On Wednesday, September 9th a few members of NOlympics LA joined a virtual press conference held in Lausanne, Switzerland, headquarters of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to confront the IOC on issues they refuse to address. The event was pushed back thirty minutes; Thomas Bach, the IOC’s gormless president, was running late. We waited for Mr. Bach to answer questions from over 200 journalists from around the world.
In traditional IOC fashion, information and access would be limited. The 250 journalists on the call were told that Mr. Bach “only had thirty minutes for questions.” How would journalists be chosen? Was it a race to see who could hit the “join queue” button fastest? Was it predetermined based on which publication might ask the friendliest question? Who knows?We had one prior run-in with Thomas Bach in 2017, when he came to Los Angeles for an empty NFL game at the Coliseum. We disrupted the embarrassing affair with a banner drop.
The press conference was underway. After Bach spoke about the IOC’s “ambitious plan” on what they were going to do about sexual abuse in the Olympics – something about toolkits and “highly coveted IOC diplomas”- the questions were underway. NBC, the network that has invested $12 billion into the Games, was first. “How will the games be held safely with the Covid-19 pandemic?,” the reporter asked. Mr. Bach responded, “We are delighted to have full support for Tokyo 2020,” (clearly not true) among other platitudes regarding safety, support and solidarity. There was much talk of solidarity in Lausanne that day. But solidarity with whom? Again, who knows?
The thirty minutes for questions were almost up. A particularly interesting question was asked about the uprising in Belarus and if the IOC had any statement regarding the athletes in the country. Rule 50 was swiftly applied: The IOC is not in a position to comment on a country’s politics, more or less.
And then we got the last question, which was:
Following on the earlier question about athletes’ demands to speak out and protest for Black lives, Black Lives Matter-LA is expressly opposed to the 2028 Olympics. How do you respond to their and others’ critiques that the Los Angeles Olympics and indeed all Olympics increase policing and surveillance, and put marginalized groups in further danger? Thank you.
Bach became visibly flustered. His body language shifted; he turned a little bit red as he hastily slapped together a response:
The Olympic Games, by uniting the athletes from 206 National Olympic Committees, plus the IOC refugee Olympic team, are maybe one of the most powerful demonstrations against discrimination there are in this world. And furthermore, you know, in the Olympic world, we are going even beyond non-discrimination because for us it’s about not only not discriminating or tolerating diversity — for us it’s addressing these issues and trying to remedy these issues by having solidarity among all the diverse group of athletes and nations and National Olympic Committees. And this is what makes the Olympic Games so special. And you know, this is what has been expressed and appreciated also by many who are—have been fighting and are fighting, there, for equality. In particular in the US, just to mention maybe one of the most prominent ones, Mohammad Ali.
Unsurprising in its evasiveness and lack of content, President Bach’s response speaks volumes to how little the IOC and the LA28 organizing committee care about the racial and material reality in LA or in any of the cities they commandeer. If this is the best response they can muster to the actual residents of LA, it’s pretty clear the 2028 Olympics won’t be happening in LA or anywhere else for that matter.