Beyond passive neutrality: safeguarding the Olympic arena and rejecting collective sanctions

Abstract

This contribution, conceived as a corollary to previous analyses on the dynamics of exclusion and sports activism, explores the need to redefine the concept of political neutrality within the Olympic Movement. The central question is how the International Olympic Committee can reconcile its institutional stance against human rights violations with the vital need to preserve the integrity and inclusivity of the Games. Through a re-reading of Rule 50 and the observation of recent dissent, it is argued that the ban on propaganda on the field is not censorship, but a safeguard for athletes and the neutrality of the arena. Concurrently, the prolonged exclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes is examined as an inequitable collective sanction that borrows from the logic of political isolation. While the shift to an “active and functional neutrality” paves the way forward, the task for the future is to consolidate this paradigm through clear operational criteria. This article proposes such criteria to ensure the universal application of regulations in view of future Olympic cycles, starting with Los Angeles 2028.