Debate, Debate | It is impossible to separate the Olympics and politics

Posted On: December 23, 2022

Manager This is a leader. The editor reveals the position of the newspaper.

Simultaneously As images from the Beijing Olympics reached homes in many living rooms around the world, the mayor of Lillehammer received criticism for having welcomed representatives from the Chinese embassy over the weekend to celebrate the Beijing Olympics and Chinese New Year.

Discussion is about whether a municipality, or indeed a country, should boycott a regime that Norway doesn’t support.

Several countries such as the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Denmark did not send official representatives to the Olympics in Beijing. Norway didn’t want to join the diplomatic boycott, and sent ministers to China. The sports president said sport and politics should not mix.

Olympic games it should basically be about sports and being a cross-border fraternity. Olympic glorification is something the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is doing everything it can to stay alive. It is impossible to separate top sport and politics. The Olympics is big politics.

China not the first country to use the Olympics to sport a disgraceful regime. Vladimir Putin turned the 2014 Sochi Olympics into a show of strength.

It’s far from the Olympics in Sochi or Beijing to the Lillehammer Olympics in 1994. While the idea of fraternity is sound, it’s time to ask if it’s too far to make an impact.

Dialog is an important tool for creating peace and warding off conflict. As French baron Pierre De Coubertin thought when he founded today’s Olympics in 1894. Yet, 130 years later, the Olympics have emerged as a tool of an authoritarian state to cover up human rights abuses.

Though Lillehammer is only a small part of the big power play, the city government has a responsibility. Both a former Olympic city, a possible applicant and host city for the World Expression Forum.

Mayor has followed the government line and welcomed around 100 delegates from China. Inviting or traveling to Beijing involves some responsibility. The responsibility lies in recognizing that top sport and politics are inseparable from one another.