As we near the closing of the Paris Olympics, we can again look back and assess what went well and what didn’t this time around. For the most part, the Paris Games are being considered a smashing success. In the heart of the world’s most visited country by tourism metrics, Parisians (as well as their French national counterparts in the South Pacific and other places) welcomed the world with open arms and set the stage for an outstanding competition.
It wasn’t all rosy, though. As with each major competition these days, this year’s Olympics saw its fair share of controversies. And they went beyond the confusion between the North and South Korean flags. The competition itself saw controversial incidents in several sports. Whether these are one-time incidents or not is not yet clear. With advancing technology and changes in global standards for sports, similar issues could arise in future competitions.
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Let’s now take a closer look at some of the issues that hit Paris this summer.
Algerian boxing controversy
There has been a lot of discussion recently about sports and gender. With transgender rights gaining prominence globally, trans athletes also feel that they deserve to represent their gender of choice.
This issue became apparent during the Olympics when Imane Khelif handily beat a fellow competitor in welterweight boxing. Following the match, Khelif indicated elevated testosterone levels in an evaluation. What was even more surprising was that the match ended in only 46 seconds, which is basically unheard of in the sport. This initiated a heated conversation about her real gender. Was she trying to trick the system?
While the discussion continues about Khelif, the International Olympic Committee ultimately ruled that she was eligible to compete as a woman and that her victory was legitimate. IOC representatives insisted that she is a top athlete and has been winning matches on a regular basis.
This particular incident might have been officially closed, but the controversy about transgender athletes will surely continue.
Canadian drone scandal
Another major scandal to hit the Olympics this year was one that took place before the actual start of the Olympics but affected Olympic athletes nonetheless. The Canadians were accused of flying a drone over the area in which the New Zealand female soccer team was practicing in an effort to steal the team’s training secrets.
The Canadians were not able to excuse themselves in the end, with FIFA ruling that they should pay a large fine, three of the coaches will be banned for a year each, and the team incurred a six-point deduction during the group section of the competition.
Gymnastics scoring dispute
Another major scandal took place during the women’s floor exercise final of the gymnastics competition. Once-gymnastics heavyweight Romania landed their lone star gymnasts in this final. Close to the end of the competition, the two Romanians were tied for third place. Because of an official tie-breaking mechanism used in gymnastics, Ana Barbosu was in the bronze medal position when the competition was nearly over.
US gymnast Jordan Chiles finished her routine and appeared to score lower than her Romanian counterparts. However, the American appealed her score with the judges, and the Romanian got bumped out of the medals. Romanian Prime MInister Marcel Ciolacu was so upset with the response that he vowed to boycott the closing ceremony of the Games.
Problems will persist
The Paris Olympics is generally considered a major success story because the French managed to avoid any major catastrophes. They managed to produce a cost-effective, ecologically sustainable competition, and visitors were pleased with what they had to offer. Coaches and sports federations need to keep an eye out for these kinds of issues in the future, though, because they will surely come up again.
As spectators, all we can do is hope for the best. It is up to athletes, coaches, and national sports federations to make sure that people are complying with new and constantly-evolving rules.
