Israel risked becoming the 14th country to be barred from the Olympics. But Palestinians and their supporters’ demands to ban Israel because of the war in Gaza were opposed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and President Macon of France. Both Israel and Palestine were represented at the Paris Olympics.
Israel sent 88 athletes and the Palestine Olympic Committee eight. The adversaries shared the Olympic stage, as did China and Taiwan, called “Chinese Taipei” at the Olympics, though for three long decades, Beijing refused to participate in the Games with Taipei.
Thirteen countries have so far been barred at least once from the Games in the modern Olympics’ 128-year history. Russia and Belarus were the latest to be barred after Russia broke the Olympic truce.
Olympic truce
The Olympic truce harks back to ancient Greece when the Greek states, often at war with each other, maintained peace during the Games so people could take part in the event. Nowadays, the Olympic Truce starts one week before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games and ends one week after the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games. Russia broke the Olympic truce when it invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, four days after the end of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Russia and Belarus were officially barred from the Paris Games, but their athletes were allowed to take part as individuals. They were not allowed to compete under their national flags but as individual neutral athletes. A distinction was drawn between the countries and the regimes responsible for the invasion of Ukraine and the people who had no say in the matter. Thirty-two individual neutral athletes competed in 10 sports and won five medals, including a gold, according to Wikipedia.
Tokyo Olympics
Russians could not compete under the Russian flag at the Tokyo Olympics also. Russian athletes in Tokyo represented the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), not Russia. Russia was banned from international sport by the World Anti-Doping Agency because of a doping scandal. That was why the Russian athletes were allowed to represent their national Olympic body but not their country at the Tokyo Games.
Russia, once an Olympic powerhouse, has become a pariah at the Games just as China, formerly an Olympic outcast by choice, has become a superpower.
Before we look at the rise of China, let’s go further back in Olympic history.
The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens in 1896.
Held every four years, the quadrennial Games were staged five times – in Athens (1896), Paris (1900), St Louis, USA (1904), London (1908) and Stockholm (1912) – before war broke out. There were no Games during the First World War (1914-1918).
The Games resumed after the war in 1920 when the Summer Olympics were held in Antwerp, Belgium.
Earliest bans
The first Olympic ban was imposed in Antwerp when Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey were barred from the Games. They were the countries that lost the war in which Britain, France and America triumphed.
Germany was not invited to take part in the 1924 Paris Olympics either as it continued to have problems with the host nation, France.
However, Germany was allowed to host the Olympics in 1936 when the Summer Games were held in Berlin and the Winter Games in Bavaria.
There were no Olympic Games during the Second World War (1940-1945) when Germany, fought against Russia, France, Britain and America again, this time allied with Italy and Japan.
Post-war bans
London held the first Olympic Games after the Second World War in 1948. Germany and Japan, which lost the war, were not allowed to take part. Italy, which changed sides during the conflict, was allowed to compete. Bulgaria was also not invited to London having sided with Germany during the conflict.
South Africa was the next country to face an Olympic ban. It was banned from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics because the country was racially segregated under its apartheid regime. For the same reason, South Africa was not allowed to compete in the Games in Mexico City (1968), Munich (1972), Montreal (1976), Moscow (1980), Los Angeles (1984), and Seoul (1988). The ban was lifted only in 1992 when South Africa competed in the Barcelona Olympics after being shunned for 28 years.
In 1972, Zimbabwe, then known as Rhodesia, was banned from the Munich Olympics for the same reason as South Africa. Rhodesia was also racially segregated at the time by the whites who ruled the country then.
New millennium bans
Afghanistan was the first country to be banned in the new millennium. It was banned from 2000 Melbourne Olympics because the Taliban regime discriminated against women. Although the Taliban are now back in power and continue to discriminate against women. Afghanistan was allowed to participate in the Paris Olympics. However, the IOC barred Taliban officials from the Games.
In 2016, Kuwait received the same treatment as Russia and Belarus today. The IOC suspended the Kuwait Olympic Committee in 2015 in a dispute over government interference in the country’s sports affairs. As a result, Kuwaiti athletes participated in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics as independent Olympic athletes under the Olympic flag.
North Korea was barred from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. It was banned as punishment for not sending athletes to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, citing concerns about Covid-19. The IOC president Thomas Bach North Korea had violated the Olympic charter by failing to fulfil its obligation to send athletes to the Games.
Other countries have also boycotted or abstained from the Games over the years.
Boycotts and non-participation
The United States boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics in protest against the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. Russia boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles Games in retaliation.
China did not participate in the Games for a long time. Beijing competed in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics but stayed away subsequently, refusing to take part in the Games with Taiwan. China participated in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics after a three-decade-long absence only after an IOC agreement that Taiwan would henceforth compete in the Games as Chinese Taipei. Taiwan’s official name is Republic of China; it does not have diplomatic relations with Beijing.
While China ended second in the medal standings, second only to the United States, Taiwan’s 60 athletes returned home with seven medals, including two golds.
Israel’s 88 athletes also won seven medals, including one gold.
This was Israel’s biggest medal haul in any Olympics, said the Jerusalem Post newspaper, expressing satisfaction with the team results and noting there were “no major incidents of antisemitism”. “Although there were isolated instances, such as a few protest signs at soccer matches, scattered Palestinian flags during events featuring Israeli athletes, and occasional booing, these occurrences were infrequent and not as widespread as anticipated,” it added.
Not allowed to take part in Olympic Games
Afghanistan (in 2000)
Austria (in 1920)
Belarus (in 2024)
Bulgaria (in 1920, 1948)
Germany (in 1920, 1924, 1948)
Hungary (in1920)
Japan (in 1948)
Kuwait (in 2016)
North Korea (at 2022 Beijing Winter Games)
Russia (in 2020, 2024)
South Africa (in 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988)
Turkey (in 1920)
Zimbabwe (in 1972)