Boycotts and threats, the great classics of the Olympic Games – Liberation

Joe Biden will not see Beijing. No more than members of his government and American diplomats. The United States announced on Monday evening a “Diplomatic boycott” the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games to be held in the Chinese capital from February 4 to 20, in the name of the defense of human rights. One way of denouncing the repression targeting the Uyghurs in Xinjiang and which has continued to increase for several years, but also to oppose the constant attacks against freedom of expression. American athletes will nevertheless be able to compete without any problem.

Other countries are also threatening to follow the example of the United States. The United Kingdom, Canada and Australia have increased threats against their Chinese counterparts in recent months. This summer, British parliamentarians also called for a diplomatic boycott – as was the case during the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia after the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy and his daughter in Salisbury. Through the voice of the Elysee, France for its part demanded a coordinated response “at the European level”, without excluding any option.

Highly political games

If the fact of refusing to send diplomatic representatives to the country hosting the Olympics is a fairly new process, the threats and boycotts are not new. They have even marred most of the editions since the first so-called “modern” Games, in 1896 in Athens, in which Turkey had refused to participate due to tensions with Greece.

It must be said that although the International Olympic Committee (IOC) keeps repeating that the Games must be apolitical, these planetary sporting clashes are in truth a major diplomatic event. Hosting the Olympics allows you to attract the spotlight from around the world for two weeks and demonstrate your power, both political and social and economic. But refusing to participate, or to send representatives, amounts on the contrary to bringing to light problems specific to the host countries and basic political disagreements between nations.

The boycott therefore appears to be a major diplomatic weapon. It’s hard to list all the countries that have used it for 125 years, so let’s stick to the basics. Apart from the periods surrounding the two world wars, where bans and refusals to participate were numerous, it was by far the second part of the twenty-first century that was the most conducive to collective boycotts.

Boycotts in spades after WWII

In 1956, Melbourne hosted the first Games in history, which took place in the Southern Hemisphere. A historic event in which a handful of nations refuse to participate. Spain, Switzerland and the Netherlands oppose it to protest against the invasion of Hungary by the USSR and the massacres which took place in Budapest. Iraq, Lebanon and Egypt denounce for their part the presence of Israel and the crisis of the Suez Canal. As for the Chinese athletes, they leave the Olympic Village when the Taiwan flag is hoisted. Far from a peaceful planetary feast.

Twenty years later, in Montreal, a new slinging record was broken. There is only one reason for dispute this time: the participation shortly before the Olympic Games of the New Zealand rugby team in a match in South Africa, a nation banned from most international sporting bodies due to apartheid. Twenty-two African countries are calling for New Zealand’s suspension. The IOC refuses. Everyone therefore decided to ignore the Canadian edition.

In the early 1980s, the boycotts grew even stronger and reached a new level. In 1980, against the backdrop of the Cold War, Moscow hosted the Summer Olympics. To protest against the invasion of Afghanistan by the USSR, US President Jimmy Carter refuses his athletes to go to the Russian capital. In its wake, some sixty nations are not participating in this edition, including many Muslim countries, which see this invasion as an attack on Islam.

Rebelote four years later, but with role reversal. The USSR is boycotting the Los Angeles Olympics alongside fourteen other countries. Officially, the Russians wanted to reciprocate the Americans. Unofficially, the Soviets would have been especially afraid that their athletes would pack up by taking advantage of this trip to switch to the West. A decision that suited the United States, for whom a victory for the Russian team on their soil would have been an unprecedented humiliation.

In recent years, threats not followed by action

Since this double episode, boycotts have mainly given way to threats. The Chinese authorities for a time cast doubt on their participation in the Atlanta Games in 1996 if the organizers invited the Taiwanese leaders. Before finally allowing their athletes to be. In 2008, while Beijing is hosting the Summer Olympics, calls for a boycott are also numerous. Many NGOs and activists denounce the human rights abuses already pervasive in the country. Nearly two-thirds of French people even believe that Nicolas Sarkozy should not go to the opening ceremony to denounce these abuses. This is not the case: the French president is attending the opening of the Games, just like his American counterpart.

On the sidelines of the preparations for the Sochi Winter Games in 2014, in Russia, similar pressures are placed on the table. Some denounce the homophobic laws introduced by the Kremlin, as well as the numerous violations of human rights. Without the boycott calls being followed by action. The last concrete case of boycott finally dates back to the summer of 2021. While the Tokyo Olympics must finally take place, a year late due to the Covid, North Korea announces that it refuses to send its athletes to Japan for them. “protect” from “Global health crisis”. Without, however, that this position does not create the slightest diplomatic tension, given the certain isolation of Pyongyang.

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