The Paris Olympics, scheduled from July 26, 2024 to August 11, 2024, are already gaining a lot of attention, and not for all the right reasons. This year, the Olympics have been silhouetted by several political controversies, human rights issues, and debates on sexuality. Let’s take a quick glance at some of them.
HIJAB BAN
The Hijab ban, confirmed in September of last year by the French Sports Minister on the pretext of safeguarding the country’s “secularism”, met with severe criticism as an obstruction to human rights. The UN Human Rights office was quick to criticize the decision and soon the International Olympics Committee clarified that the ban would apply only to the French athletes and that for the competitions, IOC rules would apply.
Diabe Konate, the youth Basketball star of France now dreams of playing for her country again, which she is currently not allowed to because of her decision to wear a Hijab.
Secularism prevents the ruling powers from making decisions and running the country based on religious or ethnic identity while ensuring that its citizens can freely practice their beliefs and exercise their right to choose. The decision to ban the Hijab takes away the opportunity from players because of their choice to wear a harmless piece of cloth.
RUSSIA’S PARTICIPATION
Russia and Belarus have been debarred from participating in the Paris Olympic due to the war crimes in Ukraine. However, the IOC decided to let Russian athletes participate as Individual Neutral Athletes, meaning there would be no representation of the country in any form, such as flags or national anthems, and the country’s name would also not be mentioned with the athletes.
Many people, including Ukrainian athletes, have urged the exclusion of Russian athletes from participating. However, according to the wider Olympic body, excluding athletes for their government’s actions is discriminatory and against the human rights. Only 15 Russian athletes are going to participate this year.
On the other hand, there have been accusations against the IOC of double standards towards Israel and Russia, as Israel is not banned despite its war crimes in Palestine.
ISRAEL’S PARTICIPATION
There have been worldwide calls from pro-Palestinian protestors to exclude Israel from the Paris Olympics due to the assault on Palestine. People have been calling out the alleged discriminatory behavior and double standard of the International Olympic Committee for banning Russia because of the war on Ukraine but allowing Israel to participate despite the ongoing Israeli aggression in Palestine. Left-wing French politicians demand that Israeli athletes should participate neutrally, similar to Russian and Belarusian athletes.
The security has been heightened amidst the increasing pro-Palestinian protests. The football match between Israel and Mali, a country that does not recognize Israel, took place on Tuesday and Palestinian flags were visible among the spectators with chants of “free Palestine”, however, no major disruption occurred, as reported by the Washington Post.
It is to be noted that the estimated death toll in Gaza due to Israeli aggression has reached over 39,000.
MASS EVICTION OF MIGRANTS AND HOMELESS
A report by “Paris 2024: The Reverse of the Medal” highlights the mass “social cleansing” of homeless and migrant populations since last year ahead of the Paris Olympics. In April 2023, 500 people were evicted from the outskirts of the Olympic village, marking the beginning of a series of evictions. The report suggests police operations against rough sleepers as well as harassment and mistreatment of homeless people, migrants and sex workers. The people are relocated to areas far from Paris that are rarely stable for accommodation and the people have no choice but to comply. At least 1,962 people have been evicted between 26 April, 2023 and 23 May, 2024.
This is not the first time the Olympics have been accompanied by mass displacements of vulnerable population. An estimated 1.25 million people were displaced during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
GANG RAPE OF AN AUSTRALIAN WOMAN
While fervorous preparations to host the Olympic 2024were going on, the city was jolted by the alleged gang-rape of an Australian woman. A video shows the 25-year-old woman taking refuge at a Kebab shop, looking distressed. She decided to stay back in France to help police investigate the case. The rape has likely occurred on the night of July 19 to 20, as reported by the Paris prosecutor’s office.
CONVICTED RAPIST: A DUTCH ATHLETE IN OLYMPICS 2024
Steven van de Velde, a beach volleyball player who represented Netherlands at the 2015 European Games, was convicted for raping a 12-year-old girl. Contrary to the expectations that his career and Olympics dreams would lie in ruins, he was selected by the Dutch Olympic Committee to represent the country at the 2024 Paris Olympics, a decision that has received severe backlash from around the world. The Dutch Olympic Team has decided that Steven would not be accommodated with the rest of the Dutch players. The committee has defended the selection, saying that he has taken counseling and is regretful of his actions.
He reportedly met the girl through Facebook and went to meet her at her home in England. In the absence of her mother, he raped her repeatedly. The incident took place on August 2, 2014. At the time he was 19-year-old while the victim was 12-year-old.
OPENING CEREMONY
The tableau in the opening ceremony of the Olympics, featuring drag queens, a transgender model, dancers, and a semi-naked singer became the subject of criticism for allegedly hurting Christian sentiments. Many pointed out that the scene resembled Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper”, which is a painting of Jesus Christ and his 12 apostles, and claimed that it mocked Christian beliefs. The ceremony’s artistic director, Thomas Jolly, has denied the allegations, saying that da Vinci’s painting was not his inspiration.
ALLEGATIONS ON ALGERIAN BOXER IMANE KHELIF OF BEING A TRANS
The controversy surrounding Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and her Italian opponent Angela Carini has divided the internet. In the 2024 Olympic boxing match, Angela gave up 46 seconds into the bout, alleging that she had never been hit with such a powerful punch. She left the ring crying and avoided a handshake with Khelif. The 46-second-match later became engulfed in a larger controversy involving accusations of Imane being a transgender, thus raising questions about the competition’s fairness. Imane had to face severe backlash and hate, with public figures like Donald trump and JK Rowling among those condemning the match.
However, International Olympics Committee’s spokesperson Mark Adams clarified by stating that Imane was born a female, is registered as a female, has lived her life as a female, has boxed as a female and has a female passport and that it is not a case of man competing a woman.
The allegations about Imane being transgender stem from her disqualification from the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championship due to failing the sex test. Though, the testing methods remain unspecified.
Carini has since apologized for her behavior after the match.
The 2024 Olympics are one of the most controversial in the history of the Games since their inception. Paris Olympics, which began on 26 July, 2024, have already been surrounded by controversies of varying degrees and nature. Hence, the challenges for the Olympics Body, in keeping this well-documented sports event from falling apart, are immense.
