The International Olympic Committee banned competitions in Indonesia for refusing to host Israeli athletes — yet when the U.S. denies entry to Cuban athletes, the IOC remains silent.

Join us on Telegram, Twitter, and VK.

Contact us: info@strategic-culture.su

The leaders of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) like to say that their work is strictly technical and that politics must not be mixed with sports. Therefore, according to them, the IOC does not make political choices — otherwise, that would be undue interference in the sporting world.

But such declarations only serve to justify their inaction when people around the world — including athletes and organizations representing the sports community — demand that the supreme body of world sports act against barbarities committed against humanity, often made possible by the very funds raised through sporting events.

The most emblematic case is the genocide committed by Israel in Gaza amid the imperialist war of aggression against the Palestinians, who are waging a revolutionary and anti-imperialist struggle for their survival. Under growing public pressure, including from athletes, Thomas Bach responded to the Palestinian Olympic Committee’s request to exclude Israel from the Paris Games by saying: “The Olympic Games are not a competition between countries, but between athletes.” He even added that if the IOC were to exclude countries because of wars, half the world’s nations would have to be banned, given the large number of conflicts around the globe.

Of course, anyone with a minimum of critical thinking immediately recalled the suspension of Russia (and Belarus) by that very same IOC. The “technical” justification was that both countries recognized the existence of Olympic committees in Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia — allegedly violating Ukraine’s sovereignty over those committees. No one believes this “technical” argument — the IOC’s hair-splitting excuse meant to justify banning Russian and Belarusian athletes simply because their governments defied the real owners of the IOC: the imperialist powers.

It was a legal maneuver within the sporting world. The IOC claimed Ukraine’s sovereignty over those committees “could not be denied.” Yet, the same IOC recognized Kosovo’s Olympic Committee in 2014, violating Serbia’s sovereignty — which protested and continues to reject the existence of a separate Kosovar committee. The IOC ignored Serbia’s appeals, and since 2016 Kosovo has participated in the Olympic Games as a full IOC member. In recognizing Kosovo’s committee, the IOC even overrode its own rule, established in 1996, not to recognize new Olympic committees from countries that are not UN members.

Here, the double standard becomes clear — the same one practiced by the imperialist “international community”: when convenient, they defend the right to self-determination; when not, they simply ignore it.

Returning to the case of Israel, the IOC also justified its refusal to suspend Israel by claiming that there are two national committees — one Palestinian and one Israeli — that “coexist peacefully.” But the mere fact that the Palestinian committee requested Israel’s suspension proves that they do not coexist peacefully. And this request was based on obvious facts: Israel uses its participation in global sports as a state policy, heavily sponsored by state and semi-state bodies (such as its Olympic Committee), to promote the image of the Israeli state. This has been openly declared by high-ranking Israeli sports officials. Meanwhile, this very state has ravaged the Gaza Strip, committed a genocide killing some 70,000 Palestinians, destroyed sports infrastructure, and killed hundreds of athletes. According to a statement from Palestinian sports authorities in August, the genocide had already claimed 774 athletes and completely or partially destroyed 288 sports facilities in Gaza and the West Bank.

In the face of all these crimes committed by Israel — and supported by a ruling from the Court of Arbitration for Sport — Indonesia denied visas to Israeli gymnasts who were to compete in the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Jakarta. The IOC then acted swiftly — to condemn Indonesia! It even banned the hosting of any sports competition in the Asian nation due to its refusal to receive Israeli athletes. The IOC also made it clear in a statement that it would freeze any discussion of Jakarta’s bid to host the 2036 Olympic Games.

This case exposes the IOC’s double standard even further. In July of this year, the United States denied entry visas to 12 athletes, two coaches, a referee, and a team manager from Cuba’s national volleyball team, who were to compete in Puerto Rico. In fact, the U.S. has not allowed any Cuban athlete to enter its territory in 2025 — a total of 82 Cuban athletes were prevented from participating in competitions held in the U.S. this year.

The IOC has made no statement whatsoever on this blatant violation of the Olympic Charter, despite repeated complaints by the Cuban Olympic Committee.

This case is incomparably more serious than the Indonesia–Israel one. More than 80 athletes from various sports disciplines were affected. Not a single Cuban athlete was able to compete in the United States this year. And Cubans are not the only victims of this U.S. policy toward Cuba: Brazilian table tennis star Hugo Calderano, one of the world’s top players, was also denied a U.S. visa simply because he had previously competed in Cuba. Again, the IOC said nothing.

The IOC’s double standard is blatant. But it also makes clear that the Committee is nothing more than one of the many instruments of imperialist domination over the rest of the world — the sporting arm of imperialism. It is not hard to reach that conclusion when we look at the flood of money flowing from the United States into the IOC’s leadership. The organization’s main sources of revenue are Olympic sponsors, especially in the entertainment sector. And the main companies that purchase broadcasting rights for the Games — across television, the internet, and social media — are American. In March of this year, the IOC signed a $3 billion contract with NBCUniversal. Moreover, more than one-third of the IOC’s top partners are U.S. corporations — alongside British, German, Swiss, Belgian, and other firms — all part of the capital of the world’s leading imperialist powers.

It is obvious that with such control over the IOC, the United States and its allies can tear up and spit on the Olympic Charter without consequence. Indonesia was barred from bidding to host the 2036 Olympics for denying entry to Israeli athletes. If the IOC were consistent, it would cancel the 2028 Los Angeles Games and move them to another country — since the U.S. systematically refuses to issue visas to Cuban athletes, and even to athletes from other countries who have previously competed in Cuba.

The IOC is a farce that has long ceased to serve the original goals established by Baron de Coubertin — international unity, universal brotherhood, and peace among peoples. The IOC is nothing more than another instrument used by a handful of imperialist nations, led by the United States, to dominate the world’s peoples — just like the UN and the Nobel Prize.