How the International Olympic Committee Fails Athletes

Aathletes here at the Paris Olympics brought us magical performances, from the American gymnast Simone Biles, to the phenomenal French swimmer Léon Marchand, to Ankita Dhyani, a 5,000 meter runner from India who we saw circle the purple oval at the Stade de France, finishing in last place still receiving enthusiastic applause when he crossed the line, as if he had won the race. Olympic athletes make the Olympics special, plain and simple.

But behind the glittering glow of athletic brilliance and perseverance, there are stark inequalities everywhere. The difference between millionaire Olympians like Novak Djokovic and LeBron James and athletes in lesser-known sports like canoeing slalom and badminton is equivalent to a sporting Grand Canyon. The benefits that powerful countries such as the USA, China and France have over nations with GDPs lower than those of some American cities appear clearly in the Olympic medal table. But perhaps the most seismic inequality, and one that often escapes public attention, let alone scrutiny, is the yawning gap between the luxury existence of the International Olympic Committee and the majority of Olympic athletes themselves.

The IOC slogan is “Putting athletes first.” But too often, athletes come close to last place.

The Olympic money mess is a great place to start. The IOC is officially a non-profit organization, but it is certainly profitable. According to its most recent annual report, the organization raised US$7.6 billion in the Olympic cycle that runs from 2017 to 2020-21. A 2019 study from Metropolitan University of Toronto and Global Athlete found that only 4.1% of Olympic revenues reach athletes’ pockets (while with the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB it’s somewhere around 45-50%). The IOC often Reminds us which redistributes 90% of its funds, but only a paltry 0.5% is direct remuneration to athletes.

Before the Paris Olympics, Global Athletethe athlete-led group fighting for enhanced rights and increased wages, released a declaration stating that the Olympic Games “serve the interests of the powerful few behind the International Olympic Committee” and that “the Olympic Games are not serving the interests of the athletes… because the IOC, which exercises total control over all things related to the Games , operates without accountability. ”

At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics – postponed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic – the IOC chose to host the Games, although the broadcast quotes were high and a national survey revealed that 83% in Tokyo did not want this to continue. The pandemic was a challenging time for anyone organizing a high-value event, particularly for the IOC. But the organization took steps that seemed prioritize your own finances about athletes.

Certainly, the IOC and local organizers in Paris were not “putting athletes first” when they chose to organize the triathlon and marathon swim on the River Seine. The tourist attractions of athletes vomiting when leaving the Seine or illness reports due to E.coli was hardly unpredictable. We spoke to people from the Paris office of the Surfrider Foundation, an environmental group that was deforesting loud and insecure levels of E. Coli and enterococci for months. And Surfrider noted that they were only testing bacteria, in alignment with the European Bathing Water Directive, and not runoff of pesticides, pharmaceutical waste or toxic metals. But the French government put US$1.5 billion in cleaning it up – the images of people swimming in the Seine for the first time in a century were irresistible and athletes were placed last.

See more information: Inside the billion-dollar effort to clean up the Seine

Although many athletes live hand in the mouth, the IOC enjoys an opulent existence. Here in Paris, its members are staying at the luxurious Hôtel du Collectionneur, which the IOC is to hire for a fantastic 22 million euros (24 million dollars). IOC members also enjoy extravagant perks like first-class airfare and five-star accommodations. And they receive daily payments of up to US$900 on days they participate in the Olympics and other official IOC events. This means an IOC member could earn more money only on daily basisthan a US Olympic athlete who wins a bronze medal and the $15,000 that comes with it from the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

Back at the Hôtel du Collectionneur in Paris, the IOC banned reporters enter the building where they reside for the first time in decades. Decision-making has also become increasingly centralized under a small team of senior executives, including its current president, Thomas Bach of Germany. Small groups of loyal IOC members – called Future Host Fees– now essentially choose which cities will host the Olympics, with the rest of the organization relegated to a gold-plated stamp.

For all these reasons, it is time for the current iteration of the IOC to end. This may seem radical, but the IOC has not yet found an answer to the role the Games play in spending too much public money, feeding displacement, It is intensifying policing in the host cities of the Olympics. It is also time to end the fiction that the current iteration of the Games is environmentally sustainable, given the air miles and mega construction projects. Just ask the people of Teahupo’o, Tahiti, home of the Paris 2024 surfing competition, who protested the construction of an Olympic-standard observation tower that damaged the community’s delicate coral reef, possibly affecting its ecosystem for decades.

The current iteration of the IOC should be replaced by athletes and independent thinkers who are not afraid to make drastic changes. This includes incorporating democratic decision-making processes at all levels, refusing to hand over Games organizing rights to flagrant human rights violators, and ensuring that athletes receive a bigger slice of the Olympic monetary pie.

In the era of climate disruption, such measures are especially necessary, if not inevitable. Here in Paris, Madeleine Orr, assistant professor of sport ecology at the University of Toronto, told us this in no uncertain terms. “A sustainable Olympics is an oxymoron,” she said. “And the [Olympic] model is completely unsustainable. They won’t be able to keep doing this much longer.”

At the opening ceremony of the Paris Games, IOC President Bach spoke a speech. While delivering his remarks in the rain, an assistant held an umbrella over Bach’s head so he wouldn’t get wet (unlike the flag bearers, volunteers and fans in attendance). The image dripped with symbolism. One reality for the IOC and another for everyone else.