As the 2024 Paris Olympics looms, France is in turmoil. Preparations for the games have been plagued by worker strikes, terrorist threats and public discontent. Now, surprise elections have led to political paralysis and rising social tensions. Esprit We explore the history and significance of this unique contest, as well as the controversy that currently surrounds it.
Little remains of the original “values” envisioned by the “founder” of the modern Olympics, Pierre Coubertin. Re-established in 1894 as an “apolitical” amateur event, the Olympics “could be instilled with a spirit of reconciliation while still being shielded from the real world,” writes Marianne Amar.
This idealism proved extremely hard to maintain. The Olympics continued almost uninterrupted through the 20th century’s periods of totalitarianism, the end of empire, and decolonization, “melding politics and diplomacy.” In 2009, the United Nations granted observer status to the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Any pretense that the Olympics were just games was completely over.
In March 2024, President Emmanuel Macron told Ukrainian reporters that he had asked his Russian counterpart for a ceasefire and that “we will respect the ceasefire for the duration of the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games.” Putin agreed to consider this. But the Olympic ceasefire is a “contrived tradition,” used as much to promote personal interests as world peace, writes Sylvain Dufresse.
In the 1950s, several countries threatened to boycott the Melbourne Games: Spain and the Netherlands opposed Russia’s participation, while Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon opposed Israel’s participation. To justify the participation of all countries, the IOC cited the ancient Greek Olympic Games. Ekecheiria It was a kind of truce to ensure the athletes could travel safely to the Olympic venues.
IOC officials adjusted this concept, calling for “goodwill to prevail among the athletes, officials and spectators of each country” during the Olympics, regardless of diplomatic relations. In 1972, the Soviet Union invoked the armistice and demanded that U.S. radio stations Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe cease broadcasting in Munich during the Olympics.
The UN institutionalized this initiative after the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, when the IOC called for a global cessation of hostilities during the Olympic Games and for one week before and after. Currently, the UN votes on a non-binding document calling for a truce every two years between the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. The measure legitimized the IOC and its “non-political policy,” gave it “diplomatic recognition,” and helped “maintain its monopoly in the organization of international multi-sport competitions.”
Republican Games
Just as global events permeate the playing field, so too will the Olympics permeate the real world, transforming the sports practices it touches, the host city and the way of life of its inhabitants. Host countries usually expect international recognition, urban regeneration and a more sporting civil society. But France is aiming much higher: Paris 2024 will present an alternative model to individualism, write a “new national narrative”, “infuse a meaningful future for young people” and promote social cohesion.
How did sport and national goals become so intertwined? Patrick Mignon traces this relationship from the Third to the Fifth Republic. Pierre Coubertin’s vision for the Olympic Games was initially rejected as elitist, and during the interwar period competitive sports such as football, cycling and rugby were seen as a threat to republican ideals and likely to “incite the people”.
But the French government has gradually realised the usefulness of sport in promoting republican values. In 1998, the World Cup temporarily united a divided country after “more than 20 years of an immigration integration policy”. Will Paris 2024 have a similar effect?
Capitalism Game
The 2024 Paris Olympics will showcase the city and bring new infrastructure and sports facilities, but at what cost? Hacentre Belmessou points to the weakening of democracy and the erosion of the utopian notion of a city for all.
Paris bid to host the Olympics in 1992, 2008 and 2012, highlighting the city’s “historical heritage and iconic figures”. It promised a “human-scale” Olympics that would take ethical and environmental issues into account. The IOC was not convinced. After losing to London in 2012, Paris blamed its “image as a capital city frozen in time”, succumbed to “excessive IOC demands” and marketed itself as an “attractive, creative and consumerist” investment destination.
Since the 1990s, capitalism has increasingly dictated urban planning in Paris. The Olympics are merely “the end result of a process unfolding away from democratic spaces.” A 2018 law that made the Olympics a “project of national interest” reduced public consultations on developments, removed permit requirements, and stifled debate. While investors make billions, residents face “rents that would be unaffordable in the free market,” a “significant shortage of social housing,” and the privatization of public spaces.
Seine-Saint-Denis will be “reborn,” but the problems of poverty and discrimination will remain. And after the Olympics, the makeover will continue, crowding out what few remaining pockets of social diversity as neighborhoods like Belleville, once a haven for artists, are redeveloped. “Faster, higher, stronger is the slogan of the Olympics,” Vermessou points out, “but it’s also the watchword of global cities.”
Reviewed by Cadenza Academic Translations
