AS the Olympic torch passed to Los Angeles at the closing ceremony last night, I wanted to reflect on the profound societal lessons we can take from Paris 2024.
The Paris Olympics opened against the spectacular setting of the rain-soaked River Seine. Even Parisian businesses irked at lost trade from days of exclusion zones needed for the sadly necessary security of such a global event could not fail to have been impressed by the iconic backdrop it provided.
The event featured sporting legends arriving in riverboats and the mesmerising image of Celine Dion’s vocal masterclass emanating from the Eiffel Tower.
However, these elements were overshadowed by the criticism of a self-indulgent ceremony director’s mocking vision of both women and Christianity, which sparked a heated debate about the overreach of personal beliefs in public events.
Participants and global audiences have rightly regarded the Olympics as the pinnacle of world sport. On this international stage, elite competitors did not just impressed us with their performances but also with their unwavering dedication to excellence. Their commitment to their craft and the universal spirit of fairness and camaraderie they embody should serve as a powerful inspiration for politicians worldwide.
Tiny nations such as Saint Lucia showed they are not “too wee” as their national anthem played to a global audience when Julien Alfred won their first-ever Olympic medal, with gold in the women’s 100 metres.
Team GB again had many talented Scottish athletes in its ranks, performing at the highest levels of their sports, including tennis legend Sir Andy Murray, cyclist Neah Evans, runners Eilish McColgan and Laura Muir, triathlete Beth Potter and Scotland’s most decorated Olympian, super swimmer Duncan Scott with seven medals from three Games.
What can we learn from their formulas for success to “up the bar” and inspire waves of positive change across public life to shape a better future for those who come after us? Focusing on excellence can change mindsets to create a more ambitious future for Scotland – one where there are homes for all and no-one is left behind. Those of us who believe our best future is the self-determination of an independent Scotland are not naive in thinking it will be easy but are confident it will be worth it.
The transformative power of sport to influence comes with a great responsibility, especially on governing bodies, to consider the consequences of actions or inactions. We find little disagreement that sports must centre on safety and fairness, leaving the International Olympic Committee (IOC) with a dilemma as the world reflects on their treatment of female athletes in Paris 2024.
World Athletics, World Aquatics, World Rugby and UCI (cycling) have learned from experience and taken steps to protect their female categories for their athletes’ safety and fair competition. Will the IOC now follow?
Its president, Thomas Bach, has announced he will not seek re-election after 12 years, so whoever takes over in 2025 can help to shape the next generation of global sport.
Why is this important? Robust, consistent governance focused on primary goals is critical in any organisation or industry and when safety is a factor, the failure of governance can have devastating consequences.
If women’s sport is to have a future, protecting the female category must consistently exclude male advantage. Simple cheek swab sex screening with arbitration for contested results, already in place in some sports, must be done by all, along with World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) testing, to provide confidence to all athletes that there are robust solutions and to communicate that safe and fair competition is the IOC’s overriding objective.
Women have fought for generations for inclusion in elite sport, with Nicola Adams becoming the first woman to win an Olympic boxing gold medal in London in 2012.
Twelve years later, the inclusion of two boxers disqualified in 2023 by the International Boxing Association (IBA) for failing “gender eligibility tests” created criticism of the sport’s handling of an avoidable controversy.
With social media ablaze with information, claims and counter-claims focused on individuals, we must surely ask the obvious question of the regulator: Why did the IOC not proactively use sex screening, as swimming and athletics do, to ensure consistency in the integrity of safe and fair competition?
Doping controversies have plagued the Olympics for generations. Scandals shocked us as they unfolded tales of abuse of the rules of fairness by individual sporting heroes we had invested our praise in, coaches and even state-level systems of cheating.
Questions of doping bubbled on in Paris 2024 with concerns raised on the results of some swimming events, where athletes who were previously banned for failed Wada tests were re-instated following a defence of “contaminated food ingestion” and won a haul of medals.
The integrity of governance matters to protect all of us and sustain confidence in outcomes. We must learn from these controversies to stay informed and aware.
Are personal beliefs and ideology now influencing incoherent and dangerous policies, eroding the logical, evidence-based policies that optimise safety and fairness? Where are the safeguards against overreach? It must not take a tragedy – as has sadly been the case too often in sports and public life – for grown-ups to intervene to centre safety again.
The IOC dismissing “sex testing” sent a dangerous message by asserting that male physical advantage is no longer relevant or that it is trumped by “inclusivity”. Solutions for providing competitive sporting opportunities for those with rare differences in sex development (DSD) conditions cannot be beyond us.
Yet, sex matters, which is why sex-based language matters to all of us if we are to protect women’s safeguarding and rights in a world scarred by femicide, with male violence against women continuing to be a global emergency.
My takeaway for Scotland from Paris 2024 is that striving for excellence can open up new levels of ambition and opportunity. However, we must avoid complacency in governance and stay focused to reach our goal safely. Critically, as young Megan Keith from Inverness showed the world in the 10,000 metres final, we must never give up.
