skidelsky173_Peter Kneffelpicture alliance via Getty Images_olympics Peter Kneffelpicture alliance via Getty Images

Can the Olympics Prevent War?

As the current Beijing Winter Games demonstrate, the gap between the Olympic dream and reality has always been huge, with political leaders often either ignoring or seeking to weaponize the event. Rather than seeking to exclude politics, the Olympic authorities should promote the Games' role as an alternative to war.

LONDON – Before the start of the current Beijing Winter Olympics, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called for an “Olympic Truce” to “build a culture of peace” through sport. International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach echoed this sentiment in his speech at the opening ceremony. “This is the mission of the Olympic Games: bringing us together in peaceful competition,” Bach declared. “Always building bridges, never erecting walls.”

But the gap between the Olympic dream and reality has always been huge. Political leaders have sometimes ignored the Games, as the Kremlin did when Russian troops invaded Georgia on the first day of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. On other occasions, governments have weaponized the event. Adolf Hitler used the 1936 Berlin Games as a showcase for his Nazi regime, while the United States led a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics in retaliation for the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. The Soviet Union and its allies subsequently boycotted the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles.

All countries treat the Olympics as a symbol of national strength, not of peace. In 2015, for example, Chinese President Xi Jinping declared that, “if sports are strong, a nation is strong.” That dictum seems to have motivated Russia’s state-sponsored doping programs. Countries frequently use medal tallies as proxies of the success of their political and economic systems.

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