Let’s talk about the Olympics. There are many voices of protest against Israel’s participation this year. For many of us, being responsible for a genocide does not fit in with the olympism that Pierre de Coubertin proposed more than 120 years ago. A genocide does not unite communities, promote peace, or defend healthy competition free of cheating and discrimination.
However, the International Olympic Committee, which did ban Russia for invading Ukraine, does not consider the murder of thousands of Gazans, including athletes, employees, and volunteers in the sports world, to be a violation of the Olympic Charter.
A more forgiving reader might argue that athletes are not guilty of state decisions and that their participation in healthy competition is harmless. But no. And to prove my point, I will use a historical example:
In 1936, during Nazi Germany, Berlin was chosen as the venue for the Olympic Games, and Hitler and Goebbels saw a unique opportunity to promote their regime. They built a giant sports complex, decorated with Olympic flags and swastikas, temporarily removed the anti-Semitic signs to show a feigned peace to the rest of the world, and in exchange, they filled the streets with photos of Aryan athletes, all very white, very tall, very blond, and with very light eyes.
On the opening day, Goebbels arranged for Hitler to arrive amid fanfare and Nazi salutes, accompanied by a hymn composed by Richard Strauss, then a supporter of the regime. The famous ritual of carrying the Olympic flame through different places was also inaugurated. In a kind of relay race, the first runner set off from Olympia, Greece, and the flame traveled until the last runner delivered it in Berlin. They also invented the Olympic Medal Table, a competition—as if there weren’t enough already—in which each country added up the medals won in the different disciplines, and, of course, the one with the most won. Guess who came first? “The Olympics have returned Germany to the world community and restored its humanity,” wrote the New York Times in an article.
Three years later, Germany invaded Poland, and World War II broke out. After the games, Hitler took advantage of his new image as a hospitable and peaceful host to accelerate his expansionism and declare all Jews enemies of the state.
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