Turning the Olympics upside down

John Berg
Department of Educational Sciences, Lund University

The Olympic Games are truly the sporting events that engage the most people and are regarded by most athletes as the ultimate competition. In the Olympics, the best competes against the best in a wide range of sports, and as a spectator you can easily get swept up in sports you’ve barely heard of. When “your” nation suddenly faces a medal chance in a sport you would never have watched otherwise, it becomes clear how much the nation, and the symbols of the nation, mean.

The importance of nations and national symbols in sports is what makes sports historian Jörg Krieger’s book interesting in the first place. The subtitle An Olympics Without Flags? turns the image of the Olympic Games upside down. Can we imagine an Olympics without flags? Is it the same when “your” athletes compete as individuals, without the national symbols, without the colours? Such issues are examined in this relatively slim publication of around 120 pages, published through Routledge Focus.

The fundamental premise is something that is probably often taken for granted: that the Olympic Games are ultimately national affairs and that national symbols, in this case flags, are given elements. The aim of the book is to problematize this assumption, which is done by examining the relationship of the Olympic Games to nations both historically and contemporary. One recurring argument is that “the logic of the nation and its flags are and always have been increasingly problematic for sport as they impinge on sport’s neutral, internationalist objectives” (p. 55). In other words, Krieger identifies a contradiction between the values of unity, neutrality and peace with which the Olympics should be associated according to International Olympic Committée (IOC), and the use of flags which instead are contributing to an increased politicisation of the games. This, according to Krieger, is undermining the IOC and the Olympics, making it less trustworthy.

Krieger seems convinced that his proposal would be the best way to promote a global sport that focuses on athletic excellence rather than nations competing against each other.

Krieger sees the Olympic Games’ ideal of internationalism as a product of the founding of IOC. Here, Pierre de Coubertin, considered to be the founder of the modern Olympic Games, played a significant role. Coubertin, active in the late 19th century, saw nations as a natural and fundamental part of the world and believed that the Olympics was the event where the nations should compete “in the persons of their young men” (p. 29). The national flags were to be an integral part of the Olympic Games, and consequently, they were charged with political messages that thus became part of the sport.

In the historical view, the arguments about the Olympics and nations are solid and convincing. However, on a few occasions, it is possible to question the problem statement. It is clear that today’s Olympic Games are highly politicised and that this goes as far back as Pierre de Coubertin and the ideas that the Olympics should be about competitions between nations, as well as the symbols that come with them. However, Krieger argues that today’s “sport officials” (unspecified) argue that sport and politics should be separated (p. 35). No sources are cited here, but even if the claim is valid on a general level, this argument could have been a little more nuanced and still be relevant.

So let us return to the overall question of the book. Is it at all possible to transform the Olympic Games into a competition without flags or other national symbols? Here, Krieger presents an interesting thought experiment. Somewhat simplified, the suggestion comes in two steps. First, removing national flags from the Olympic arenas. Second, allowing athletes to participate in the competitions as individuals, “detached as much as possible from their nationalities or citizenships” (p. 107). Krieger also suggests a third option, which is simply to abolish the idea of the Olympic Games being neutral, but he argues that this is hardly realistic given that the IOC has rather tightened these criteria over the past decades.

The main argument for removing national flags would have been, on the one hand, to let the athletes themselves, and not the flags, take centre stage. On the other hand, Krieger argues that such a move could have democratised the Olympic movement and brought back some of the ideals once proposed by Coubertin. It could move the Olympic Games in a direction that favoured intercultural exchanges over national rivalries.

Overall, Krieger’s arguments seem reasonable. Flags and other national symbols do contribute to values that are far from what the IOC claims to stand for. Additionally, we as spectators are used to thinking in terms of nation when it comes to the Olympics. As Krieger himself admits, his proposal could “disturb deeply rooted Olympic traditions” (p. 117). It could also have implications for other international sports. Krieger seems convinced that his proposal would be the best way to promote a global sport that focuses on athletic excellence rather than nations competing against each other.

While removing national symbols may sound like a drastic measure, it may not be as radical as it sounds. As Krieger mentions, similar attempts have been made, for example, during the 2018 Olympics when Russia was allowed to only compete as ‘Olympic Athletes from Russia’, and in the next two Olympics (2020 and 2022) to use the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) flag instead of the national flag. Since then, the country has been banned from the Olympics due to the invasion of Ukraine. Although Krieger’s idea has never been fully tested, these examples show that flags and national symbols are very important and can be used for similar purposes.

On the whole, this is a solid book and a significant contribution to the field, but perhaps as an input to a debate rather than as a scientific publication. It is not entirely clear whether Krieger is joining an ongoing discussion or whether he intends to start a new one, but either way, the book contributes new insights into the meaning of nations and flags. The chapters are short, which probably posed a challenge to the author. Nevertheless, Krieger still manages to start each chapter in general terms, narrowing down to specific analyses and examples, and finally widening the scope again towards the end.

As a reader who is also in the field of sports history, I welcome a work on the Olympic Games that does not immediately dedicate a disproportionate amount of importance to leading figures such as Pierre de Coubertin. In fact, his name is mentioned for the first time after almost 30 pages. Krieger thus departs from an idealistic view of history, but balances the book by devoting space to, for example, a historical overview of the use of flags outside the context of sports. He also involves himself in a personal and interesting way, for example how he was part of the generation of Germans who again dared to wave the black-red-gold flag during the 2006 World Cup, a flag long associated with unhealthy nationalism. Such elements give the reader an insight into the person behind the book and reveal a passion for the subject.

Copyright © John Berg 2025