In the Olympics this year, there were a few controversies. From getting a medal taken away to sports getting removed from the 2028 Olympics that were hits in the 2024 Olympics, there’s quite a few controversies. The people at the helm of these controversies are the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and make all of the decisions that could be controversial. Controversies happen a lot during the Olympics, and there were more than ever. Is there a way
to avoid these controversies, however?
In the Olympic Triathlon, athletes swam in the Seine River in Paris, France. The controversy with this was that the Seine hasn’t been swimmable since 1923, but the deputy mayor Anne Hidalgo and several other Parisians dove into the Seine to show Olympic athletes that the water was safe to swim in. The last time the Seine was swam in for the Olympics was August of 1900, which editor W. T. Stead described the swim as the “main street” for the “greatest show on earth”. The reason the athletes were hesitant to swim in the Seine is because it’s been polluted by sewage for years, as Paris doesn’t have a rainwater system and rainwater contains trace amounts of E. Coli bacteria. As rainwater built up throughout the years, the E. Coli bacteria built up and were in larger amounts. Paris spent 1.4 Billion Euro (1.5 Billion USD) to clean out the river and make it swimmable. Many experts said that it shouldn’t be swum in due to the bacteria and grime in the river, and was tested to be unsafe many times.
Another controversy at this year’s Olympics was in gymnastics. Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosu was given the bronze medal by Mihai Covaliu, the president of the Romanian Olympic Committee on August 16, 2024 for her floor exercise performance on August 5th. Why was the medal given to her 11 days after she performed? She won the bronze medal on August 5th, but then the US gymnastics coach, Cecile Landi, put in an inquiry that the judging committee had made a mistake with US gymnast Jordan Chiles, and that she instead should have won the bronze medal. The Romanian Gymnastics Federation challenged the validity of the inquiry, saying it was submitted four seconds after the allotted time for inquiries. USA Gymnastics responded with a video showing evidence that Landi made the verbal inquiry 47 seconds after Chiles’ score was posted. The Court of Arbitration for Sport first ruled that Jordan Chiles won, but after the Romanian Gymnastics Federation challenged the inquiry, CAS quickly rejected it, saying that even with new evidence it could not be reconsidered. They are expected to make a ruling on it by the end of the year.
A third controversy at this year’s Olympics was about boxers Imane Khelif, from Algeria, and Lin Yu-Ting from Taiwan. The controversy arose when it emerged that both boxers were disqualified from the 2023 women’s boxing world championships for supposedly failing unspecified sex eligibility tests. The championships were run by the Russian-led International Boxing Association (IBA), which no longer governs Olympic boxing. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) withdrew its recognition of the body in June 2023 over concern about its governance, finances, and ethics. The IOC has potently defended both boxers and increasingly cast doubt upon how reliable the tests were, which disqualified both boxers in the middle of the championship, which happened to be just days after Khelif beat a Russian boxer in an early round. Thomas Bach, president of the IOC, defended Khelif and said that they wouldn’t play in a “politically motivated culture war” and that it was “totally unacceptable.”
In the 2024 Olympics, a lot of controversies arose. From water quality to if someone was lying about their gender to box in a different bracket, there was so much controversy this year. In the end, we still got the Olympics we love to watch, with plenty of exciting moments.
Cites:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/https://www.npr.or/2024/07/16
https://www.sportingnews.com/us/olympics/news/
https://www.usatoday.com
https://athlonsports.com/https://www.npr.org/2024/08/05/nx-s1-5064358/olympics-womens-boxing-imane-khelif-lin-yu-ting
