Peking – It was the expected ending. Thomas Bach humbly bowed to China once again after 16 haunted days dodging the critical issues of this controversial Winter Olympics like a fencer dodging attacks on the planche. He thanked the hosts for “doing such an excellent job of setting this stage” for the Olympic spirit.
Before he finally spoke the traditional closing formula at 9:31 p.m. local time, the IOC President also expressed his “heartfelt gratitude” for “an unforgettable experience”, which, of course, contradicted too much of what the Olympic Games should be. The flames went out at 9:37 p.m.
Summer Games in Paris will be Bach’s last as IOC President
And now? Liberté, Egalité, Fraternity. 888 days after the closing ceremony in Beijing, the 2024 Summer Games will open in Paris. It will be Bach’s last games as IOC President, should he not change his mind and change the charter (or have it changed) in his favour. In the homeland of Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of modern Olympia, there is hope – and Bach’s dubious appearance in China is far behind.
In Beijing, Felix Neureuther told the Munich newspaper Merkur/tz that Bach “bowed to the system, he was a part of it”. Part of a propaganda show and thus “a dream for China’s President Xi Jinping, but a nightmare for human rights,” according to Human Rights Watch. Jointly responsible for a “breaking test” that DOSB boss Thomas Weikert observed. Complicity “through a culture of silence,” say the German athletes’ representatives.
Worse still: “In dealing with Peng Shuai and Taiwan, the IOC has offered its services to the Chinese government,” the athletes’ association concludes. The tennis player the sports world is worried about presented Bach on the Olympic stage, to the delight of the regime. Look here: it’s all right. The organizers were allowed to spread their controversial view of “one China” unchallenged.
These games were many things, just not apolitical. Weikert was not the only one to notice “collateral damage”, but he is “optimistic” about the future because the Olympics have “now been awarded to democratic countries”. Go West is the motto. Paris 2024, Milan/Cortina 2026, Los Angeles 2028, Brisbane 2032. But the IOC is dragging the legacy with it.
Freedom? Equality? Fraternity?
The disturbing images of 15-year-old Kamila Valiewa, who collapsed under the weight of a night-time judicial crime, excessive expectations and dogged responsibility, also weigh on Bach. The Valiyeva case is still a doping scandal in which Russia is once again at the center.
Bach’s time at the head of the IOC was almost completely overshadowed by the sports nation’s betrayal of the Olympic idea of fair competition. And now? Liberty, equality, fraternity? Russia will start in Paris in 2024 after years of supposed exile without sanctions, in full glory with anthem and flag. A cultural change has not taken place, say observers such as Sarah Hirshland, top US Olympian.
The IOC also needs a culture change, demand the athletes’ representatives in Germany. More democracy, less gigantism – and a commitment to human rights, whether in China or France. Then the Winter Games in Beijing could “go down as a turning point in the history of sport”. In any case, Bach seems to have had enough of China. At the Paralympics (4th to 13th March) he is represented by his vice Ser Miang Ng.