In his latest column, Slovenian Member of the European Parliament, Dr Milan Zver, called on the International Olympic Committee President, Thomas Bach, to resign. MEP Zver believes that the ideals of Olympism are disappearing, and that the IOC has collapsed under the “multicultural” ideology. He based his position on the case of a highly controversial decision which allowed two people with a proven sexual disorder to compete in the women’s boxing competition.
“A section of the European and world political and sporting elites have joined forces in this diabolical work. No thank you, we do not want that kind of International Olympic Committee. Sports do not need Thomas Bach and all those who have recently buried the Olympic idea! Resign to give the results of the Olympic Games some legitimacy,” wrote the Member of the European Parliament.
At the beginning of his column, he drew attention to the fight between the Italian boxer Angela Carini and the “transgender” Imane Khelif, which sparked a scandal and global outrage over the IOC’s decisions. “The transgender is called Imane Khelif, and as two-year-old photographs show – one was found of the two of them smiling together with French President Macron – he looks nothing like a girl. But the problem is not whether the French President liked him as a man or a woman or whatever. The problem is that an Italian contestant sent to this hell could have suffered serious injuries or even risked her life,” wrote MEP Zver.
It started with the opening ceremony
MEP Zver pointed out that the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games had already made many people uncomfortable. The spectacle led many to question whether it represented a global cultural shift and the ultimate triumph of “multicultural ideology” over the “traditional culture of Western rationalism.”
“But then they realised that what they saw at the opening also represented a revolution in the field of competition. Gender distinctions are being blurred; the classical principles of Olympism are disappearing. The Carini vs Khelif duel represents a tremendous revolution in Olympism, of course, with the shameful backing of the International Olympic Committee. President Thomas Bach even publicly boasted before the Games that this would be the first Olympics to guarantee full gender equality. Whatever that means,” he wrote.
From being a vehicle for peace and dialogue to the “woke ideology”
In the column, Dr Zver recalled his support for the Beijing Olympics, despite his awareness of the brutal human rights violations. He took the view that sports can help overcome such problems. His position was later supported by the European institutions and the Dalai Lama. “At that time, it seems, sport was still truly a means of peace and dialogue. But what we are experiencing in Paris has gone beyond all bounds of reason (like this year’s Eurovision). Sport and culture are being turned into a vehicle for woke ideology,” wrote MEP Zver.
The European Commission is also “woke”
The MEP also pointed out that it is not only the IOC that is woke, but also the European Commission. He recalled a question he had asked of the European Commission on the controversial inclusion of transgender people in sports. It is generally accepted (and this is also the opinion of the International Court of Arbitration for Sport) that female athletes should compete separately from male athletes. The Court thus recognised that there are significant physiological differences between men and women, which give athletes a competitive advantage and put female athletes at greater risk of injury.
The European Commission has, of course, not given clear answers to the questions of whether the European Commission is aware of this problem and whether it believes that female athletes are still safe enough in the current situation.
“Two months later, I received an official reply from Vice-President Shinas, which literally shocked me. They avoided answering the question of how to protect women in sports, but immediately threw in some general principles – the European Commission ‘supports equality for all, inclusion, non-discrimination, gender equality, the fight against racism, openness and tolerance of others’ – which you can apply to any subject. But there was no answer to the question of the fate of women in sports, which is penetrated by men in one ‘sexual form’ or another,” Zver recalled.
The Commission supports transgender inclusion in sport
However, the Commission’s reply clearly underlined that it “supports the inclusion of transgender people in sport,” relying on the legal framework provided by the International Olympic Committee’s “Act on Equity, Inclusion and Non-Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity and Variations in Sex Characteristics.” This requires sporting bodies, in particular those responsible for organising elite competitions, to comply with the provisions of the Act. All this has led to the point where women’s sport has found itself today.
Ž. K.
