UN urges Olympic truce for 2026 Winter Games after Russia-Ukraine war

Nearly four years after Russia violated the Olympic truce by invading Ukraine just days after the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, the U.N. is urging all nations to observe the truce this time around.

The plea was made at the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, saying a halt to fighting during one of the world’s premier sporting events can be “a tool to promote peace, dialogue, tolerance and reconciliation,” ahead of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games.

The adoption of the resolution by consensus in the 193-nation world body was greeted with applause from diplomats, the International Olympic Committee and sports representatives.

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Italy’s Giovanni Malagò, president of the organizing committee for the Winter Olympics, introduced the resolution.

“At a time of growing discord and conflict, sport and the Olympic Games can provide a beacon of hope, an alternative to rivalry and division,” he said.

The resolution recalled the ancient Greek tradition of ekecheiria, or Olympic Truce, to encourage a peaceful environment and ensure safe passage and participation of athletes in the games, “thereby mobilizing the youth of the world to the cause of peace.”

International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry told the assembly just before the resolution’s adoption that in a world where “conflict and division continue to cause untold suffering” the Olympic Games “can offer a rare space where people meet not as adversaries but as fellow human beings.”

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She said the Olympic Truce is “a call to set aside what divides us and rather to focus on what unites us.”

But she stressed that athletes can’t do this alone.

Coventry urged all countries “to keep sport and politics apart” and ensure that athletes are not denied visas for politically motivated reasons. She said athletes “must not be judged on where they come from, but rather on their sporting merits.”

Coventry’s urging not to deny visas comes weeks after a global controversy when the Indonesian government denied visas to the Israel national gymnastics team for the World Gymnastics Championships in Jakarta. The IOC recommended no international competitions take place in Indonesia as a result, and ended all discussion of the country hosting a future Olympics.  

The 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina and Milan run from Feb. 4 to Feb. 26.

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Russia has violated the Olympic Truce three times in 14 years, fighting a war with Georgia over the disputed territory of South Ossetia during the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and launching a military takeover that annexed the Crimean Peninsula of Ukraine after the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics closed, before violating it again in 2022. 

Russia was barred from competing at the Paris Olympics in 2024 due to the timing of the Ukraine invasion. However, Russian athletes did compete as neutrals, and were allowed to attend the closing ceremony. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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