While sport has long prided itself on its capacity to promote peace and reconciliation, there was widespread anxiety before the Paris Olympics that the wars in Europe and the Middle East would poison the event. Thankfully, there have been no major security incidents. Yet geopolitical conflict has played out at the Games, including in the controversy over women’s boxing.

On the eve of the Olympics, many feared the worst. Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the ensuing Israeli invasion of Gaza, now exacerbated by the threat of an all-out regional war, brought back the ghosts of the massacre at the 1972 Munich Olympics, when Palestinian militants infiltrated the Olympic village, killing two members of the Israeli team.

This year’s Games were also preceded by a drawn-out and deeply polarised debate over the participation of Russian athletes, ignited by Moscow’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago. Eventually, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) allowed Russian athletes to participate as neutral individuals.

However, only a handful accepted the invitation after the Kremlin launched a concerted campaign to ridicule and delegitimise it. There was also a palpable fear that Moscow could jeopardise security, with French authorities arresting a Russian citizen on suspicion of plotting to destabilise the Olympics.

Fortunately, the Games are taking place in safety. Their politicisation, however, is taking a different yet arguably more........

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