The International Olympic Committee has handed down sanctions to the National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Belarus over alleged political discrimination. It’s a convenient stand to take, given that the IOC has refused to do the same with China and Iran.
The committee has barred the executive board of the NOC, including Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, from all IOC events. The committee is also suspending payments to the NOC and suspending all discussions of allowing Belarus to hold IOC events. The organization claims this is the result of its investigation determining that “the current NOC leadership has not appropriately protected the Belarusian athletes from political discrimination within the NOC.”
It’s a peculiar stand for the committee to take, given that it previously defended itself by claiming not to be a political body when asked why it would allow China to continue to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. The committee is willing to leverage tiny Belarus over political discrimination, but China produces too much money for concentration camps to interfere with.
Perhaps the committee can claim it is only cracking down on Belarus to protect the athletes, while the genocide of Uighurs in China is less important. But that would be a bizarre claim to make given that the committee has done nothing about the execution of Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari.
Afkari was tortured into confessing to murder by the Iranian regime. His true crime was engaging in protests against Iran’s authoritarian government in 2018. The committee said the execution was “deeply unsettling” and that it asked for mercy for Afkari “while respecting the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” After that? Utter silence.
So, the committee can find its spine to confront tiny Belarus over political discrimination against its athletes but can’t be more than “deeply unsettled” by Iran’s politically motivated executions. Belarusian dictator Lukashenko is an easy one for a global sports organization to look tough on; powerful Chinese tyrant Xi Jinping is another matter entirely.
The IOC could maybe be respected if it were truly apolitical, but that was never the case. The organization has made political stands against South Africa and Afghanistan and still plays politics with its categorization of Taiwan. Now, it adds Belarus to the list while looking away from bigger human rights abusers in China and Iran. The organization is a fraud: It doesn’t care about athletes or anyone else, for that matter, as long as members keep their pockets full.
