Does the International Olympic Committee Prioritize Athletes Over Politics?

COMMENTARY (as currently appearing on RealClearPolitics )

By Eric Spitz

July 25, 2024

With only a few days left before the start of the world’s largest sporting event, the athletes have begun arriving in Paris. Our host, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), likes to emphasize the unifying power of sport and the organization’s commitment to athlete safety.

“The Olympic Games are about building bridges, bringing people together, and promoting peace,” proclaims IOC President Thomas Bach. “The safety of the athletes is the IOC’s top priority. We must protect the athletes and ensure that they can compete in a safe environment.”

The potential safety of the 88 athletes representing Israel always requires more attention than a typical delegation, and France’s largest-in-Europe, unruly Muslim population raises the stakes. The two most important venues of the 2024 Olympics – the Stade de France and the Olympic Village – are both located in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, where 35% of the population lives below the poverty line, and 45% of the people are Muslim.

This time, Israeli athletes are already targets of international outrage and intimidation. Over the past four months, large groups of pro-Palestinian activists have protested the presence of an Israeli softball team in Canada, a women’s soccer team in Scotland, and a men’s youth soccer team in Norway.

More than two dozen French politicians recently asked the IOC to ban Israeli athletes from competing under the country’s flag and anthem, and Thomas Portes, a far-left MP for the France Unbowed party, said at a pro-Palestinian gathering that Israeli athletes “are not welcome at the Olympic Games in Paris,” a comment that was quickly denounced as “indecent” and “irresponsible” by the head of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France, Yonathan Arfi.

In the past few days, one mother of an Israeli swimmer was sent WhatsApp messages in the form of an invitation to the funeral of her child. The date was the first day of Olympic competition.

Barbarism in the name of liberating Palestine reared its ugly head 52 years ago during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, where eight Palestinian militants infiltrated the Olympic Village, killed two members of the Israeli Olympic wrestling team, and took nine other Israeli athletes and coaches hostage. After a gun battle, the rescue attempt failed, and all of the hostages died.

In June, the Israeli swim team won four gold medals at the 2024 European Swimming Championships in Belgrade, Serbia. They also clocked a 3:41:13 in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay – a time that would have placed eighth at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar, in February – which should easily have qualified the Israelis for a relay spot in Paris.

But 13 of the 16 Israeli swimmers voted with their consciences and skipped the Olympic qualifying event that took place in Hamas’ second home in Qatar. Now, neither the IOC nor World Aquatics (formerly FINA) think these athletes deserve to swim this relay in Paris.

In May, we implored Mr. Bach and the IOC to find some empathy toward the Israeli athletes by providing a revised qualification path for the three unqualified relays. Instead of responding, the IOC passed the buck down to its affiliates, World Aquatics and the Israeli Olympic swimming apparatus, who tried to shoo the problem away by ignoring us.

In June, World Aquatics reluctantly responded to Susan Crabtree, the Real Clear Politics national correspondent who’s been covering this international geopolitical story. Her reporting ends with their perfunctory statement.

“World Aquatics was very pleased that the Israeli athletes who chose to come to Doha were able to compete safely there. The relay places for Paris 2024 have all been allocated, and there are no plans for this to be revised. Israel has four relay teams that have qualified.”

When Israeli swimmer Anastasia Gorbenko attended the event in Qatar, she won a silver medal in the 200m Individual Medley. Unfortunately, her place on the podium was met with loud boos from the crowd inside an environment hostile enough that she reported spending the entire competition week with earbuds in her ears to tune out the incessant jeers.

Since the team’s success in Belgrade, supporters of the Israeli swimmers have submitted an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne. The easy solution would allow the Israeli relay to swim in the ninth lane in the preliminary heat of the 4x100m freestyle relay on June 27. No extra swimmers need be invited, and zero athletes would lose their opportunity to compete.

Last week, the court rejected our appeal on the convoluted grounds that the challenge is not tied to a specific decision from World Aquatics. Apparently, bureaucratic doublespeak is the coin of the Olympic realm.

Most of the Israeli swimmers trained and studied on U.S. college campuses, including UC Berkeley, Northwestern, and Stanford, where they confronted intense, antisemitic protests that complicated their preparation and mindset, not to mention having to balance Olympic training with a rigorous academic load. When traveling, they cover Israeli logos on their bags with duct tape, part of the basic routine they must go through to protect themselves.

These athletes provide a testament to resilience in the face of adversity. Their courage should inspire all of us, especially the members of the IOC. The immediate safety concerns of all athletes must be met so that, regardless of nationality, they have an opportunity to compete in a fair and supportive environment.

Bach acknowledged earlier this year, “Since the heinous attack on the Israeli team, there were always special measures being taken with Israeli athletes.”

And he seems to want the responsibility: “The Olympic Games are our principal remit. We cannot solve human rights issues which generations of politicians were unable to solve. But within our remit, we take action.”

The dilemma surrounding the qualification of the Israeli Olympic swim team provides Mount Olympus with a perfect test. Can this anti-modern global institution embrace a transformative vision that places the athletes who dedicate their lives to pursuing excellence at the center of its mission?

“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.” — Muhammad Ali

Eric Spitz is the CEO of Rootz.ai, a marketing analytics start-up company that converts retail transaction data into AI-ready formats. He was previously chairman of Freedom Communications, including the Orange County Register. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own.