Terrorist threats to the Olympics, 1972-2016

Fussey, P. (2010) Terrorist threats to the Olympics, 1972-2016. In, Richards, Anthony, Fussey, Pete and Silke, Andrew (eds.) Terrorism and the Olympics: Major Event Security and Lessons for the Future. London. Taylor & Francis. (doi:10.4324/9780203835227).

Abstract

The chart below illustrates some of the key risks and security challenges that have faced Olympic planners since Munich, 1972. It represents the synopsis of a more expansive and detailed investigation into Olympic threats presented in Fussey et al. (2010). Debates inevitably occur over which activities are ‘terrorist’ and to what extent they are ‘Olympic-related’. This picture is further complicated by the IOC’s insistence that the Games are free of politics (for example, Rule 51, section 3 of the IOC’s Olympic Charter compels host cities to prevent protests of any kind near Olympic cities) – an initiative that may render any political statement a simultaneous act of Olympic resistance. For the purposes of the chart below, protests that may have drawn the attention of security planners – such as those surrounding the aboriginal Lubicon land claims during Calgary, 1988, protests over socio-economic inequality and the diversion of public monies to the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002, or the ‘No Olympics on Stolen Land’ campaign at Vancouver, 2010 – are excluded. Instead, the focus is on actors and groups whose primary objective is an act of violence or sabotage in the first instance, rather than more legitimate protest movements that may become vehicles for more physical confrontations. So what constitutes an ‘Olympic-related’ threat? In many ways this is an impossible question to answer. Complicating factors include events that have taken place in a host nation prior to a Games that have no apparent connection to the event yet still occupy their related security planning and threat assessments.

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Contributors

Author: P. Fussey

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