Malta Independent

When politics and terrorism overshadow sports

We are 100 days away from the Olympic Games, set to take place in Paris.

The Games bring the whole world together in what should be 16 days of competitio­n in a myriad of sports discipline­s where the best athlete (often) wins.

But, over the years, the Olympic Games have unfortunat­ely also been associated with politics. This is once again proving to be the case.

Many are the events which have nothing to do with sport but which remain engraved in the history of the Olympic Games.

The way Adolf Hitler snubbed American athlete Jesse Owens, who had won four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics in 1936, for example, was a prelude to what was to come in the Second World War.

In 1968, two American sprinters raised blackglove­d fists during the playing of the national anthem in a gesture of protest against racism.

Then, four years later in Munich, a terrorist attack on the Israeli contingent ended with 17 people being killed – six Israeli coaches, five Israeli athletes, one office and five of the members of a Palestinia­n militant group.

The Cold War between the USA and the Soviet

Union then led to boycotts from the Moscow Games of 1980 till the Los Angeles Games of 1984.

Later, in 1996, at the Atlanta Games, a bomb killed one person and injured 111.

There were many other instances in which some countries boycotted the Games for their own particular political reasons.

This year, the Games will be held in Paris at a time when two wars are raging not too far from France. What is happening in Ukraine and the Middle East will certainly affect the spirit of the Games, and threats of terrorism attacks will also have their impact.

Last Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron said that the opening ceremony of the Games might have to be shifted from the planned stage on the River Seine to the more contained Stade de France if the security threat is deemed to be high.

France is currently on high security alert as it finalises preparatio­ns for the event, which will see the participat­ion of more than 10,000 athletes from over 200 countries, and which will naturally attract millions of visitors to Paris and the surroundin­g areas.

The opening ceremony is planned to see boats carrying athletes along the River Seine on a sixkilomet­re parade with huge crowds watching from the embankment­s. But if the risks are deemed to be high, there are plans to transfer the ceremony to the main stadium in the French capital, where the crowds can be controlled with less difficulty.

The ceremony was originally planned to cater for 600,000 spectators, but this ambition was progressiv­ely scaled back to half that number. Still, the area that would require protection is much larger than the more contained stadium, and the plans might change before the date of the ceremony, 26 July.

Before that day, another event, the Euro 2024 championsh­ips, will be held in Germany and, even here, the organisers have to contend with security issues. As a pre-emptive measure, border controls will be temporaril­y introduced to reduce risks.

It is always a pity that sport events of such magnitude are overshadow­ed by politics and terrorist threats. It is hoped that discussion will revolved around sporting feats and exciting games, and nothing else.