The global conflict you didn't know was happening at the Olympics

Although sport has long prided itself on its ability to promote peace and reconciliation, there was widespread concern in the run-up to the Paris Olympics that wars in Europe and the Middle East would threaten the event. Fortunately, there were no major security incidents. Still, geopolitical conflicts played out at the Games, including the women's boxing controversy.

Ahead of the Olympics, many feared the worst. The October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel and the subsequent Israeli invasion of Gaza, now exacerbated by the threat of an all-out regional war, brought to mind the massacre at the 1972 Munich Olympics, when Palestinian militants stormed the Olympic Village and killed 11 members of the Israeli team.

This year, the Games were also previously marked by a long-running and deeply polarized debate over the participation of Russian athletes, sparked by Russia's massive invasion of Ukraine two years ago. Eventually, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) allowed Russian athletes to participate as neutral individuals.

However, only a few accepted the invitation after the Kremlin launched a campaign to ridicule and delegitimize the move. There was also a palpable fear that Moscow could threaten security, with French authorities arresting a Russian national on suspicion of plotting to destabilize the Olympics.

Fortunately, the Games were held safely. However, their politicization took a different, but perhaps more extreme, form. It all started with the opening ceremony with a depiction of the feast of Dionysus - the Greek god of wine and ecstasy - performed by a group of drag artists. The display was immediately mixed with Leonardo Last night, which caused outrage among socially conservative groups around the world.

Donald tramp called the ceremony an embarrassment, saying that such a thing will not happen when the next Summer Olympics are held in Los Angeles (which he apparently assumes will be under his watch as president). Various Christian groups, including the Pope, also expressed their displeasure, considering it an insult to Christians. Explanations of the art director, Thomas Joly, supported by the French president Emanuel Macron, did not appease the critics, and Joly received death threats on the Internet.

But even worse happened in women's boxing, when she was Italian Angela Karini withdrew from the match after her Algerian opponent in the category up to 66 kilograms, It's just Kelif, hit her in the face after 30 seconds.

An explosion followed a viral disinformation campaign about Kelif gender identity. The false claims about Kelif have sparked well-intentioned (but misinformed) expressions of concern for women's sport, but mostly a malicious campaign aimed at discrediting the IOC, which has accepted Kelif into women's competition.

Kelif was born and raised as a woman. She is said to have differences in sexual development, but this has never disqualified her from competing in the Olympics. In fact, she participated in the 2021 Games in Tokyo, where she did not win a medal.

It is true that Calif was disqualified from the World Boxing Championships 16 months ago, but that ban was imposed by the Russian-led International Boxing Association (IBA), which also banned the Taiwanese boxer from participating. Lin Ju Ting, based on gender tests that the IOC described as unreliable.

I'm not an expert on boxing regulations, nor on IOC rules, but since I'm involved in combat sports myself, this is clear to me: when athletes enter the ring, the time for challenging gender is over.

However, amid a wave of growing and radicalized right-wing nationalism across Europe, Italian nationalists have risen to the defense of their countrymen. Carini received an invitation to the Italian Senate from its president Ignatius of the Russians, and the prime minister George Meloni she hugged her boxers, declaring that the competition was unfair. Matteo Salvini, the deputy prime minister, criticized unnamed "bureaucrats" for allowing the match.

The women's boxing issue is part of a much broader campaign by Russia against the West, which has targeted the IOC for isolating Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. IBA is run by a Russian oligarch close to the Kremlin, Umar Kremljev, and it is mainly sponsored by Gazprom. Last year, the IOC stripped the IBA of its recognition as the official boxing body for the Olympics after suspending the organization over governance problems and alleged corruption.

After Karini withdrew from the competition, the Kremlin denounced the Games as "pure sodomy" and offered a $100.000 reward: 50.000 to Karini, 25.000 to her coach, and 25.000 to the Italian Boxing Federation, which they reportedly refused to accept.

The wars being fought in Ukraine and the Middle East have a strong global dimension. Ukraine pits the global West (mainly North America and Europe) against the global East (Russia and China). In the Middle East, the failure of the global West to stop the war in Gaza and to hold Israel accountable for its crimes is causing revulsion in the global South that is being used by Russia and China.

However, none of these wars are fought exclusively on the battlefield. They are also culture wars, and this latest blow has hit the sports arena. An integral part of Russia's strategy relies on exploiting divisions in the West by supporting nationalist, far-right and populist groups whenever the opportunity arises, while portraying the Kremlin as a champion of social conservatism.

So while the Paris Olympics may have been spared traditional security threats, the culture wars raging at the competition shed light on another, equally dangerous dimension of the geopolitical conflict dividing Europe and the world.

The author is a "Guardian" columnist.

Translation: S. Strugar