Commentator calls out IOC hypocrisy over Israeli athlete

A Swiss sports commentator launched a scathing on-air attack against the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Monday, accusing it of hypocrisy for allowing Israeli athletes to compete in the Milano Cortina Winter Games while maintaining strict sanctions against Russians.

Stephane Renner of Swiss public broadcaster RTS made the remarks during the broadcast of the men’s bobsled event, questioning why Israel’s Adam Edelman was taking part despite his public support for the Jewish state’s military campaign in Gaza.

”Here we have an athlete who describes himself as a ‘Zionist to the core’ and calls the military intervention in Gaza ‘the most morally just war in history,’ yet he competes under his national flag without any restrictions,” Renner said.

Renner contrasted Edelman’s participation with the IOC’s treatment of Russian athletes and national teams, who have been banned since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. Only certain individual Russian athletes are allowed under neutral status after passing a strict vetting process, including checks for public support of Moscow’s military operation against Ukraine and any ties to the military.

The commentator further pointed to the recent case of Ukrainian skeleton pilot Vladislav Geraskevich, who was disqualified for wearing a helmet honoring Ukrainian athletes killed in the conflict. The IOC ruled the helmet violated its rules against political propaganda in competition venues.

“This just goes to show that sport is obviously highly political,” Renner concluded.

At a press conference in Milan, IOC spokesman Mark Adams addressed the wider issue, arguing that “you would have maybe five” countries represented at the Olympics if the organization banned every nation engaged in conflicts.

Russian officials have repeatedly accused Western nations of exerting pressure on sports federations to exclude Russian athletes for political reasons.

“The IOC has discredited itself entirely,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov declared in 2024, after the committee refused to apply any restrictions to Israeli athletes over the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 72,000 people, according to the enclave’s health authorities.