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Nearly four years after Russia violated the Olympic truce by invading Ukraine just days after the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, the United Nations is urging all nations to respect the truce this time around.
The call was made to the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, saying stopping fighting at one of the world’s most important sporting events can be “a tool to promote peace, dialogue, tolerance and reconciliation” in the run-up to the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games.
The adoption of the resolution by consensus within the world organization of 193 nations was greeted with applause from diplomats, the International Olympic Committee and sports representatives.
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A crew member jumps to repair a logo for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics before a launch ceremony to reveal the motto of the Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Beijing, Friday, September 17, 2021. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Italian Giovanni Malagò, president of the Winter Olympics organizing committee, presented the resolution.
“In a time of growing discord and conflict, sport and the Olympic Games can provide a beacon of hope, an alternative to rivalry and division,” he said.
The resolution recalls the ancient Greek tradition of the ekecheiria, or Olympic Truce, aimed at encouraging a peaceful environment and ensuring the safe passage and participation of athletes in the games, “thus mobilizing the youth of the world for the cause of peace.”
International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry told the gathering just before the resolution was passed that in a world where “conflict and division continue to cause untold suffering,” the Olympics “can provide a rare space where people come together not as adversaries but as human beings.”
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She said the Olympic Truce is “a call to put aside what divides us and focus instead on what unites us.”
But she stressed that athletes cannot do it alone.
Coventry urged all countries “to separate sport and politics” and ensure athletes are not refused visas for political reasons. She said athletes “should not be judged on their origins, but rather on their sporting merits.”
Coventry’s call not to deny visas comes weeks after global controversy when the Indonesian government refused visas to the Israeli national gymnastics team for the World Gymnastics Championships in Jakarta. As a result, the IOC recommended that no international competitions take place in Indonesia and ended any discussion about the host country for future Olympics.
The 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina and Milan will take place from February 4 to 26.
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Russia has violated the Olympic truce three times in 14 years, waging war with Georgia over the disputed territory of South Ossetia during the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and launching a military takeover that annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula after the Sochi Winter Olympics closed in 2014, before violating it again in 2022.
Russia was unable to participate in the 2024 Paris Olympics due to the timing of the invasion of Ukraine. However, Russian athletes competed as neutrals and were allowed to attend the closing ceremony.
