"Earlier this week, the IOC president, Kirsty Coventry, called for sport to be a neutral ground, separate from politics and the actions of governments. It was a worthy sentiment. But she might as well have been singing kumbaya in a warzone. While Coventry was speaking, US Olympic officials changed the name of an athlete hospitality space in Milan from Ice House to Winter House, following protests over the fatal shootings by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers."
"Less than 24 hours later, Italy's foreign minister revealed that the country had thwarted a series of cyberattacks of Russian origin targeting websites linked to the Winter Olympics. That revelation was even more noteworthy for another reason. Because over the past few days there has been strong momentum in Milan for Russian teams, who are banned because of the war on Ukraine, to be allowed back into the sporting fold."
Milano Cortina's Winter Olympics combine elite athletic spectacle with rising geopolitical tensions and cyber threats. The IOC president urged that sport remain a neutral ground apart from government actions, but protests and sensitivities spilled into the Games when an American athlete hospitality space in Milan was renamed from Ice House to Winter House after demonstrations over fatal shootings by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The renaming drew public comment from competitors. Italian authorities reported foiled cyberattacks traced to Russia targeting Olympic-linked websites. Despite a ban over the war in Ukraine, momentum exists to reintegrate Russian teams, though only 13 Russian athletes are competing as Authorised Neutral Athletes.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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