The Olympics are monumental events. They represent global cooperation and friendly competition between nations. Their origins lie in Greek antiquity when the focus was chiefly on the Gods rather than athletics. Since 1906, however, the Olympics have been used as a platform for political activism. Because of its significance on the world stage, it is unsurprising that the Olympics have been so heavily politicized. Chronicling every instance of politics entering this intentionally depoliticized event would be too much for the bounds of this article. Thus, the rest of this article will focus primarily on instances of protest, rather than boycotts and doping scandals. Additionally, acts of terrorism will also be omitted, e.g. the 1972 Munich hostage crisis and the 1996 Atlanta bombing of the Olympic stadium, despite their political nature. This article aims to create a chronology of protests at the Olympics, showing their significance and the importance of the causes being advocated for.
Olympic Protests (1906-2022)
Athens, 1906: The 1906 Olympics, also known as the Intercalated Olympic Games because the International Olympic Committee (IOC) retroactively withdrew support, were the site of the first commonly accepted instance of Olympic protest. Irish athlete Peter O’Conner protested his competing for Britain rather than Ireland. During the long jump medal ceremony, O’Conner took down the British flag and replaced it with the Irish flag. Irish independence is one of the significant national liberation movements, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels would even refer to it as the first and most important national liberation movement, because of its unique position as a European colony.
Los Angeles, 1932: According to the Times, the American Communist Party protested and boycotted the 1932 Summer Olympics over racism in American sports.
Berlin, 1936: This was the notorious “Nazi Olympics.” Three years before the outbreak of World War II, the Nazi regime would host the Summer Olympic Games. German-Jewish athletes were widely barred from competing except for the fencer Helene Mayer, who like other German athletes gave the Nazi salute at the medal podium. Many Jewish athletic groups and individuals boycotted and did not participate in the games. The long jump gold and silver medalists, American Jesse Owens and German Luz Long would initiate a decades-long friendship at the Games. Owens’ victory and his friendship with Long reportedly drew ire from the Nazi regime and Adolf Hitler.
Mexico City, 1968: The Mexico City games remain one of the most fraught and heavily politicized Olympic Games. 10 days before the event even began, one of the worst instances of government repression in Mexico’s history occurred: the Tlatelolco Massacre. Hundreds of students were massacred for protesting the illiberalism of President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz’s regime. During the games, there were two other unrelated instances of political activism. American track and field medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ raised a gloved fist to protest the US’ treatment of people of African descent. The silver medalist, Peter Norman, also faced ostracization for wearing an anti-racist pin.
An oft-forgotten instance of activism at the 1968 Olympics was a move by Czech gymnast Věra Čáslavská. She had tied for gold with a Soviet athlete, Natalia Kuchinskaya, and to protest the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, Čáslavská subtly turned her head away from the Soviet flag.
Denver, 1976: Denver had been selected by the IOC as the host city for the 1976 Winter Olympics, but Colorado residents protested over financial and environmental concerns. This remains the only time a host city has rejected an IOC offer after they had been awarded hosting privileges.
Amsterdam, 1992: Dutch politicians made a heavy bid to host the 1992 Summer Olympics, which would end up going to Barcelona, but according to the New York Times, 50 protestors attempted to prevent their city from hosting by arguing that the Olympics had gotten too environmentally and financially detrimental.
Sydney, 2000: Berlin’s bid for host city was foiled when the IOC Congress first showed up in Berlin in 1991 only to be met with protests. When the IOC returned in 1993, 10,000 protestors showed up to protest the financial burden of hosting. When the IOC eventually decided to hold the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, a broad coalition of aboriginal groups and anti-Olympic organizations participated in widely non-violent forms of protest against Australia’s treatment of Indigenous groups and, according to Australian academic Brett Neilson, “the displacement of the urban poor, the introduction of stringent security measures, environmental degradation, or the diversion of funds, resources, and public spaces to the Olympic movement.”
Athens, 2004: Iranian judoka Arash Miresmaeili was disqualified from fighting Israeli judoka Ehud Vaks. Miresmaeili was found to be a couple kilos overweight. This was particularly unusual for a two-time world judo champion. The Iranian Judo Federation (IJF) had a policy of not competing with Israel. Miresmaeili indicates the disqualification was intentional, “Although I have trained for months and was in good shape, I refused to fight my Israeli opponent to sympathize with the suffering of the people of Palestine and I do not feel upset at all.”
Beijing, 2008: The 2008 Summer Olympics were extremely problematic and controversial. Setting aside an alleged terrorist attack by Uyghur separatists, many groups and individuals protested China’s human rights abuses (particularly those against minority groups such as Tibetans and China’s Muslims), the treatment of migrant workers, and the removal of local housing for Olympic-related infrastructure.
Vancouver, 2010: Six years before the games, protestors had already begun protesting the construction of a highway over Eagleridge Bluffs (a hiking spot in West Vancouver). In 2006, one 77-year-old First Nations woman, Harriet Nahanee, died shortly after being released from police custody. Many protestors, particularly Indigenous groups, argued that the 2010 Winter Olympics were ‘greenwashing‘ their environmental impact. Protestors also had grievances about the cost and financial strain of the Games. First Nations groups also used the Olympics as an opportunity to bring attention to the theft of native land and the problems of Indigenous Canadians.
London, 2012: The 2012 Summer Olympics were largely uneventful for a modern Olympics in terms of protest. There were two moments of note: according to Sports Illustrated, a group called “London 2012: Justice for Women” argued that the wearing of hijabs by Muslim athletes was against the IOC’s rules. The other moment was during the games: Olympic organizers mistakenly displayed the South Korean flag during a football match between North Korea and Colombia, causing the North Korean team to walk off the pitch. The issue of Korean unification have been everpresent at the Olympics since 1948, with North Korea boycotting the 1988 Summer Olympics after their request to cohost the Games in Seoul was refused.
Sochi, 2014: The 2014 Winter Olympics were a little more controversial than the 2012 Olympics. Environmental groups were protesting months before the start of the games. Additionally, LGBT rights groups protested in Russia and many outside of Russia called for a boycott. Circassians, who call the North Caucasus (and by extension Sochi) home, also protested over the genocide and ethnic cleansing of their people from the Caucasus during the 19th century. Western leaders Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Angela Merkel, and David Cameron opted not to attend the Sochi Olympics, likely over gay rights. During the games, Ukrainian athletes opted not to play over the Euromaidan protests.
Rio de Janeiro, 2016: The 2016 Summer Olympics were also no stranger to controversy. Brazil was already embroiled in the Petrobras scandal, which saw leading members of the Workers’ Party (PT)—namely then-President Dilma Rousseff and two-time President Lula da Silva—wrongfully accused of corruption. Protestors and counter-protestors showed up for the Olympics over the scandal and misuse of government funds in general. Amnesty International reported that hundreds of people had been killed during the protests. During the Torch lighting ceremony, a jaguar named Juma escaped her handlers and was shot leading to ire from animal rights supporters. Along with some individual athletes refusing to compete against Israeli athletes, the Lebanese team refused to let the Israeli team come onto their bus—likely over the issue of Palestine and the ongoing war between Israel and Lebanon.
Pyeongchang, 2018: 2018 was another relatively quiet year for protests. Roughly 800 people showed up before the ceremony to protest South Korea’s normalization of relations with North Korea.
Tokyo, 2020 (2021): In 2017, a group called NOlympics Los Angeles (NOLA) was formed to prevent LA’s application to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. NOLA expanded to a global movement, and in Tokyo, July 2019, representatives from different countries came together to protest and draft a declaration: NOlympics Tokyo 2021. Two months before the games kicked off, NOLA disrupted a virtual conference headed by the IOC. During the opening ceremony, Tokyo residents protested and chanted outside an empty stadium over environmental, financial, and virological concerns.
Beijing, 2022: Another Beijing Olympics resurfaced many of the same issues as 2008’s Summer Olympics. This time, however, large-scale boycotts led to many government officials not attending over human rights abuses and fears over COVID-19. Critics brought up the treatment of Tibetans, Uyghurs, and tennis player Peng Shuai’s “near-disappearance.”
2024 and Beyond: What’s Next?
With the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris slated to begin in July, anti-Olympics groups are again gathering in Paris. Resistance to the Olympics is strengthening and growing, particularly among Paris residents. The future of the Olympics grows bleak. Is it possible for such a monumental commercial event to be detached from capitalism’s worst tendencies? As the world becomes more threatened by environmental disasters, nationalism, financialization, and war, it might be inevitable that the Olympics will disappear. However, one should hold out hope that there will always be a place for different nations and people to come together to display their athletic achievements.
Journalism 2.0 