{"id":313273,"date":"2026-02-16T12:00:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T12:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=313273"},"modified":"2026-02-16T06:25:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T06:25:18","slug":"more-on-politics-in-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2026\/02\/more-on-politics-in-sports\/","title":{"rendered":"More on Politics in Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

The International Olympic Committee’s blatant double standards, plus follow the money…<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

16 Feb 2026\u00a0<\/em>– After publishing my last post<\/a> on this topic, a friend alerted me to a Strategic Culture Foundation article<\/a> that elaborates on the blatant display of double standards by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in its divergent responses to countries that deny entry to certain athletes, in addition to the way it treats athletes from Israel and Kosovo, vs. those from Russia, Belarus, and Cuba.<\/p>\n

\n

I recommend reading it in full. Here are some excerpts:<\/p>\n

\u2026In the face of all these crimes committed by Israel \u2014 and supported by a ruling from the Court of Arbitration for Sport \u2014 Indonesia denied visas to Israeli gymnasts who were to compete in the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Jakarta. The IOC then acted swiftly \u2014 to condemn Indonesia<\/em>! It even banned the hosting of any sports competition in the Asian nation due to its refusal to receive Israeli athletes. The IOC also made it clear in a statement that it would freeze any discussion of Jakarta\u2019s bid to host the 2036 Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

This case exposes the IOC\u2019s double standard even further. In July of this year, the United States denied entry visas to 12 athletes, two coaches, a referee, and a team manager from Cuba\u2019s national volleyball team, who were to compete in Puerto Rico. In fact, the U.S. has not allowed any<\/em> Cuban athlete to enter its territory in 2025 \u2014 a total of 82 Cuban athletes were prevented from participating in competitions held in the U.S. this year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, let\u2019s have a look at how the IOC is financed:<\/p>\n

The organization\u2019s main sources of revenue are Olympic sponsors, especially in the entertainment sector. And the main companies that purchase broadcasting rights for the Games \u2014 across television, the internet, and social media \u2014 are American. In March of this year, the IOC signed a $3 billion contract with NBCUniversal. Moreover, more than one-third of the IOC\u2019s top partners are U.S. corporations \u2014 alongside British, German, Swiss, Belgian, and other firms \u2014 all part of the capital of the world\u2019s leading imperialist powers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As usual, money talks:<\/p>\n

It is obvious that with such control over the IOC, the United States and its allies can tear up and spit on the Olympic Charter without consequence. Indonesia was barred from bidding to host the 2036 Olympics for denying entry to Israeli athletes. If the IOC were consistent, it would cancel the 2028 Los Angeles Games and move them to another country \u2014 since the U.S. systematically refuses to issue visas to Cuban athletes, and even to athletes from other countries who have previously competed in Cuba.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You may enjoy watching Olympic sports, but be aware that they are dominated by an imperialistic, would-be hegemon that shows little regard for peace, fairness or good sportsmanship on the geopolitical field.<\/p>\n

____________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Marilyn Langlois<\/em> is a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Media Service<\/em><\/a> Editorial Committee and of\u00a0<\/em>TRANSCEND<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0USA West Coast. She is a volunteer community organizer and international solidarity activist based in Richmond, California.\u00a0 A co-founder of the\u00a0<\/em>Richmond Progressive Alliance<\/strong><\/a>, member of<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>Haiti Action Committee<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and Board member of\u00a0the <\/em>International Center for 9\/11 Justice<\/strong><\/a>, she is retired from previous employment as a teacher, secretary, administrator, mediator and community advocate.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 marilynlanglois.substack.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

16 Feb 2026\u00a0– The International Olympic Committee’s blatant double standards, plus follow the money…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":261057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3410,1146,70],"class_list":["post-313273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-olympics-2026","tag-sports","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313273"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":313275,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313273\/revisions\/313275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}