Opinion: The International Olympic Committee once said the Olympics could help push China toward reform. Now, it's emphasizing its political neutrality.
— including a private meeting with the Norwegian king, separate entrances and exits for IOC members at the Oslo airport, and meeting rooms that maintained a precise 20 degrees Celsius at all times. The IOC denied making such demands, calling the reports
but the damage was done. Norway pulled Oslo’s bid amid growing concern, and the IOC was made to look more like a band of grifting princelings than a serious sport bureaucracy., told me, “The IOC has never been as authoritarian as it is under Thomas Bach.” He added, “No IOC president ever had such absolute power.”
The IOC has willingly hitched its wagon to China while showing gullibility every step of the way. The committee hasdemands to address human-rights abuses in China. When the Coalition to End Forced Labor in the Uyghur Region, an alliance of more than 300 groups, tried to meet with the IOC, they were initially stonewalled. Eventually, the committee agreed to meet — but not to engage.
Hoffman says he wouldn’t ask those who are competing to take a risk he wouldn’t. “Therefore, I am advising athletes to stay silent while in China. It pains me to do so because … I believe that athletes should use their platforms to stand up for the things they believe in and that they can be powerful forces for positive change. I never want to advise an athlete to stay silent but in this situation I feel that I have no choice.
There is no question that China today is much more powerful than the previous time it hosted the Olympics. Between 2008 and 2021, China’s Gross Domestic Product. Its economy has evolved from primarily export-driven to one where domestic consumption comprises around half of all economic activity. China has wielded its domestic consumer demand as a weapon, targeting textile behemoths H&M and Nike with a boycott after the firms raised concerns about forced Uyghur labor in Xinjiang.
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