Editing Olympic Games (section)

===Politics===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-G00630, Sommerolympiade, Siegerehrung Weitsprung.jpg|thumb|[[Jesse Owens]] on the podium after winning the long jump at the [[1936 Summer Olympics]], where he won four gold medals; in his 1980 obituary, ''[[The New York Times]]'' called him "perhaps the greatest and most famous athlete in [[track and field]] history".<ref>{{Citation|last=Litsky|first=Frank|year=1980|title=Jesse Owens Dies of Cancer at 66
|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]
|location=New York|url=https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0912.html|access-date=23 March 2014}}</ref>]]
[[File:John Carlos, Tommie Smith, Peter Norman 1968cr.jpg|thumb|Gold medalist [[Tommie Smith]] (center) and bronze medalist [[John Carlos]] (right) showing the [[raised fist]] on the podium after the 200&nbsp;m race at the [[1968 Summer Olympics]]; both wear [[Olympic Project for Human Rights]] badges. [[Peter Norman]] (silver medalist, left) from Australia also wears an OPHR badge in solidarity with Smith and Carlos.]]
The Olympic Games have been used as a platform to promote political ideologies almost from its inception. Nazi Germany wished to portray the [[Nazi Party|National Socialist Party]] as benevolent and peace-loving when they hosted the [[1936 Summer Olympics|1936 Games]], though they used the Games to display [[Aryan]] superiority.<ref name=FindlingPelle/>{{rp|p. 107}} Germany was the most successful nation at the Games, which did much to support their allegations of [[Aryan]] supremacy, but notable victories by African American [[Jesse Owens]], who won four gold medals, and [[Hungary at the 1936 Summer Olympics|Hungarian]] Jew [[Ibolya Csák]], blunted the message.<ref name=FindlingPelle/>{{rp|pp. 111–112}} The [[Soviet Union at the Olympics|Soviet Union]] did not participate until the [[1952 Summer Olympics]] in Helsinki. Instead, starting in 1928, the Soviets organised an international sports event called [[Spartakiad]]s. During the interwar period of the 1920s and 1930s, communist and socialist organisations in several countries, including the United States, attempted to counter what they called the "bourgeois" Olympics with the [[Socialist Workers' Sport International|Workers Olympics]].<ref name="GSE" />{{sfn|Roche|2000|p=106}} It was not until the [[Soviet Union at the 1956 Summer Olympics|1956 Summer Games]] that the Soviets emerged as a sporting superpower and, in doing so, took full advantage of the publicity that came with winning at the Olympics.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.la84foundation.org/OlympicInformationCenter/OlympicReview/1974/ore84/ore84k.pdf|title=The USSR and Olympism|journal=[[Olympic Review]]|issue=84|pages=530–557|date=October 1974|access-date=4 May 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080409030958/http://www.la84foundation.org/OlympicInformationCenter/OlympicReview/1974/ore84/ore84k.pdf|archive-date=9 April 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref> Soviet Union's success might be attributed to a heavy state's investment in sports to fulfill its political agenda on an international stage.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blogs.bu.edu/guidedhistory/russia-and-its-empires/tyler-benson/|title=The Role of Sports in The Soviet Union|publisher= Guided History|last=Benson|first=Tyler|website=blogs.bu.edu|access-date=25 December 2018}}</ref><ref name="cia.gov">{{cite web|title=Soviet Sports and Intelligence Activities|url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80-00810A005600130009-0.pdf|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|date=28 December 1954|access-date=25 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413095421/https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80-00810A005600130009-0.pdf|archive-date=13 April 2021|url-status=live}}</ref>

Individual athletes have also used the Olympic stage to promote their own political agenda. At the [[1968 Summer Olympics]] in Mexico City, two American track and field athletes, [[Tommie Smith]] and [[John Carlos]], who finished first and third in the 200&nbsp;metres, performed the [[1968 Olympics Black Power salute|Black Power salute]] on the victory stand. The second-place finisher, [[Peter Norman]] of Australia, wore an [[Olympic Project for Human Rights]] badge in support of Smith and Carlos. In response to the protest, IOC president [[Avery Brundage]] ordered Smith and Carlos suspended from the US team and banned from the Olympic Village. When the US Olympic Committee refused, Brundage threatened to ban the entire US track team. This threat led to the expulsion of the two athletes from the Games.<ref name="Black Salute" /> In another notable incident in the gymnastics competition, while standing on the medal podium after the balance beam event final, in which [[Natalia Kuchinskaya]] of the [[Soviet Union]] had controversially taken the gold, [[Czechoslovakia]]n gymnast [[Věra Čáslavská]] quietly turned her head down and away during the playing of the Soviet national anthem. The action was Čáslavská's silent protest against the recent [[Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia]]. Her protest was repeated when she accepted her medal for her floor exercise routine when the judges changed the preliminary scores of the Soviet [[Larisa Petrik]] to allow her to tie with Čáslavská for the gold. While Čáslavská's countrymen supported her actions and her outspoken opposition to Communism (she had publicly signed and supported [[Ludvik Vaculik]]'s "[[The Two Thousand Words|Two Thousand Words]]" manifesto), the new regime responded by banning her from both sporting events and international travel for many years and made her an outcast from society until the fall of communism.

Currently, the government of Iran has taken steps to avoid any competition between its athletes and those from Israel. An Iranian [[judoka]], [[Arash Miresmaeili]], did not compete in a match against an Israeli during the [[2004 Summer Olympics]]. Although he was officially disqualified for being overweight, Miresmaeli was awarded US$125,000 in prize money by the Iranian government, an amount paid to all Iranian gold medal winners. He was officially cleared of intentionally avoiding the bout, but his receipt of the prize money raised suspicion.<ref>{{cite news|title=Iranian Judoka rewarded after snubbing Israeli
|agency=[[The Associated Press]]
|publisher=NBC Sports|date=8 September 2004|url=http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/5942871/|access-date=7 February 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090325034627/http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/5942871/|archive-date=25 March 2009|url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 2022, in the wake of the [[Russian invasion of Ukraine]], the IOC Executive Board "recommends no participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials, urges International Sports Federations and organisers of sports events worldwide to do everything in their power to ensure that no athlete or sports official from Russia or Belarus be allowed to take part under the name of Russia or Belarus."<ref>{{Cite web|date=3 March 2021|title=IOC EB recommends no participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials|url=https://olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-eb-recommends-no-participation-of-russian-and-belarusian-athletes-and-officials|access-date=3 March 2022|website=International Olympic Committee|language=en|archive-date=1 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220301030908/https://olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-eb-recommends-no-participation-of-russian-and-belarusian-athletes-and-officials|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2023, the IOC announced that Russian and Belarusian athletes could participate in the Olympics under certain conditions: they must not represent their country or any associated organisation, and those actively supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine are barred from competing. This decision aimed to allow athletes to compete and enhance their stature. While 32 athletes accepted the invitation, 28 qualified athletes declined. Competing under a neutral flag and uniform, these athletes had a neutral song played if they won any medals, instead of their national anthems. Additionally, the audience was prohibited from waving their flags.<ref>{{Cite web|date=30 July 2024|title=Why are Russian athletes 'banned' from the 2024 Paris Olympics?|url=https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-sports/russia-athletes-banned-paris-olympics-9484765/|access-date=6 August 2024|website=The Indian Express|language=en}}</ref>