The IOC in State Participation

Team Members: A. Anglin, R. Bodeep and K. Patel*

*Note: The team members are listed in alphabetical order. The infographic, the advocacy letter, and the podcast are created by all the members. And Anglin and Patel are the only contributors to the blog post. The involved team members for each assignment contributed equally.

IOC_SP.pdf

Infographic

Please look at the infographic for the topic explored by the team.

Podcast

Please listen to the team's podcast with Google Chrome. The transcript can be found here.

AUDIO_2451.m4a

Advocacy Letter

Please read the team's letter to the Director for the IOC, De Kepper.

Advocacy Letter_IOC_SP.pdf

Blog Post

The International Olympic Committee:

The Impact of Politics on Olympic Athletes

Olympic athletes tend to be punished for their countries’ political views.

Athletes are burdened by the politics that fill the Olympic world, even though politics and sports are supposed to remain autonomous. Exclusion and ineligibility of athletes are some ways countries can make sure their political stance gets across to other governments. How can this be prevented?

The International Olympic Committee

The International Olympic Committee is the “guardian of the Olympic Games and the leader of the Olympic Movement.”(International Olympic Committee 2022) It regulates the rules of participation between members and hosts and opposes “any political or commercial abuse of sport and athletes.” The International Olympic Committee strives to support the social and professional future of athletes (International Olympic Committee 2022).

Members of the International Olympic Committee attend a meeting to address the policies of the Olympic Games (Pavitt 2015).

The Problem with Politics and Athletes

Member states use boycotts and other political movements to advance their values and beliefs. (Mather 2022) The boycotts are used by member states to globally shame and pressure host countries. Not only are politics intended to remain autonomous from member states, but they also interfere with the autonomy of athletes when it comes to them deciding to compete in the Olympic Games. Even though the goal of the International Olympic Committee is to support the future of athletes, recent case studies have shown strong evidence pointing to the fact that political strife is presenting an obstacle for the financial and career success of Olympic athletes.

The Outcome

When athletes are faced with the tough decision of whether or not to support their country, they are forced to risk the sponsorships that they gain from competing or not competing. (Mather 2022)When athletes speak out for themselves, they would become political targets and the media uses them, for example, as anti-nationalist figures.(Qin 2022) There is also a fear of backlash when it comes to athletes and politics, so many athletes will not speak out; this silence may come off as implicit acceptance, placing athletes in lose-lose situations. Although the International Olympic Committee is supposed to “maintain its political neutrality and to preserve the autonomy of sport,” the organization has not stepped up to support many athletes facing hardship over politics and the Olympics (International Olympic Committee 2022). Consider Eileen Gu’s case, for example.

Gwen Berry protests the United States National Anthem at the 2021 Olympic trials (Loiaconi 2021).

Eileen Gu: Facing the Backlash

An American-born Chinese athlete, Eileen Gu decided to compete in the name of China for the recent Olympic games. Gu has been surrounded by controversy, as many people, both from the United States and China, questioned where her loyalties lie. When Gu decided to compete for China, she was considered disloyal by American commentators. Some have gone as far as to say that Gu’s decision is a show of support for China’s policies, which have recently been under fire for being unjust.(Qin 2022) However, Gu’s decision could be completely personal and had nothing to do with politics. This situation goes to show that any action taken by Olympic athletes is scrutinized to the point where any path they choose will prompt negative press and potentially harm their overall standing as an athlete. For many Americans, it seems as though Gu represents anti-nationalist views, especially because China and the United States are currently not on the best terms. The International Olympic Committee did not stand up for Gu and her choices. (Qin 2022)

Eileen Gu poses with her gold and silver Olympic medals won during the 2022 Winter Olympics (Associated Press 2022).

2022 Winter Olympics

The United States announced that it would boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China due to the country’s horrible treatment of Muslims. Many western countries have followed suit (Mather 2022). This boycott, while an attempt to globally shame China into compliance with human rights standards, forced athletes to make a hard decision: do they compete and face political backlash or back their country up by not competing and advocating for a complete boycott (Maizland 2022)?

How can athletes retain their autonomy while not being forced to get involved in politics?

This image depicts an excerpt from the original Olympic Charter started by Pierre de Coubertin in 1898 (International Olympic Committee 2022).

Amend the Olympic Charter

We support amending the Olympic Charter to allow athletes to decide for themselves whether or not to participate in Olympic events.The charter should allow athletes the chance to compete for other countries if their country boycotts an Olympic event. For example, even with the possibility of media backlash, Eileen Gu competed for her country of origin where she had already obtained nationality. If she had not done this, she would have had to wait three years before she could be eligible to compete for China (International Olympic Committee 2022). By amending the charter, all athletes would be able to compete for any country they want, without having to put their career on hold. The alternative is athletes competing for countries whose ideals they do not believe in. This amendment to the charter would result in a norms shift to where the choice of athletes becomes an acceptable consideration. If the norm shifts to athletes participating in countries by incorporating their preferences, then the burden of having to defend or prove a specific political agenda becomes immaterial.

Sources

Maizland, L., 2021. The Debate Over Boycotting the 2022 Beijing Olympics. [online] Council on Foreign Relations. Available at: <https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/debate-over-boycotting-2022-beijing-olympics> [Accessed 29 September 2022].

Mather, V., 2022. The Diplomatic Boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Explained. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: <https://www.nytimes.com/article/diplomatic-boycott-olympics.html> [Accessed 29 September 2022].

Qin, A., 2022. The Olympians Caught Up in the U.S.-China Rivalry. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: <https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/16/world/asia/olympics-china-american-athletes.html> [Accessed 29 September 2022].

Pavitt, Michael, 2015, and Contact Michael Read more of Michael's articles Follow @michael_pavitt on Twitter. 2020. IOC guidelines on transgender athlete eligibility remain in place for Tokyo 2020. https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1091417/ioc-guidelines-transgender-tokyo-2020 (October 6, 2022).

Loiaconi, Stephen. 2021. “Berry Protest Spurs Debate over Athlete Activism Ahead of Tokyo Olympics.” WCTI. https://wcti12.com/news/nation-world/berry-protest-spurs-debate-over-athlete-activism-ahead-of-tokyo-olympics (October 9, 2022).

Associated Press. 2022. “Eileen Gu, Who Won Gold for China, Will Be Ambassador for U.S. Olympics Bid.” NBCNews.com. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/eileen-gu-won-gold-china-will-ambassador-us-olympics-bid-rcna32771 (October 9, 2022).

International Olympic Committee. 2022. “Olympic Charter.” International Olympic Committee. https://olympics.com/ioc/olympic-charter (October 9, 2022).

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse