Did you know that the first held modern Olympics that were held in March 1896 in Athens, Greece, were to celebrate its independence from the Ottoman Empire? (Politico). However, politically, it was used as an event for diplomatic purposes such as building alliances and political negotiation, to adapt to the changes of the aftermath of the fall of the Ottoman Empire. And it still remains an event for establishing political relations and manipulation to this day.
For example, during the time of Nazi Germany, it was used as a base for “machtpolitik”. The event that took place in 1936 was the Olympics before World War 2, where Hitler and his ministry used it as an opportunity to promote his racial supremacist and xenophobic philosophy. Unsurprisingly, Germany won a total of 89 medals, and dominated almost every event. Still Jesse Owens representing the United States, dominated the track-and-field events, winning a total of 4 gold medals that year.
This isn’t the only example of political involvement in the Olympics. There have been boycotts, like for example during the 1936 Olympics, where the US almost boycotted the Olympics that year, but later decided to participate in protests, walk-outs, and more. For example, the 1948 London Olympics, where Germany and Japan, as well as the Soviet Union weren’t invited, due to their involvement in World War 2. There was even a terrorist attack that took place in the 1972 Munich Olympics, where 8 Palestinian terrorists killed two Israelis and took nine other Israelis hostage. Their ultimatum was that 200 Palestinian prisoners were released from Israeli prisons. This demand resulted in the killings of all nine Israeli hostages, as well as a policeman (The Guardian).
On a more recent note, in the Summer Games that were held in Paris, Russian athletes were prohibited from competing with the Russian flag, due to the invasion of Ukraine. However, Belarusian and Russia athletes, who remained neutral about this certain topic, were allowed to compete, only because both countries contributed significantly to the war. This shows how the Olympic charter and organization is trying to move towards international peace, in terms of their sporting events, and have a less political influence on their sporting events. (Council on Foreign).
Although the Olympic charter states that their mission is “to promote Olympism throughout the world and to lead the Olympic Movement. The IOC’s role is: (…) to oppose any political or commercial abuse of sport and athletes.” “ (Olympics) and the charter has made advancements to make the event less political, like holding the first edition of the ‘Summer Friendship Games’ in Moscow and Ekaterinburg, in Russia, on September 2024 (Olympics), the occasion will always be political, even when it was hosted from the very beginning of its history.
