Contestation on the Playing Ground: The Russia-Ukraine War between Beijing  2022 and Paris 2024 

Abstract. This chapter argues that international sport functions as a sec ondary institution of the international system whose norms are contin gent on systemic politics. Focusing on the case of the Russia-Ukraine  war from Beijing 2022 to Paris 2024, it traces how the International  Olympic Committee (IOC) deployed two norms (that is, political neu trality and the Olympic Truce) to preserve organizational cohesion, and  how the most directly involved state actors (Ukraine and Russia) re sponded. The chapter shows that neutrality operated primarily as a  damage-limitation device, rather than as a value-oriented principle, and  that it was intensely contested. Contestation unfolded in two modes:  thin contestation (by Ukraine) sought to reprioritize values within the  Olympic framework, elevating condemnation of aggression over neu trality, whereas thick contestation (by Russia and aligned actors) chal lenged the framework’s legitimacy and incubated alternative events,  raising fragmentation risks. Overall, the chapter highlights that a truly  ‘universal’ sport arena is necessarily dependent on a functioning global  international system at large.  

Keywords: Olympic neutrality; norm contestation; secondary institu tions; International Olympic Committee; Russia-Ukraine war; sports di plomacy; Olympic Truce.