“Observe your commitment to this Olympic Truce,” International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach beseeched the international community at the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing "Give peace a chance.”
Whether echoing John Lennon or not, it's a plea that has been issued time and time again to little avail — an apparent exercise in futility. As the Games unfold against the backdrop of heightened tensions between Russia and the West over Ukraine, even Bach himself had palpably distanced the IOC from the Olympic Truce in the runup to the opening ceremony.
