«GIVE PEACE A CHANCE»

Abstract

This article contains the content of the Letter sent by the President of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach sent in March from Lausanne (Switzerland) to the entire Olympic Community. In my closing speech the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, I expressed the hope that these political leaders would be inspired by the “example of solidarity and peace” having been set by the athletes. Just four days later all our hopes for Ukraine were shattered. The horrifying images and reports of the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army shocked the world. On the one hand we have a heavy heart. On the other hand we have to keep a cool head to preserve our Olympic values that have withstood the test of time. The invasion has changed the world. The invasion has not changed our values. The invasion has strengthened our commitment to our values of peace, solidarity and non-discrimination in sport for whatever reason. Our guiding principle is peace.

But we have had to learn once again the hard lessons that sport cannot create peace, and that decisions on war and peace are the exclusive remit of politics. To be at least a powerful symbol, to be an inspiring demonstration of a – maybe utopian – peaceful world, Olympic sport needs the participation of all the athletes who accept the rules, even and in particular if their countries in the “real” world are in confrontation or at war. This is our role: to provide a counter-example to war and division - not to accept, follow and deepen divisions among people. We must be united in the Olympic Movement; we must stand in solidarity together to achieve our unifying mission in all circumstances. For all these reasons we urge every sports organisation in the world to protect the integrity, fairness and safety of their competitions by not allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes to take part or in special circumstances to at least prohibit any identification of their nationality.

In this context, we will continue to monitor the attitude of Russian or Belarusian athletes and their sports organisations concerning their commitment to peace as enshrined in the Olympic Charter. In doing so we will have to take the situation within Russia into account where, by law, an engagement for peace has been put under the sanction of imprisonment for up to 15 years.

At the same time, we will strengthen our solidarity efforts with the Ukrainian Olympic Community. To make this assistance as efficient as possible we have not only established a solidarity fund, we have also called on our IOC Member Serguéi Bubka in his capacity as President of the NOC of Ukraine, to lead our efforts. His working group has already provided assistance to many of our Ukrainian Olympic friends through the 25 regional offices of the NOC and other NOC institutions. They are in contact with a number of NOCs whose countries have already accepted more than two million refugees.