Saving Dmitri: How the 2024 Paris Olympics Caused Division
The Olympics mark a time of international community and participation in friendly competition. It is an event that, in the eyes of International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach, promotes worldwide solidarity.
According to the IOC website, Bach said, “Solidarity means more than just respect or non-discrimination. Solidarity means actively helping, sharing and caring for one another.”
He believes the Olympic Games contribute to this goal.
But in efforts to create an atmosphere of solidarity around the 2024 Olympics, the IOC and its counterparts transformed these games into an event that divided millions around the world. And they began doing so before the competition even started.
During the opening ceremony, a set distinctly resembling Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” appeared to viewers, which included an almost nude French singer and actor, Philippe Katerine, painted blue with flowers on his head, shoulder and private parts, sitting on a platter. His performance was meant to resemble Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, festivity and pleasure. Behind him, a line of drag queens flanked the table, just like Jesus and his disciples in “The Last Supper.”
After outrage from Christians over the corruption of a biblical scene and the hypersexuality included, the organizers of the opening apologized, claiming the scene was meant to highlight “the absurdity of violence between human beings,” according to The Guardian. It must be considered, however, that this performance parodied a painting and not necessarily the biblical event itself. Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” has become so culturally significant, particularly to believers, that many have labeled this perhaps misunderstood and ill-advised portion of the Olympics as “blasphemous.”
Issues surrounding sexuality did not simply disappear after the opening ceremony, as the gold and silver medalists in women’s boxing caused severe gender and chromosomal confusion for viewers who thought they were watching women’s boxing.
As it turns out, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-Ting — the gold and silver medalists — were both unable to meet the criteria to compete as women during last year’s International Boxing Association (IBA) testing, BBC said. According to Newsweek, IBA President Umar Kremlev reported that the pair was disqualified because “it was proven they have XY chromosomes.”
Perhaps professional sports would be simpler if those with Y chromosomes could be placed in one category and those with only X chromosomes in another. This way, boundaries are easily defined and none must be subject to the chromosomal or hormonal advantages that were on display at the Olympics. Cases such as Angela Carini, who quit after 46 seconds boxing against Khelif due to receiving the hardest punches she had ever felt, are simply unnecessary stories that must be reported because of biased rules that favor the Y chromosome.
The aforementioned allowance of such bullying at the 2024 Olympics received endless publicity; however, another instance of unfounded division and alienation took place, but it received nearly no media attention at all. That is, Russia’s exclusion from the games.
Due to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the IOC announced that Russia and Belarus (a Russian ally) would be prohibited from competition in 2024, which was later amended to allow some Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under a neutral banner. These athletes, however, were not to be supporters of the war at any point, according to Newsweek. This came after many supporters of the Ukrainian war effort called for a boycott of the Olympic Games if the offending nations were present.
Because it was successful, this ban showed few similarities to the boycott of the Berlin Olympics in 1936. Three years after coming to power, Adolf Hitler had an opportunity to show the world a powerful Germany in which an “Aryan only” policy existed for the vast majority of German athletes.
According to the Holocaust Encyclopedia, the Berlin Olympics were a sign of Germany returning to the international community after World War I isolation. If the 1936 Olympics boycott, supported by many internationally, was successful, the Holocaust Encyclopedia suspects that a greater opposition to the Nazi regime would have taken place.
The resulting questions must be asked from these similar boycotts with differing results: To what extent can a nation violate human rights or international peace before the IOC takes a stand? Where was the IOC when Iraq invaded Kuwait?
Or when Somalia invaded Ethiopia? Or as countless civil rights abuses take place within Cambodia, Uganda, Venezuela, Palestinian territories and numerous other places on Earth? None of these nations or territories have ever been barred from the Olympic Games.
All of this leads back to Bach, who praised the Olympic Games as an event that promotes international solidarity. What “solidarity” can one speak of if such arbitrary instances of exclusion are present?
Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter prohibits political, religious and racial propaganda within the Olympics. Yet, in sight of this rule, the IOC has chosen to align itself with values that much of the world cannot stand behind. In doing so, the 2024 Olympics wasted a fine opportunity to encourage solidarity, international peace and unity, and instead promoted division.
Kilker is the opinion editor for the Liberty Champion.