Columns, International, Politics, Society

Agenda over Athletes: How the Paris Games Became a Competition for Woke Gold

Below is my column in The Hill on the controversies surrounding the Paris Olympics. Criticisms of the Opening Ceremony continue with the Vatican weighing in this week to condemn the scenes discussed below.

Here is the column:

“I wanted no part of politics.” Those words of Jesse Owens after the 1936 Olympics echoed in my mind as I watched the string of controversies emerge from the Paris games.

From the scenes in the Opening Ceremony to even the food service in the Olympic village, the 2024 Olympics sometimes seemed like a clash not of individual athletes but of political agendas.

The Opening Ceremony of director Thomas Jolly is still raising protests from religious and other groups over two controversial segments.

In one scene, three young people are shown flirting in a library while reading books like “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” (Dangerous Liaisons) and “Le Diable au Corps” (Devil in the Flesh). They then run to an apartment for what was clearly a threesome sex-romp, culminating in the participants pushing the cameraman out of the bedroom.

Many people (including me) could not care less about who or how many people you have sex with. Many also would prefer not to have to explain to kids watching what the scene meant if they failed to pick up the meaning from the hot stairway kissing scene.

Then there was the feast scene, featuring DJ and producer Barbara Butch, described as “an LGBTQ+ icon who calls herself a ‘love activist.’” For many, the tableau evoked Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” — an image that was brought home for many by the Christ-like halo worn by Butch in the center.

For the record, I loved many parts of the Opening Ceremony with its stunning imagery and wonderful music. I also welcomed the inclusion of scenes with gay or trans people to show the diversity of French culture.

But for games that are supposed to serve as a shared experience for a world composed of many religions, cultures and practices, these two scenes were gratuitously divisive. Why was a threesome sex romp so vital to the vision of these Olympics?

For many, the hoisting of the Olympic flag upside down seemed to capture the approach of the French organizers. The games are supposed to capture our shared love of sports and ability to come together as a world for these games.

But that was only the beginning of the controversies, as the games appeared to make political and social divisions into an Olympic sport. It seemed like every aspect of the games, no matter how small, had to “make a point.”

For example, the environmentalists prevailed in pushing a green agenda that succeeded in not only producing possibly more carbon emissions but certainly pushing many nations over the edge.

Athletes have complained that their performances were undermined by the conditions at the village. That included “green beds” made of cardboard — beds that are ideal for recycling and a nightmare to actually sleep on. Athletes complained that they competed with little sleep on the beds designed by some woke Marquis de Sade. 

Air conditioning was a “non” at the Paris Olympics, leaving athletes sweltering on their cardboard beds. It was so miserable that various countries flew in air units to make the rooms inhabitable.

Then there was the food shortage. Many blamed the push for plant-based food to lower the games’ carbon footprint. The result was that many teams, given their athletes’ need for high-protein and high-calorie meals, turned up their noses at the “reasonable,” “sustainable” choices and flew in not just their own food but also their own chefs.

None of this, of course, was about the athletes, who were left literally scavenging for meat. Their food and living conditions were meant to send a message, much like the opening ceremony, that was separate from them or their competitions. It seems like only interest groups were cheering, as athletes literally sweated it out before even going to compete.

Ironically, the many planes and trucks used to ship air conditioning units, food, and staff to Paris likely wiped out any climate benefits.

The games then became the focus of an even more intense debate over the decision to allow transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports.

Imane Khelif of Algeria defeated Angela Carini of Italy in just 46 seconds in the ring. Carini tapped out, stating that in her entire career she had never been hit that hard.

It was later revealed that Khelif and another boxer, Lin Yu‑ting of Taiwan, had failed to meet gender eligibility tests at the Women’s World Boxing Championships in New Delhi just last year. (It should be noted that Khelif is not a transgender athlete but someone listed with differences of sexual development, known as DSDs.)

Khelif and Yu-ting competed in the last Olympics without medaling. (Yu-ting won a fight on Friday in the women’s 57kg category against Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova to reach the quarterfinals.)

In fairness, the Olympics, like all federations, is struggling with this issue and it is not the responsibility of the French organizers. Yet the theme of the games also outraged some civil libertarians.

For example, there was another controversy at the start of the games when France announced that its Muslim athletes would not be allowed to wear their hijabs, or hair coverings, a decision that some of us condemned as a gratuitous denial of their faith. France is infamous for barring religious garb in public as part of its secularist tradition.

At the same time, French authorities have announced that charges are being considered against critics of the participants and organizers of the “Last Supper” scene.

There is little debate that direct, intentional threats should be prosecuted as they are in the U.S. But France is now one of the most anti-free speech nations in the West, with its sweeping criminalization of speech that can be interpreted as “inciting” or “intimidating” others.

These measures reflect the most glaring disconnect in the Opening Ceremony where the French motto of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity (“liberté, égalité, fraternité”) was celebrated.

In today’s France, “liberté” is no longer valued. Individual rights of religion and speech are routinely sacrificed in the name of “equity” and “fraternity.”

Many in this country believe that we should follow the same path. As I discuss in my new book The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” this movement has reached our shores, with many calling for individual rights like free speech to be limited by goals of equity. There is even a movement to amend the First Amendment as “aggressively individualistic.”

In spite of our best efforts, the athletes of the Paris games continue to inspire us. Ratings are soaring. I have been glued to the television and have already fallen into the habit of gasping in shock when a gymnast steps slightly out of bounds after doing a routine that would have left me crippled for life for just attempting. They make us believe that anything is possible, even superhuman feats.

There are times when athletes cannot escape the politics of our age. When Owens won four gold medals with Hitler watching, there was no missing the transcendent meaning of his achievement.

That message, however, was far more powerful because it was delivered by an athlete as part of his competition. The problem with the Paris games is that they are trying to make it more about us than it is about them.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”

120 thoughts on “Agenda over Athletes: How the Paris Games Became a Competition for Woke Gold”

  1. A few things are still real head scratchers..

    -that the right has been able to misappropriate the term ‘woke’ without being mercilessly mocked for their love of being asleep

    -that a president can actively engage in treason and try to overthrow an election and be able to escape being held to account for it until some date past the next election (or perhaps forever)

    -and that a fox news hit law professor can seriously put a book out on free speech while being such an advocate of censorcism on his own blog.

    Party on!

    1. A couple more head scratchers

      How a drunken troll, having been exorcised from the blog on numerous occassions, can manage to delude himself into thinking that anyone gives a rats ass about his goofball opinion on anything.

      How this same booger eating misfit can whine about “juvenile insults” while that selfsame thing is his only contribution.

      That this syphilis riddled Lawn Boy can’t accept the fact that the orange felon god, who he predicted would be in an un-air conditioned prison cell in Georgia by now, is going to be the 47th President.

      How this fart sniffing turd layer can be on his second bottle by 10:00 CST.

        1. Your nephew called, Elvis.

          He said that he tested positive for chlamydia, so you will want to get checked after that condom breaking incident.

          He also wants to know why you won’t call him back.

          1. I’ll take your answer as being confirmation you’re feeling the inflammation this morning. For good reason, actually. The polls you love to spank off to are turning against you and trumpy bear is sounding absolutely insane cognitively impaired today. Sit and sizzle magat.

              2. Harris ahead nationally, tied in the battlegrounds after making up 7 points in two weeks. Pre convention and naming of VP? Game over, Turd Magat.

                1. Go place your bet, big mouth coward.

                  Come back and let us know the odds you got.

                  Otherwise, just more dreaming as you sist and steam in your turds.

                3. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Elvis Turd Maggot was the one claiming 4 weeks ago that Biden would win in a landslide.

                  How’d that work out, drunktard?

                  Do those boogers taste good?

              3. Markets pulling back into a sling shot formation/pattern heading into November with a fall rate cut.

                Looks like Don from Queens does indeed get some jail time.

                1. Nah, it’s looking more likely that it will be Fani who gets the jail time. They now have the text messages, btw. Some day I will tell you how I know.

            4. I wonder how retarded someone needs to be to think that someone who intended to vote for Trump, would suddenly change their mind because its Harris instead of Biden. Bwahahahahahaha

              9 Point swing since 2020. Thats an electoral landslide for an R, dreamer. Sit and steam in your own turds.

              1. Not only are the polls trending against you, the betting markets are too. Scaramuchi thinks there’s a chance Trump drops out, and I agree. When he gets far enough behind and his fundraising dries up, he’ll quit. That grift is why he’s in the race, full stop. When it’s gone, so is he. He’ll try to pivot his quitting to get his charges dropped…, but it won’t work.

                1. The retard forgets that Trump was “behind” by 4 and won. Then he was “behind” by 8 and lost narrowly.

                  Enjoy your fantasy, booger boy.

                  Sit and steam, turd layer

                  1. Showing the weakness of polling other than in predicting trend. And that trend is turning against him now.

                    The EC is weighted towards R’s to the point D’s have to win the popular vote by greater than 2.5 percent…, that NOT happening is what magats have to hope for.

                    And the markets…, I trade them for a good bit of my living. This pullback is a reaction to topping out at market highs, repeatedly, in recent months. Buying opportunity setting up. Sling shot formation. Add fall rate cuts in and we’re off to the races.

                    1. LMAO sling shot formation…the NASCAR clown of trading is Elvis the booger eater, who lost his ass day trading and is still mad at Trump about it.

                    2. Yep, Nostrodamus, and Biden was gonna win in a landslide and Trump was gonna be in a Georgia prison.

                      Your record is stellar.

                    4. Its the typical libturd view.

                      “Inflation is falling”—Elvis the dumb ass

                      “Interest rate cut”—Elvis the dumb ass

                      “Look at this recovery from the shit hole we put ourselves in! Isn’t it amazing??”—Elvis the dumb ass

                      “What??, you mean government spending is included in GDP? Wow, no wonder we had such great growth and now its shit”—Elvis the dumb ass

                  2. Markets already rallying off the overnight lows today. Market will range for a bit and head the other way. Party on!

                    1. Oh, the markets will continue to rise, long term. What a brilliant strategist you must be, to figure that out.

                      Bwahahahahahaha do those boogers taste good?

                2. I dont think the betting markets are the ones you should worry about LMAO.

                  This recession will end the honeymoon real quick. So will the riots at the DNC convention.

                3. The Mooch is Lawn Boys new hero!

                  Not surprising, as they both enjoy a good cooking sherry.

    2. I am a bit slow but I was pretty sure that I was reading nonsense. When I reached “censorcism” I knew it with absolute certainty.

    3. * SENATOR KEELEY

      ALERT! No need to read beyond this post. It’s just junk about drunktards and poop and boogers.

      Children I presume.

    4. Anonymous – We actually happen to have a woman running for President now who overthrew the candidate of her party who was the lawful winner of almost all her party’s primary votes in 2024. Should we put her on trial now or after the election?

  3. The French do, what the French do. No changing their thinking. Don’t waste even the verbal energy trying. Viva La France!

  4. Anyone who has common sense is to blame. We went along to get along thinking it would go away and here we are today. The media conceals the truth, in fact supports the lie. All traces of Harris past are disappearing from the net. Have we all forgotten when those in business stated “you have to force them”? The hypothetical women’s groups have abandoned their own. They turned their heads when a male swimmer competed and beat women in swim competition. The nation has been weakened through DEI and the world is facing a catastrophic event our enemies emboldened. The problem now is do those with common sense have the courage to say no more?

    3. Margot,
      Well said.
      I say no more. I will not use pronouns. If it offends someone, it offends my common sense. I refuse to self censor. Call out the facts when I see them.

  5. Not too difficult a concept. When one steps in it and then walks all over the living room carpet, things are likely to get messy.

  6. Muslim women cannot wear their hijabs, but the trans mob can prance around in anything they want, no matter how obscene or tasteless. It’s called “inclusivity.”

  8. For the record, I loved many parts of the Opening Ceremony with its stunning imagery and wonderful music. I also welcomed the inclusion of scenes with gay or trans people to show the diversity of French culture.

    Well JT, when I finish reading Big Intel, I will start reading your book. To be honest though, the Intel book has sucked all the anticipation out of reading it. Maybe even more so after this post today. I will try to explain.

    The loss of free speech is a symptom of a much larger war currently being waged against western civilization. The weapons being used against us are packaged like a Trojan Horse that you seem to gushingly accept. It’s like you’re in a toxic relationship, battered, but willing to overlook the abuse, as long as you get a sprinkling of affection. I can’t do that.

    1. You have that precisely correct. Look how many commenters here are reviling much of what is occurring at the Olympics, but continue to slavishly tune in, thereby supporting the woke Olympiad initiative through ratings, and obliquely, through sponsors’ money. I have difficulty grasping how those individuals can be so oblivious and obtuse as to fail to see that they are a very significant part of the problem.

    2. Olly, you have a point that can be expressed in many ways. It is disturbing to me as well.

      (By the way you use italics for your quotes and your dialogue which sometimes can be confusing and difficult to read. Why not use quotation marks?)

  9. I would have enjoyed watching, but would never give my attention to something so filthy and insulting. Just one more thing leftism has ruined.

  10. I used to have an interest in the Olympics.
    No more.

    Politics have no place in the olympics
    They are supposed to be about sport.

    Not disasterous green nonsense that is ultimately just about political control, political corruption, and profits from green graft.

    1. I agree, but if there were no politics, then there would be no countries competing. Do you advocate for removing representing your country?

  11. This is the new world order for us plebians. Cardboard beds, no meat eats, no air conditioning, public transportation (also not air conditioned) 10 ladies in 2 rooms with 2 bathrooms. (This was noted by one of the participants. 5 eventually left and moved into a hotel) Even I know you don’t pack 10 grown women in 2 bathrooms. That would be grounds for a mass casualty event.
    Also Cardboard apartment complexes would be next with us just shoved into our little receptacles. Green space would be provided but stepping into a green space would likely be a capital offense.
    I think there was an old silent film that predicted this to a degree. “Metropolis” 1927, German, by Fritz Lang. One of the great films of all time.
    I doubt this is ever seen or taught these days.
    Right up there with “Things to Come”, 1936, British, Alexander Korda.

    1. GEB, as I agree with your movie opinions I will add that I like Grease, a fun look at America in the1950’s with smiling kids, fun music and pure innocence. Call it a coping mechanism as I have to suffer watching the media lie to us in order to make Harris happen.

      1. HullBobby,
        Watching the MSM whitewash Harris’s stands on different policies is almost a bigger scandal than the Biden dementia cover up scandal.

    2. ““Metropolis” 1927, German, by Fritz Lang. One of the great films of all time.
      I doubt this is ever seen or taught these days.”

      It’s pretty widely available on streaming entertainment channels. Of course, that doesn’t mean that any end product of the US indoctrination, oops, I mean education system minted in the last several decades retained the perception or wit that might lead him or her to seek it out and watch it. I have Roku, and it is in my favorites list for at least two of the services to which we subscribe through that. Here is a more comprehensive list: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/metropolis

    3. GEB,
      “Even I know you don’t pack 10 grown women in 2 bathrooms. That would be grounds for a mass casualty event.”
      HA! Thank you for the laugh!
      If I were one of the athletes in the village, I would get a charcoal grill, grill steaks and chicken and give them out to anyone who wants one.

      1. “If I were one of the athletes in the village, I would get a charcoal grill, grill steaks and chicken and give them out to anyone who wants one.”
        I’d bet you even money that would get you disqualified, arrested, or both…

  12. I suppose the athletes in the next winter Olympics will have to get by with no heat in the Olympic village to keep up with the summer games example.

  13. Dennis Prager: “The Left destroys everything it touches”.
    Why? Because the main concern of leftists is to exallt their own moral superiority, not to improve the functioning of the institutions they control.
    Oh, BTW, we have an election coming wherein the Left seems total control of our country.

  14. There was once a movement to have the Olympic Games in Greece all of the time and not have the rotating debacle that we now have as each nation tries to out do the next. Occasionally we see outstanding productions but basically we are there to see brief opening ceremonies where the athletes are introduced with playing of the Olympic theme and the lighting of the torch. The rest of the time should be all about the athletes and their competition.
    I would favor the return of the Olympics to Greece with an Olympic complex that houses, feeds, and provides the venues. The Olympic venue should be paid for by all nations and placed in an area with the capacity for growth both in athletes and spectators and also built with all electronics permanently there.
    The rest of the time the venue should be open to the people of Greece and other world championships. In effect all roads in athletics lead to Greece. The food is agreed to and appropriate for athletes in their regular sports. Since you no longer have to build a whole new complex every 4 years then the greenies should be satisfied and have public transportation to and from the venue to the major airports in Greece. Keep the ceremonies brief and glorify the athletics and the competition. And one overall controlling set of qualifications so everything is in the open and settled long before the athletes ever arrive for the Olympics.
    This every 4 years nonsense of building a brand new spectacle and/pr abomination needs to end.

    1. GEB, the problem is that Greece housing the Olympics as opposed to woke countries like France is like Leonidas and his 300 at Thermopylae. Biden, Justin Thoreau and the EC are like the traitor that helped the Persians find the back route in order to defeat the Spartans. Biden has aided the Persians in every way possible and now they are about to attack once again, maybe as soon as today.

      Isn’t today non-sequitur Monday?

    2. GEB,
      That is a great idea.
      But there is too much money involved at the Olympic committee to just give up. They rely on those brib-, er, um, donations from countries to maintain their lifestyle.

  15. “green beds made of cardboard”; No a/c — “leaving athletes sweltering on their cardboard beds.” A “food shortage” and “scavenging for meat.”

    Welcome to the Green New Misery — a campaign of deprivation pushed for by nihilists like Kamala Harris. You will suffer. And you will thank your Overlords for your suffering.

    1. Sam, I am betting the the “Organizers” aren’t dealing with any of the deprivations that the young athletes are suffering under.

  16. The serpent, wokeness, in the process of consuming itself. Good riddance.

  17. This kind of takeover by the Left is why Trump likes “The Snake” poem. It was a short ride from “Just allow us to be who we are” to, “We will demand you celebrate our preferences with us or else.”

  18. I had no idea about the living conditions for the athletes. This should serve as a stark warning to those who plan to vote for any elected representative who plans to proceed with these draconian “green” initiatives:

    While you sleep on cardboard beds in sweltering conditions and eat meager diets of fake meat and strictly plant based foods- the very people for whom you voted and their fat financial backers will continue to dine on the best, travel in gas guzzling airplanes and cars, and sleep in cool luxury.

    Those aren’t green policies, they’re red- red as the flag of Communism.

  19. It’s amazing to me that the prosecutors are not prosecuting the Olympics themselves for insulting Christianity. How is that allowed? If you say a word against Islam, you’ll be prosecuted, but entire theatrical production ridicule, and Christianity is not?

  20. Do we, as US taxpayers, help to fund this decadent “spectacle” in any part? I can only hope not.

    1. “Do we, as US taxpayers, help to fund this decadent “spectacle” in any part?”

      I’m certain we do. I’m equally certain that anyone who watches this debacle is helping to support it and to encourage its continued attack on our cultural values. You cannot demonize something and help fund it, simultaneously, without being a prize hypocrite.

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