Editorial: The Olympic Games Should Not Ignore Genocide

FEATURE | ISSUE 8 | GAMES

Written by Liam Hansen (they/them) | @liamhanse.n | Editor-in-Chief

Illustration by Chloe Bettina (she/her) | @lilclodoodles | Contributing Illustrator

Happy Olympic season, everyone! I don’t give a shit about sports, and I (feature editors note: we*) forced this issue to broaden out to games in general so we could talk about video games and other nerd shit like that - but I still reckon the Olympic Games can be a good bit of fun on the surface. I genuinely think one of my earliest memories was getting the Happy Meal toys of the 2008 Beijing Olympics mascots - a batch of cute little critters that put the clitoris-adjacent 2024 Paris Olympics mascots to shame. It’s cool to see the world come together, celebrating sports and unity in a wholly non-political way… right? Nah, it’s never that easy. 

This year, we’re seeing calls for Olympic boycotts due to the involvement of Israel in Paris 2024 amidst their genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. You might think that politics have never gotten in the way of the games before - but athletes from Russia and their allies in Belarus were banned from the Olympics in 2022 after the invasion of Ukraine. 

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is now painstakingly co-ordinating the participation of  “neutral individual athletes” from Russia and Belarus in Paris 2024, who must show no signs of support for the war before being allowed to compete. Only 31 individuals were accepted from both nations combined (compared to 330 Russians and 104 Belarusians at the 2020 Summer Olympics), and even those choices have been heavily scrutinised. Investigations into said athletes by human rights law organisation Global Rights Compliance showed 17 of them could hold pro-war beliefs. Representative Jeremy Pizzi highlighted to USA Today that 450 Ukrainian athletes have been killed since Russia's invasion began two years ago, and that "It's unconscionable from a moral perspective to expect a Ukrainian athlete to stand on a world stage next to another athlete who supports the violent commission of crimes against them."

400 Palestinian athletes have been killed by the Israeli Defence Force since October 7th, let alone the decades of persecution, murder, and occupation that took place before the current genocide. This is amongst the 40000 Palestinians that have reportedly been killed in the last nine months. Yet, the IOC has vehemently expressed that they have no intention to ban Israel from the games. 

Essentially, the International Olympic Committee believes athletes should only be held responsible for their governments war crimes if they are committed against white people. 

I would love to see athletes from Aotearoa and beyond use their time in the spotlight to highlight the atrocities taking place in Gaza and criticise the IOC for their treatment of this situation. That’s why I wanted to start the Games issue on this note. We cannot let the colours, sports, and celebrations of the Olympic Games take precedence over the thousands of lives lost. Free Palestine. 

If you’re like me, and you forgot the Olympics were happening until a couple of minutes ago, don’t skip this issue - we’re yapping on about games of all kinds, from Dungeons and Dragons to Stardew Valley to axe-throwing. Have a flick through, take in some recommendations of games made locally and internationally, and sleep well knowing that the video games industry is way more ethical than the sports industry! 

Other than the harassment of minorities in gamer culture, the violation of labour rights in major studios, and the crisis of crunch culture leading game workers to destroy their mental and physical well-being in order to keep their jobs. Don’t google it.