Numerous Controversies Strike Olympics Ahead of Games

by Julian Spivey

At the time of this writing, we’re about 14 hours away from the 2024 Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony, and I’m sure the International Olympic Committee (IOC) can’t wait for the festivities and events to begin. There has been nothing but negative coverage for these games in the days leading up to the world’s biggest sporting event.

There has been everything from cheating scandals and racist policies to animal abuse and sex criminals in the headlines over the last few days.

Let’s run down some of these controversies and scandals.

Perhaps the worst controversy facing the Olympics before the start of the games has been the revelation that the Netherlands included convicted child rapist Steven van de Velde on its beach volleyball roster. van de Velde was convicted in 2016 of raping a 12-year-old British girl whom he knew was underage. The Dutch volleyballer served four years in prison, which seems like an absurdly short amount of time for the rape of a child, and now represents his country, which apparently doesn’t care about the black eye it’s receiving over the public backlash in front of the world.

The Netherlands allowing van de Velde to compete in the Olympics and the I.O.C.’s lack of action to prevent such a thing sends a horrible message to humankind that disgusting, disturbing, and illegal behavior matters little as long as your athletic talent might win a medal for your home country.

van de Velde isn’t being allowed to stay in the Olympic athlete’s village during the games, probably because he’s a pedophilic sex offender and there are likely underage athletes at the games and has been advised not to speak with the media during the games. Hopefully, the fans in attendance will boo the ever-loving hell out of him during every beach volleyball event he’s in, and his Olympics will be short and torturous.

Thanks to the Canadian women's soccer team, the Games hadn’t even begun before they had been embroiled in a cheating scandal. News came out a few days ago that the Canadian team had used drones to spy on the New Zealand squad’s closed practice sessions, as the two were to meet in the opening match of the Games. Initially, assistant coach Jasmine Mander and Canada soccer analyst Joseph Lombardi were sent home from the Games for their role in the cheating scandal. But on Thursday (July 25), the Canadian Olympic Committee removed the team’s head coach, Bev Priestman, from the Games and suspended her.

Canada’s TSN reported on Thursday that the Canadian men’s and women’s teams have relied on drones to spy on competing teams' practices for years, including during the 2020 Tokyo Games, in which the women’s team won the gold medal.

Integrity and fair competition are supposed to be among the most significant beliefs of the Olympic games. For that reason, the fact that the Canadian women’s team (the men’s team didn’t qualify for the event) hasn’t been disqualified from the Games is disappointing. Cheating of any kind has no place in the Olympics. Suspending the head coach isn’t enough for the Canadian women’s soccer team.  

Great Britain equestrian star Charlotte Dujardin, who has been described as the dominant dressage rider of her era by the U.K.’s Telegraph, pulled out of the Games less than a week before they began after video footage of her abusing a horse four years ago surfaced on the internet. According to USA Today, the video showed Dujardin aggressively whipping a horse’s hind legs 24 times during a coach session with another rider atop the horse. Dujardin, a three-time Olympic gold medalist in dressage, apologized for her actions and said she was “ashamed” and “what happened was completely out of character and does not reflect how I train my horses or coach my pupils,” which is always something that you have to wonder about as it’s only admitted after one is caught.

I’m sure most equestrian athletes are training their horses appropriately. Still, it makes one wonder if the only Olympic sport featuring animals should be watched more closely by animal rights leaders.

Paris and France must be excited about the world’s eyes being upon it for the next two weeks, but the situation has opened the eyes of the world to one of France’s most restrictive and, frankly, racist laws. France enforces a strict principle of laïcité, loosely translated as secularism, which relies on the division between private and public life regarding religion. Under this law, French state employees (of which athletes participating for their country fall) and school pupils are banned from wearing religious symbols and clothing in public.

Laïcité might have some good in its intentions, essentially treating all folks as equals, but some religions, including Islam, require followers to wear garments such as hijabs or head scarves. France, home to Europe’s most significant Muslim minority according to Yahoo, includes French Muslim sprinter Sounkamba Sylla, who traditionally wears a hijab, among its Olympic athletes. Sylla would not have been able to walk in her home country’s Olympic Opening Ceremony on Friday due to her hijab. On Thursday, an agreement was made between Sylla and the French Olympic Committee that would allow her to wear a cap covering her hair during the ceremony. However, the fact remains the country has a law that effectively discriminates against particular religions.

I can’t wait for the Olympic Games to start on Friday because these Games need some good and positive moments because the week leading up to the world’s biggest sporting event has been one giant nightmare of, frankly, the worst humanity has to offer.