The geopolitics of the Winter Olympics

Italy’s Winter Olympics opening ceremony kicks off in just a few hours, meaning we’ll soon burn our evenings watching snowboarders called ‘Tanner’ and ‘Yui’ pull sick Frontside Double Cork 1080 Lien-to-Melon Reverts.

But it also means that, as with any event bringing the world together, geopolitics is now in the air (doing a sick Frontside 720 Stale-Tail-to-Nosebone Re-entry).

Canada’s crack team of curlers has barely started buffing the ice yet, but you could already explore (say) the way Italy beat Sweden for the hosting rights, or how Russia has waged cyber attacks over its ban, or the continued protests against (and security for) Israel’s team, or the big ICE furore we examined last month.

So while we watch for the first stadium protest, here are five times geopolitics gatecrashed the Winter Games, starting with… 

1. The ex-Olympian turned kingpin 

Former Olympians usually have three retirement options: become a coach, become a commentator, or become a spokesperson for Samsung.

But Canada’s Ryan Wedding, who came 24th in the 2002 Parallel Giant Slalom snowboard, dedicated himself to a different kind of powder, accumulating drug charges until finally breaking into the FBI’s ‘Ten Most Wanted’ list last year (at least better than 24th?). 

Wedding handed himself in at the US embassy in Mexico City last month after years reportedly living under the protection of the famed Sinaloa cartel. These sudden surrenders tend to suggest someone’s now fearing the cartel more than prison. 

2. The four-day curse 

Russia has a murky Olympic record, and we’re not just talking about Putin’s state-sponsored doping scandal. Rather, we’re talking about how on two occasions he’s launched new wars against Ukraine exactly four days after the closing ceremony: 

• The first was in 2014, when he countered the popular ousting of his puppet in Ukraine by seizing Crimea. Why wait until after the Olympics? Putin was host. 
• Ditto in China’s 2022 host year, when US intelligence suggests President Xi asked Putin not to invade Ukraine until after the games. Bad for business.

3. That time the Koreas were one

You might recall South Korea’s 2018 games when North and South paraded together under a unified Korea banner. That flag made its first official appearance back at the 1991 World Table Tennis Championships in Japan — a reminder of sport’s long history as a forum for reconciliation. The two Koreas even fielded a joint 2018 ice hockey team, which scored more standing ovations than goals.

But why’d the autocratic North suddenly show openness to this kind of unity?

• The early 1990s reflected isolation after the collapse of the USSR, while…
• 2018 reflected confidence after Kim declared his credible nuclear deterrent.

4. Citizenship drama on the slopes 

Athletes switch citizenship for all kinds of reasons: maybe your grandma’s birthplace has better facilities, or pays more, or has better qualifying chances, or isn’t banned.

There are a dozen or so athletes doing it for these Winter Games, and most go under the radar, like the Kiwi skier switching to the famously alpine nation of United Arab Emirates. But every now and then, a switch goes viral, like freestyle prodigy Eileen Gu. Why?

• At the time (2019) she had just won the world cup
• That rising star meant more cash and hype
• It came just as Trump 1.0 was taking a more assertive stance on China, and
• There was mystery whether she renounced her US citizenship per China’s rules.

That mix of fame, mystery, and geopolitics thrust Gu onto centre stage. 

5. Boycotts 

It’s almost boycott schmoycott these days: Western countries boycotted China’s 2022 games over Xinjiang, and Georgia tried boycotting Russia’s 2014 games over South Ossetia. But here’s another example you might not recall because you weren’t born.

Back in 1980, the Olympic Committee forced Taiwan to participate under a new ‘Chinese Taipei’ name to make way for mainland China’s first Winter Olympic stint since the communist takeover of 1949. But when eight Taiwanese athletes then arrived at America’s Lake Placid Olympic Village, organisers denied them entry over their ‘Republic of China’ ID.

After finding a hotel room elsewhere, the athletes ended up boycotting the Games.

Intrigue’s Take

The Olympic Committee loves to pretend sport is some neutral, transcendental platform reserved for slow-motion, synth-backed feats of humanity. But no amount of slow-motion or synth can scrub the politics, and the Committee knows this. It is, after all, the same body that awarded actual Nazis the hosting rights for the (eventually cancelled) 1940 Winter Games, after Hitler had annexed Austria and taken Czechoslovakia.

Sure, sometimes politics might warm the cockles (whatever a cockle is) of your heart, like two Koreas united. Others might leave you with chills, like Putin spending the GDP of Tunisia on history’s most expensive games to burnish his image before his next invasion.

Anyway, for the wild world that is 2026, here’s hoping we see more warmth, less chills. And in the meantime, please enjoy Tanner’s sick Backside Triple Cork 1440 Crossbone.