As the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy play out, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is once again insisting that any sport under its flag must remain politically neutral. The Olympic charter grounds this position in its fifth “fundamental principle of Olympism”, which states that sports organisations within the Olympic movement “shall apply political neutrality”.
Yet in recent years, athletes from Russia and Belarus have been excluded or tightly restricted, and calls have also been made to ban Israelis, Americans, and others. This raises the question: what, exactly, does “political neutrality” mean in today’s Olympic Games – and what purpose does it serve?
To start with, it’s obvious to most that the IOC cannot be “neutral” in the everyday sense of never getting involved. In 1992, athletes from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia were not allowed to compete as Yugoslavia because of UN sanctions, and those who did compete did so under the Olympic flag as independent Olympic participants.
