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LA28 - Los Angeles can make a stunning declaration, factually correct and historically significant: “No peace, No Olympics!”
This is neither a simplistic assertion, nor just a hopeful appeal. It is an entreaty to return to a historical reality, a certainty with important traditional values. The Olympic Games had a factual beginning and carried a weighty purpose. A sacred three-month truce was always called around the known world. All wars stopped. Attendance at the Games was protected from interference.
However, since the classical era, no Olympic Games have fully adhered to the truce obligation. But today it is different. World conditions cry out, pleading for us to set a modern precedence and observe the Games’ truce covenant during LA28.
Los Angeles is presented with a defining moment, an opportunity to show its status as a global city. A conscientious clarion call for an Olympic truce must reverberate from City Hall, loud and clear, and reach the ears of world leaders to confront through truce and compassion disasters unfolding in front of our eyes, the widespread starvation of children and the killing of tenths of thousandths in Gaza, the humanitarian devastation in Ukraine, and the suffering from a string of local wars, civil disorders, and terrorism. Last week famine was formally declared in Gaza by the world`s leading authority on food crises. More than half million people in the Gaza Strip face devastating levels of hunger. A world plagued by strife and animosity needs this call to be made; it is imperative!
But it must be a solemn appeal, carrying an explicit resolution, with credible and realistic steps to be followed. Before every Olympics, the United Nations adopts an Olympic Truce Resolution renewing its own call for peace, but it is based on idealism. It is wishful, not pragmatic with teeth and common sense.
Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), established for the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896, is unfortunately tainted with corruption and greed, not promoting the true ideals of the Games, the prerequisite peace. Undeniably, Olympic athleticism has flourished and inspired the world, but the hallowed principle of the Holy Truce was neglected, receiving little more than symbolic recognition.
With new, daring leadership, Mayor Karen Bass must sound the first plea: “Welcome to my city for the Olympics competition, but at a time of truce. No peace, No Olympics.” It must be a courageous statement from the host city, and Casey Wasserman, president and chairperson of the Los Angeles Organizing Committee for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and Reynold Hoover, chief executive officer, must abide by the call.
Nations that do not adhere to the call for truce cannot participate in the Games. Banning nations from competition is not new. Afghanistan was banned in 2000 due to the Taliban's stance on women, and Kuwait was suspended in 2015 due to government interference in its Olympic committee. More recent bans have involved Russia and Belarus, which were excluded from the 2024 Paris Olympics due to their involvement in the Ukraine war. The IOC has the power to punish nations, and it must honor the ancient commitment with the vigor required. Vladimir Putin’s aggression has not been halted by negotiations, maybe the world-wide stigma of being an Olympic pariah might do more.
In the past, the UN called on Member States to uphold the Olympic Truce and pursue peaceful solutions, emphasizing the Games' role in promoting peace, tolerance, and cooperation. This time its call must be forceful and dynamic, adding sanctions to those seeking war over peace.
What an opportunity is provided to a zealous president who ardently seeks a Nobel Peace Prize. Backing the call from the gigantic White House pulpit would not only add authority to the truce movement, but it will unequivocally restate America’s desire for lasting peace.
The birth of the Games in Greece offers Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis a solemn responsibility, to call for peace over conflict. The very lighting of the Olympic Torch in Olympia, a symbol of hope, peace, and unity, should not be lit if truce is not observed. With the torch, a connection between the modern and ancient Olympic Games is established, and the Olympics retain core elements that are consistent with their origin, except for the observation for a truce. While the IOC governs the entire modern Olympic sphere, it would be placed in a precarious position if Mitsotakis categorically stated that the very lighting of the torch is inseparable from a structured call for truce.
Certainly, the Olympic athletes yearn for a truce. The statement of those participating in the Paris Olympics of 2024 was clear: “We invite you to join us in this call for an Olympic Truce and lasting peace. Let us ensure that our children survive us. Instead of destroying each other, let us work together to save our planet. We believe that, together, we can make a difference. Let us honor the spirit of the Olympic Truce and strive for a world where peace prevails over conflict…”
I am not a naysayer. I love the Olympics. As a student in Athens, I was profoundly captivated by ancient Olympia, visualizing where 45,000 people camped out before proper lodgings existed. The area teemed with statues and buildings, busy vendors and artists, and spectators from all walks of life watching events from the stadium embankments.
Without question, magic still permeates the Olympics, and your soul warmly feels its power. In preparation for the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, I visited Olympia with Mayor Tom Bradley and my friend Jim Birakos. We were spellbound by the beauty and serenity of the momentous place rightfully characterized as a unique universal symbol of peace and competition at the service of virtue. Standing at the starting blocks, the mayor, a former track athlete, offered to race us in the ancient stadium, located to the east of the sanctuary of Zeus, a race won by my son Alexi.
Interestingly, the LA28 Games are scheduled to start on July 14, 2028, surprisingly adhering to the ancient calendar which called for the Olympics to begin at the first full moon after the summer solstice, around the middle of July.
How appropriate and fair it would be if this collective thinking included the call for an Olympic truce. Therefore, let the Games begin in Los Angeles with the complete Olympic bundle, athleticism, and truce.
(Nick Patsaouras is a Los Angeles-based electrical engineer and civic leader whose firm has shaped projects across commercial, medical, and entertainment sectors. A longtime public advocate, he ran for Mayor in 1993 with a focus on rebuilding L.A. through transportation. He has served on major public boards, including the Department of Water and Power, Metro, and the Board of Zoning Appeals, helping guide infrastructure and planning policy in Los Angeles.)
