Break with IOC customs
Wasserman condemns terrorist attack on Israel and receives criticism
October 16, 2023, 11:30 a.m
The International Olympic Committee sees itself as a non-political actor. At the current session in India, the issue of the Israel War is still on the agenda. The Jewish American Casey Wasserman received applause but also criticism for his appearance.
Terrorism in Israel also became an issue on the supposedly apolitical stage of the IOC session – and caused a small controversy. The Jewish American Casey Wasserman, head of the organizing committee for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, expressed his horror at the terrorist attack on Israel and its consequences at the beginning of his appearance in Mumbai. For this, the 49-year-old received criticism from IOC member Syed Shahid Ali.
The 76-year-old Pakistani sharply noted in a statement after the LA 2028 leadership team’s presentation that the “political content” had “tend to overshadow the sporting part.” Frenchman Guy Drut, sitting next to Syed Shahid Ali at the Jio World Center in Mumbai, immediately jumped aside from Wasserman. The 1976 Olympic hurdles champion referred to his personal experiences regarding the devastating attack on the Israeli Olympic team during the 1972 Summer Games in Munich. Drut was in the Olympic Village at the time.
Wassermann had previously blown the whistle on the practices of the International Olympic Committee by speaking at length about his “shock” at the events in the Middle East. There is “no justification” for the “greatest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust,” explained Wasserman. Although he was “clearly in solidarity with Israel,” he also made it clear that “I also stand with the innocent civilians in Gaza who did not choose this war.”
With a view to Munich 1972, he explained that the Olympic Games “unfortunately are not immune to the world in which we live.” This showed that “in the worst case” the Olympics were even a “platform for hate”. “The world has never needed the Olympics more to be a beacon of light and hope,” said Wasserman, concluding with a message that was likely to be in keeping with IOC President Thomas Bach, who was on stage of the 141st General Assembly did not take up the criticism of Wasserman’s political statement.