During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union took their geopolitical dispute to sport: the two countries fought fiercely for the lead in the medal table at the Olympic Games, but the rivalry went beyond competitions in the sports arena.
In 1980, the United States and other countries decided not to send athletes to the Moscow Olympics because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Four years later, the Soviets retaliated by boycotting (along with other communist countries) the Los Angeles Olympics.
In recent years, as geopolitical tensions between the West and China and Russia have grown, there has been talk of a new Cold War. With the Russians banned from major international competitions due to doping scandals and the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the Chinese are left with a solitary antagonism with the United States.
At the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the Chinese finished just one gold behind the Americans (38 to 39), who led the medal table. However, as was the case in the United States vs. Soviet Union feud, the rivalry goes beyond tracks, lawns, pools and courts.
At the Beijing Winter Games in early 2022, the Americans promoted a diplomatic boycott against the event. In other words, athletes from the country competed in the Chinese capital, but the Biden administration did not send representatives to the Olympics.
Washington cited China’s crackdown on Uighurs in Xinjiang and other human rights violations as the reasons. Other countries, including the UK, Canada and Australia, have joined the diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Games.
“The diplomatic or official representation of the United States would be to treat these Games as normal in the face of the egregious human rights abuses and atrocities by the People’s Republic of China in Xinjiang, and we simply cannot do that,” said then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
At the time, China said that “the United States only wants to politicize sports, create divisions and provoke confrontations.”
Earlier this month, just a few weeks before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics (which will take place on the 26th), the competition gained a new ingredient.
The US Department of Justice has opened an investigation into the case of 23 Chinese swimmers who failed anti-doping tests in 2021. Eleven of these athletes will participate in the Paris Games, according to information from the Associated Press.
The swimmers won three gold medals for China at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics – despite failing a drug test, they were allowed to compete in Japan because the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) refused to contest a Chinese claim that the positive results were due to contamination of food eaten by the athletes at a hotel.
In May, a US House of Representatives committee had asked the Justice Department to open an investigation under the Rodchenkov Act, signed into law by then-President Donald Trump in 2020.
The law establishes that criminal proceedings may be opened by the United States against individuals and organizations of any nationality involved in doping cases in competitions involving American athletes, broadcast or sponsorship by companies in the country, regardless of where they are held.
The news of the American investigation into the Chinese swimmers has angered Beijing.
“We urge the United States to respect the Olympic spirit, abide by international law and basic norms of international relations, stop talking to itself and refrain from artificially created false narratives,” said Lin Jian, spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry.
In and out of the competition venues, the Paris Games are likely to be the scene of more chapters of this rivalry.
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