The Double Standards of the Paris 2024 Olympics

Just this past weekend, Professor Nelson Vargas mentioned several successes of the Paris 2024 Olympic organizers: the first opening ceremony outside a stadium, recognition of France’s entire migrant community, and gender parity in the ceremony. However, all turned out to be an illusion, a charade revealed just hours after the competitions began.

A convicted rapist in 2016 for abusing a 12-year-old girl received all the credentials from the International Olympic Committee to participate with the Netherlands beach volleyball team. He himself admitted the charges for which he served only one year in prison.

However, the public at the Olympics booed him during his debut on Sunday, also exposing the sports authorities for their contradictory policies.

The strange regulation cannot be dismissed as an anecdote; there needs to be a thorough discussion about the case of Van de Valde, whom the IOC defends as a reformed rapist.

Rita Segato, the feminist whose theses inspired "A Rapist in Your Path," asserts that rape is not only a sexual act against a person’s will but also an act of power, domination, and a political act that the Olympic organizers do not care about.

On the other hand, they exercise the full weight of the regulation by expelling a 22-year-old athlete from the Olympic village for going out at night without permission. This is about the Brazilian Ana Carolina Vieira, 22 years old. The committee may be right in doing so because otherwise, every athlete would do what they want during their stay, but I don’t think that’s more serious than distinguishing a child rapist, even if he has served less than 12 months in prison.

But these are not all the contradictions shown during the sporting event. Members of two delegations from countries at war receive disparate treatment and/or preference from the IOC authorities. Participation was denied to Russian athletes because of their army’s offensive against Ukraine, even though they have no relation to Vladimir Putin's regime. They are just high-performance athletes, even opposing the invasion of their federal forces, but they were treated as responsible.

It might be a correct decision not to admit delegations from countries at war because the Olympics represent peace and global unity, but there are changes in criteria when it comes to Israel, a nation in constant military combat against Palestine. It has representation in the Paris 2024 Olympics, including some soldier-athletes, notably the Israeli delegation's flag bearer Peter Paltchic, a judoka and active military member who recently posted a photo of missiles on his social network X, claiming their launch on the Palestinian civilian population and mentioning: “from me to all of you, gladly.”

Other Israeli soldiers participating in the Olympics have also been involved in the genocide against Gaza, proudly posting their military exploits on their social networks.

The IOC does not consider both conflicts equivalent because, according to Pierre-Oliver Beckers, IOC member and chair of the Games Coordination Commission, the sanction against Russian civilians is due to the Russian Olympic Committee mocking essential elements of the Olympic Charter, according to him.

UPPERCUT: These issues stain Paris 2024, and in recent cases, they take a political stance over sports discipline in this edition, whose pillar is peace and global truces requested by the UN as a requirement to celebrate the games. These criteria should be questioned and discussed by influential social and civil groups worldwide, including the UN General Assembly itself.

BY ALEJANDRO SÁNCHEZ
CONTRIBUTOR
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@ALEXSANCHEZMX