The American biathlete Clare Egan is one of not that many athletes who recently raised their voices when it came to the toxic side effects of the upcoming Winter Games. She did this by quoting certain values that organized sport also likes to claim for itself. “If you see something that’s going wrong, you shouldn’t just sit there and do nothing,” said Egan recently the New York Times.
Organized sport often proclaims one thing and does the other, especially the International Olympic Committee (IOC). And nowhere is that more glaring than at the Beijing Games. The otherwise very political IOC consequently hides behind the mantra of political neutrality when it comes to the host’s human rights violations. The committee does not even manage to call the oppressed peoples there by name.
When it comes to controversial hosts, the most powerful transnational corporations suddenly discover their powerlessness
At the same time, it straps its athletes, who are confronted with these grievances around the competitions, even greater loads. It is high time that all those parties whose voices can boom much louder also use them. World politics is just beginning to do the very least by removing its government representatives from the guest list in Beijing – that is a little painful for a country that wants to bask in its power with major events. The US, UK, Australia and Canada are the most prominent absentee so far. The European Union, which wants to speak with one voice, should join as soon as possible.
The most influential partners are still particularly booming: the sponsors of the games, without whose millions all those involved would be lost; from Visa, Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Panasonic and Toyota to the German alliance. When it comes to controversial hosts, some of the most powerful multinationals suddenly discover their powerlessness. “We don’t choose the Olympic hosts, we just follow the athletes where they compete,” said Paul Lalli, who is responsible for human rights at Coca-Cola, in all seriousness when he was summoned to the US Congress last summer . The alliance, so it now reported the FAZ, is at least considering scaling back its activities in Beijing.
It is high time that the IOC sponsors name their advertising platform what it is in Beijing: a cover for human rights crimes. Otherwise, what Clare Egan recently said also applies: “Those who remain silent are complicit.”