Switching sides: defections at the Olympics Over 200 nations have come together in London for the Summer Olympics, competing in the name of goodwill. But the Games also have a hidden side that’s not often discussed. Defections – the voluntarily abandonment of allegiance to a country – have occurred at the Olympics for almost 70 years. The first Olympic defection was at the 1948 London Games, when International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) president Marie Provaznikova refused to return home to what was then Czechoslovakia, citing “lack of freedom” after the country’s inclusion in the Soviet Bloc. DW RECOMMENDS East Germany’s ‘sport traitors’ Over […]
