analysis
The Olympic Peace is an initiative from antiquity, adopted in modern times, including a UN resolution. Reality reduces the idea to absurdity.
The Paralympic Winter Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo will be ceremoniously opened in Verona on Friday. At the same time there is war elsewhere and rockets are falling. For example in Ukraine, which leads to reactions at the Paralympics. Ukraine and other nations, including Germany, are staying away from the opening ceremony. They protest against Russia and Belarus being allowed to take part with national symbols. The reason for this is Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
Added to this was the war in the Middle East. Six days after the end of the Winter Olympics, Israel and the United States began bombing Iran. This brings back memories of 2022: Back then, Russia only allowed four days to pass after the Winter Games in Beijing before it invaded Ukraine.
IOC withdraws Putin’s “Olympic Order in Gold”
The two wars are difficult to compare, but what they have in common is that they represent a breach of the Olympic Peace. Four years ago, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) reacted by excluding Russia and Belarus and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) also drew conclusions.
It recommended that sports federations exclude athletes from Russia and Belarus from competitions. It also stripped Russian President Vladimir Putin and the two organizers of the 2014 Sochi Games of their “Olympic Gold Medals.” The IOC cited one reason, among others “extremely serious violation of the Olympic Peace.”
Unanimous UN resolution on the Olympic Peace
And 2026? In the run-up to the Winter Games in Milan and Cortina, IOC President Kirsty Coventry traveled to New York, where the United Nations (UN) again passed a resolution on the Olympic Peace. The title of the resolution: “Building a better and peaceful world through sport and the Olympic ideal.”
All countries, including Russia, Iran, Israel and the USA, unanimously agreed to maintain the Olympic peace from seven days before the start of the Winter Olympics until seven days after the end of the Paralympic Winter Games and – a central idea since ancient times – to ensure the safe passage and participation of athletes.
IOC refers to UN
In the middle of this planned phase of the Olympic peace, the newly started war in the Middle East is causing suffering, death and chaos in international air traffic. And what does the IOC say about this? At first nothing, but on Tuesday there was a message saying: “The (UN) resolution on the Olympic Peace is an ambitious and non-binding resolution.”
And: The IOC has decreed “We have no means of enforcing the implementation of the resolution. We recognize that this falls entirely within the purview of the UN system and is outside the purview of the IOC.” This was followed by an appeal to the UN member states, all Paralympics athletes, “to support those who may be affected by recent conflicts on their journey to these Games.”
The strict one Neutrality course under Coventry
It didn’t get any more specific, the IOC didn’t name any countries, avoided the word war and didn’t even demand that the Olympic peace agreement be adhered to. Placing the responsibility solely on the UN seems dishonest, after all the IOC had pushed for the United Nations to take on this issue in 1992.
The statement makes it clear once again that the IOC under Coventry avoids any positioning that could be interpreted as political. Sport must “remain a force that brings the entire world together in peaceful competition”. This is the heart of the Olympic Movement, writes the IOC.
The 2028 Olympics in the USA will be a big one Challenge
However, this has often not worked in the past, just think of the boycotts of the games in Moscow in 1980 and Los Angeles in 1984. The Paralympics in Milan and Cortina now pose new challenges, but are probably just a foretaste of what awaits in 2028. Then the Summer Games will take place in Los Angeles.
In just over a year under President Donald Trump, the US has attacked targets in Somalia, Iraq, Yemen, Syria and Nigeria, kidnapped the president of Venezuela and now attacked Iran. There are also countless threats against other countries. It is difficult to imagine that in just over two years every country in the world will be making a pilgrimage to the USA to celebrate a harmonious sports festival of nations.
The Olympic Peace is a utopia that didn’t really work even in ancient times. Modern times are even more overwhelmed by this.
