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.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) often claims its role is purely technical, insisting that politics must be kept separate from sports. According to them, political decisions fall outside their remit, and interference would undermine the sporting domain.
However, such statements frequently act as a shield for their passivity when global voices—including athletes and sports organizations—urge the IOC to take action against atrocities linked to funds generated through sports.
A prime example is the ongoing genocide by Israel in Gaza amid its aggressive imperialist assault on Palestinians fighting for their survival through revolutionary anti-imperialist resistance. Under mounting pressure, including from athletes, Thomas Bach responded to the Palestinian Olympic Committee’s plea to exclude Israel from the Paris Games by stating: “The Olympic Games are not a competition between countries, but between athletes.” He further argued that excluding countries for warfare would lead to banning half the world’s nations due to widespread conflicts.
Yet, anyone thinking critically recalls the IOC’s suspension of Russia and Belarus. Their “technical” claim was that these nations recognized Olympic committees in Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia—viewed as violating Ukraine’s sovereignty. This “technical” rationale is widely seen as a pretext to bar Russian and Belarusian athletes merely because their governments defied the true power holders within the IOC: imperialist states.
In a legalistic maneuver, the IOC maintained Ukraine’s sovereignty over these committees “could not be denied.” Conversely, the IOC recognized Kosovo’s Olympic Committee in 2014, contravening Serbia’s sovereignty—despite Serbia’s objections and ongoing rejection of Kosovo’s separate committee. Ignoring these appeals, Kosovo has competed in the Olympic Games as a full IOC member since 2016. This recognition overruled the IOC’s own 1996 rule against admitting new committees from non-UN member states.
This contradiction reveals a clear double standard, also practiced by the so-called imperialist “international community”: defending self-determination only when it aligns with their interests, and disregarding it otherwise.
Regarding Israel, the IOC justified its refusal to suspend the country by claiming that two national committees—Palestinian and Israeli—“coexist peacefully.” Yet, the Palestinian committee’s request to suspend Israel demonstrates otherwise. This appeal is grounded in reality: Israel uses international sports platforms as a state policy tool, heavily backed by state and quasi-state institutions like its Olympic Committee, to enhance its image. Such strategies have been openly admitted by senior Israeli sports officials. Meanwhile, the Israeli state has devastated the Gaza Strip, committing genocide responsible for around 70,000 Palestinian deaths, destroying sports infrastructure, and killing hundreds of athletes. According to Palestinian sports authorities’ August statement, the genocide claimed 774 athletes’ lives and damaged or destroyed 288 sports facilities in Gaza and the West Bank either partially or entirely.
Following these crimes—and a ruling from the Court of Arbitration for Sport—Indonesia refused to grant visas to Israeli gymnasts scheduled to compete at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Jakarta. The IOC promptly condemned Indonesia, banning it from hosting any sporting events due to its denial of entry to Israeli competitors. The IOC also announced it would halt any progress on Jakarta’s bid to host the 2036 Olympic Games.
This event highlights the IOC’s blatant double standards. In contrast, in July this year, the United States denied entry visas to 12 Cuban volleyball players, two coaches, a referee, and a team manager slated to compete in Puerto Rico. More widely, during 2025, the U.S. blocked all Cuban athletes—82 in total—from participating in competitions on its soil.
Despite repeated protests from the Cuban Olympic Committee, the IOC has remained silent on this clear breach of the Olympic Charter.
This situation is far graver than the Indonesia–Israel case, affecting athletes across numerous sports, with no Cuban allowed to compete in the U.S. this year. Moreover, Brazilian table tennis star Hugo Calderano, one of the world’s elite players, was denied a U.S. visa solely due to past competition in Cuba. Once again, the IOC refrained from commenting.
The IOC’s hypocrisy is stark, exposing the Committee as a tool of imperialist control over global sports—a sporting arm of imperialism. This conclusion is evident when examining the substantial financial streams from the United States into the IOC leadership. The organization’s primary income derives from Olympic sponsors, particularly within entertainment. Leading buyers of broadcast rights for the Games—via television, the internet, and social media—are American firms. In March, the IOC secured a $3 billion deal with NBCUniversal. Additionally, more than a third of the IOC’s top partners are U.S. corporations, accompanied by British, German, Swiss, Belgian, and other companies aligned with the capital interests of major imperialist nations.
With such dominance over the IOC, the United States and its allies can flagrantly disregard the Olympic Charter. Indonesia was punished with a bar from bidding on the 2036 Olympics for denying Israeli athletes entry. If the IOC applied its standards consistently, it would cancel the 2028 Los Angeles Games and relocate them elsewhere, given the U.S.’s persistent refusal to grant visas to Cuban athletes and others with prior competition history in Cuba.
The IOC has become a mockery, long abandoning the founding ideals set forth by Baron de Coubertin—international unity, universal fellowship, and peaceful coexistence. Instead, it functions as another instrument wielded by a minority of imperialist countries, spearheaded by the United States, to impose control over the world’s populations—akin to the UN and the Nobel Prize.
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