History Of Olympic Bans: Only Official Enemies Of The Western Allies

The 2024 Paris Olympic Games have kicked off, but this year without any flags or teams from the Russian Federation or Belarus present. This stems from an IOC announcement last January saying Russian and Belarusian athletes cannot represent their country, but can participate as neutrals.

This has led to only 15 athletes from Russia and 18 from Belarus competing as “Individual Neutral Athletes,” or AINs. They had to first demonstrate to an IOC review panel that they have never expressed support for Russia’s military operation in Ukraine. Further they had to show that they don’t have any affiliations with sports clubs tied to Russia’s military.

This has led some pundits to point out a glaring double standard: Israel’s invasion of Gaza has by any estimate resulted in far more civilian deaths than the Ukraine war, yet the IOC has not considered banning Israeli athletes.

George W. Bush’s 2003 invasion of Iraq resulted in – according to various estimates – between 500,000 and one million Iraqi civilian deaths. What’s more is that it was only within years later the entire case the Neocons made for the invasion was proven an absolute fraudulent lie. Where were the IOC punitive actions against American athletes? It wasn’t even a thought.

Similarly, Washington’s bombing and invasion of Afghanistan turned into a more than two-decade long quagmire full of civilian death and destruction for entire towns and villages. And not a peep from the IOC or any Olympic officials.

The clear pattern has been that only those enemies and rivals of the Western allies get banned from the games. 

Al Jazeera has provided a helpful summary of all countries which have been barred from competing in the Olympics in the past some 100 years as follows:

• The first ban came in the 1920 Summer Olympics held in Antwerp, Belgium where Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey were banned due to their role and involvement in World War I.

• Germany was also banned from the 1924 games in Paris as an extension of the previous ban and the ramifications of World War I.

• The 1948 Summer Olympics held in London saw the ban of Germany and Japan as a consequence of their role in World War II and the devastation it wrought.

• South Africa was banned from the Olympic Games from 1964 to 1992 due to racial segregation as a result of the apartheid regime.

• In 1972, Zimbabwe, then known as Rhodesia, was banned from the games in Munich due to international pressure and protests against the country’s policies of racial segregation.

• In 2000, Afghanistan was banned from the Melbourne games due to the ruling Taliban’s stance on women. This year, with the Taliban back in power in Kabul, Afghan athletes are participating — but not under the Taliban’s flag. Instead, they will compete under the red, green and black flag of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, which the Taliban overthrew in 2021.

• Kuwait was suspended by the International Olympic Committee in October 2015 due to government interference in the country’s Olympic committee. As a result, Kuwaiti athletes participated in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics as independent Olympic athletes under the Olympic flag.

• During the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, North Korea was banned due to its decision to withdraw from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, citing COVID-19 concerns, which violated the Olympic Charter.

• Despite not being banned completely from the 2016 Olympics, many Russian athletes were barred from competing in Rio due to state-sponsored doping. This also continued into the 2018 Winter Olympics and the 2020 summer olympics Tokyo.

The IOC has again banned Russia from the Olympics. This time they actually meant it – just 15 Russian athletes will compete (down from 335 in Tokyo)

That leaves a lot of medals on the table for the rest of the world, USA included. https://t.co/7fbEQDMG7o

— Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) July 24, 2024

These punitive bans are much like the UN’s World Court operates: it remains a common sight to only see an African dictator or Serb Balkan warlord on trail for crimes against humanity. But never will a Dick Cheney or Tony Blair be on trial at the Hague.