, with a fan invasion ^[5] marring the Argentina-Morocco soccer clash.

With the opening ceremony less than 24 hours away, the French capital is under its strongest-ever security regime.

The French government, wary of another attack on a sporting event like the bombing outside of the Stade de France ^[6] in 2015, have restricted access around the Seine River ^[7].

Residents and workers have to get a Games Pass QR code or an Olympic accreditation to enter the area. Many residents and tourists have been locked out of the capital’s most well-heeled neighbourhoods.

The organisers’ caution might be well-founded. Israeli athletes have already received death threats on social media: “arrive in France, we’ll kill you.^[8]”

They have also been threatened with a reenactment of the Munich 1972 games ^[9], when Black September terrorists killed 11 Israeli sportsmen.

As a result, Israeli athletes in Paris will get 24-hour security ^[10] from French and Israeli officials.

Geopolitics

Despite the IOC’s best efforts, international conflict shapes who can compete in the games and who cannot.

The most notable absences will be Belarussian and Russian athletes, who are limited to competing as individual, independent athletes under a neutral flag. As many as 36 Russian and 28 Belarussian athletes ^[12] have qualified under these rules.

Even so, many critics point out these athletes may be used as state agents.

Ukrainian government officials have long believed the IOC’s response to the Russian invasion encouraged war ^[13] and they have rejected the current IOC position that permits limited Russian participation in the games as insufficient.

Russian politicians and that country’s Olympic committee have rejected the IOC ruling as “unacceptable ^[14]” and wondered openly why they are being targeted but not Israel.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Olympic Committee has called for a ban on Israeli athletes ^[15].

While 88 Israeli athletes will be headed to Paris ^[16], only eight Palestinian athletes are making the same trip.

For the Palestinian Olympians in Paris, gold medals are not the primary goal – Palestinian Olympic Committee executive Nader Jayousi wants to make a claim for nationhood and to “show our Palestinianism ^[17]”.

Sport frequently provides a space for countries to act out their international rivalries, and the Olympics are often drawn into those conflicts.

Australian and Chinese relations have been tense since COVID ^[18]. Even as relations between the two countries have improved, Australian sporting officials, including Sports Integrity Australia chief executive David Sharpe, have all but accused China of running a state sponsored doping program ^[19].

The controversy reached a peak recently when it was revealed 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive to a banned drug in early 2021 and were allowed to compete at the Tokyo games ^[20] six months later without sanction. Eleven of those 23 will compete in Paris.

Former Australian Olympian Grant Hackett has suggested Australian athletes might stage some visible protest ^[21] in response.

Athlete politics

Athletes rarely protest during the games because the Olympics’ rules ban competitors from making statements that might be “political, religious or racial” in nature.

There have been some famous examples of athletes ignoring this mandate however, including Australian Peter Norman, who supported John Carlos and Tommie Smith’s “Black Power” protest in 1968.

Sometimes the IOC’s efforts to police athletes’ speech seem extreme: for example, Brazilian surfer Joao Chianca has been told by IOC officials ^[22] he needs to remove a Christ the Redeemer motif from the bottom of his surfboard.

Religious gestures and symbols are common at the games, though – think of athletes pointing to the sky in response to a win – and different sporting organisations’ rules seem arbitrary.

Rights groups have called on the IOC to fight harder ^[23] against local French Olympic Committee bans on its female athletes wearing hijab.

In reality, the unpredictable nature of athlete protest makes it impossible for the IOC to stop. Will American NBA players express opinions on the court about the US election? Will Palestinian athletes refuse to compete against Israelis? Will the French far-right use the games as an opportunity to agitate against the formation of a left-wing government?

In many ways, the IOC’s efforts are futile, because athlete speech can happen in so many places beyond the podium. Athletes with smart phones will be making statements that are visible to spectators around the world in real time.

Whatever decisions the IOC makes in Paris and in the future, the IOC’s push to make sports apolitical represents an impossible goal.

The IOC may be against the politicisation of sports but sports will always be political ^[24].