LA Olympics can be ‘beacon of light’, says chairman

MUMBAI: Los Angeles 2028 chairman Casey Wasserman said on Monday he hoped the Olympics could be a “beacon of light and hope” for the world, as he lamented the conflict between Israel and the Hamas-ruled territory of Gaza.

Israel declared war on the Islamist group a day after waves of its fighters broke through the fortified border on October 7 and killed more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians.

Since then, Israeli strikes on Gaza have flattened neighbourhoods and killed about 2,750 people, mainly civilians, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry.

Wasserman, speaking to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) session in Mumbai on LA´s preparations, also directly addressed Russia´s invasion of Ukraine in a speech that pushed the boundaries of the IOC´s favoured stance of politically neutral language.

Saying he was “proud to be Jewish”, Wasserman recalled how previous generations of his family had fled to the United States from Ukraine “due to the pogroms that eliminated most of the Jewish population.”

Wasserman also said people in Ukraine now “face an unfathomable path” following Russia´s invasion.

Turning to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, he added: “There are no words that can fully capture the devastation and shock over the massacre in Israel on October 7. “The world is still reeling.” “There is no justification for this.

“I unequivocally stand in solidarity with Israel, but let me be clear I also stand with the innocent civilians in Gaza who did not choose this war.”

Wasserman, citing the deaths of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches killed by Palestinian gunmen at the 1972 Munich Games, added: “Unfortunately, the Olympics are not immune to the world we live in.

“At its worst, it is a platform for hate to express itself on the stage and we will always remember the 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team who were taken hostage and murdered in Munich.

“But at its best it is an opportunity for sport to show the world a better path with peace and unity, and we will always remember the triumph of Jesse Owens in the face of unspeakable evil,” he said.

Owens, an African-American track and field athlete, won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, when Germany was under the control of Adolf Hitler´s Nazi regime.

“The world has never needed the Olympic Games more to be a beacon of light and hope, and let us rise to the challenge together,” he said.

But Syed Shahid Ali, an IOC member from Pakistan, appeared to offer an implicit criticism when he said the political content of Wasserman´s speech had tended to “overshadow the sports part” of the Los Angeles presentation.