Colonialism and the Olympic Games

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The Olympic Games have been criticized as upholding (and in some cases increasing) the colonial policies and practices of some host nations and cities either in the name of the Olympics by associated parties or directly by official Olympic bodies, such as the International Olympic Committee, host organizing committees and official sponsors.

The founder of the modern Olympic Games, French educator Charles Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin wrote that sport and colonialism were "natural companions", terming sport "a vigorous instrument of the disciplining" of colonized people, and viewed it as a calming force in the French colonial empire.^[1]

Critics have claimed that the Olympics have engaged in or caused: erroneous anthropological and colonial knowledge production; erasure; commodification^[2] and appropriation of indigenous ceremonies and symbolism; theft and inappropriate display of indigenous objects; further encroachment on and support of the theft of indigenous lands; and neglect or intensification of poor social conditions for indigenous peoples.^{[citation needed]}