The IOC banned apartheid South Africa, yet it says it 'cannot enter political debate' over the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics
On Tuesday night, Barack Obama addressed growing international calls for action over the hosting of the 2014 Winter Olympics by Russia. Referring to the country's series of anti-gay laws, the latest of which which was passed in June, the president told the Tonight Show host Jay Leno:
I think they [President Vladimir Putin and Russia] understand that for most of the countries that participate in the Olympics, we wouldn't tolerate gays and lesbians being treated differently.
In Britain on Wednesday, the author Stephen Fry published a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron and the 2012 Games organiser, Lord Coe, in which he called for Russia to be stripped of the Games. Fry wrote that Putin "is making scapegoats of gay people, just as Hitler did Jews."
Fry's letter was also delivered to the Lausanne headquarters of the International Olympic Committee, by Guillaume Bonnet of the campaign group All Out. Bonnet also delivered a 320,000-signature petition which called for the IOC to denounce Russia's anti-gay law. In response, a spokesman said the IOC "cannot enter into political debate" and added:
Our challenge is to change the world through sport and in sport, and that is what we are doing.
On the contrary – the IOC can enter into political debate, and should, and has done so in the past. That is precisely how it can "change the world through sport".
On 18 August 1964, the IOC banned South Africa from the summer Olympics in Tokyo, after it refused to condemn apartheid. Though it was not intended to do so, the exclusion lasted. South Africa did not return to the Olympics – or to other international sporting competition, once even the hidebound likes of rugby and cricket had cottoned on – until 1992, when apartheid fell.
In 2012, before the London Games, international pressure was brought to bear on Saudi Arabia, which did not propose to send any female athletes. The IOC joined in, and the Saudis relented.
Despite such evidence, there are still those who say that sport and politics should not mix. They often cite the US boycott of the Moscow Games of 1980 and the Soviet Union's boycott of Los Angeles in 1984. Those actions were the result of geopolitical concerns; they were not based on issues of fundamental human rights.
The IOC spokesman also said:
We very much respect and welcome gay athletes to the games. We will ensure to the best of our ability that people can come and compete and spectate free of discrimination.
This is a laudable sentiment. It is also a ridiculous statement.
Under Russian law, gay people attending the games as athletes or spectators will not be allowed to "spread propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations" to anyone under 18. This means that they will not be allowed to behave or speak in any way that equates straight and gay relationships, or distribute material on gay rights. Fines have been instituted for individuals or media groups who might break the law. Foreigners can be fined, jailed for 15 days and deported.
So, to anyone, Russian or foreign, athlete or spectator, who might be thinking of using the Winter Games as a platform for protest – and who hasn't been put off by a rise in physical attacks on LGBT people, or a ban on adoption by foreign same-sex couples– Putin's message is clear: don't.
In his letter, Fry wrote:
An absolute ban on the Russian Winter Olympics of 2014 in Sochi is simply essential. At all costs, Putin cannot be seen to have the approval of the civilised world.
The IOC's exclusion of South Africa over apartheid was a civilised action which helped bring about that country's return to the civilised world. That two women represented Saudi Arabia at London 2012 was another victory, if a small one, for civilisation. The 2012 summer Games were the first in which every competing nation sent athletes of both sexes.
The IOC does not tolerate political discrimination based on race or gender. It should not tolerate political discrimination based on sexuality. Russia should not host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.
