"The idea that sport and politics don’t connect is worse than disingenuous, worse than stupid. It is wickedly, wilfully wrong. Everyone knows politics interconnects with everything for “politics” is simply the Greek for “to do with the people”.
Sports and politics may be innately interconnected, but that doesn't mean we should seek to make sports even more political.
To have a requirement that the Olympics is hosted only in countries with political approval by [Stephen Fry/Western cultural values] would prevent it from having any global influence. Should the Olympics ultimately alternate between the EU and the US? Obviously not.
It's a good thing that political and cultural values of a country are not or are minimally part of the bidding and selection process.
If you're not aware, the IOC requires bidding countries to commit to IOC laws - which include special treatment and legal exemptions for athletes and visitors who may not otherwise be welcome. Although not without problems, I find that a sufficient way to make countries fall in line with the Olympic tradition without directly interfering with their local political process.
The Olympics cannot judge a host country for its political values, or it would have a strong cultural bias and not be a global event.
I've never read the Olympics code, list of principles etc, but I can imagine there's something about human dignity and freedom and liberty? Well, liberty should be a lowest common denominator. I.e. -- your culture allows some people to enslave and oppress other people, and deny them life, property and dignity? Well your culture is a piece of shit and you don't host Olympics. Easy! Cultural bias? Sure - cultural bias of human against blood-sucking goblins doesn't sound too bad.
You're not helping anyone by spreading FUD.
There was fairly similar law in Britain until 2003: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_28
Also, I should note there is no protests supporting gay rights in Saudi Arabia were homosexuality is punished by death.
Also see: https://marknesop.wordpress.com/2013/08/02/somewhere-over-th... , https://marknesop.wordpress.com/2013/02/27/warning-explicit-...
Biased, but biased in a different way then usual articles on this subject and therefore useful.
Minister Vitaly Mutko... "No one is forbidding an athlete with non-traditional sexual orientation from coming to Sochi, but if he goes onto the street and starts propagandizing it, then of course he will be held accountable"
In any case, arresting athletes is sure to provoke immediate international outrage.
Vitaly was interviewed once again, recently.
Take your pick:
http://www.ibtimes.com/george-takei-move-2014-winter-olympic...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/30/russia-anti-gay-oly...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/russian-lawmaker-suggest...
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/russia-anti-gay-laws-2014-...
- What do you mean, we don't respect human rights? Of course we respect human rights! Why, I can provide the name of that human right now!
Same goes for 'celebrating human achievements' you've mentioned. No such thing will happen. There's only one achievement allowed into the celebration - the achievement of United Russia Party and its leader. Whatever the emotional positive externalities these Game might produce, all will be harvested by state propaganda.
Wow, I couldn't disagree more on this point. One of the great things about the Olympics is that it's without politics [er... in this regard].
I don't believe that it's acceptable to say that places with different cultural values make unsuitable hosts. Human rights criticisms were also levelled at London, and even more at Beijing. In general, the Olympics (indirectly) does a lot to raise awareness of human rights and it's good that it is able to do this by spanning the breadth of the world's culture.
Hosting the Olympics in Sochi will allow individuals' achievements to be celebrated within Russia without the permission of politicians and without the stigma of prejudice.
I hope instead that gay participants will be encouraged to come out and raise awareness in the relative safety of the occasion: since Godwin's law has already been invoked, I would compare the situation to Jesse Owens at the Berlin Olympics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Owens#Berlin_Olympics