shades fills you in

As NPR explains, sportswashing is when a government uses sports to rehabilitate its reputation, better its image, or distract from its abuses

Sportswashing isn’t anything new, says SI -- the oldest known instance happened back in ancient Greece (!). But the most obvious historical example is the 1936 Olympics Nazi Germany hosted

Ok yeah it’s been around forever. But according to The Guardian, 2022 is set to be its biggest year yet. Just look at the Beijing Olympics and the FIFA World Cup in Qatar -- super obvious examples of sportswashing!

The Conversation Magazine explains that sportswashing is all about “soft power” -- gaining international power through culture and prestige, instead of using money or military power

Part of the issue is that in democratic countries there isn’t a lot of support for hosting big international sporting events. So it’s easier to host them in countries with less democratic governments -- UCSD Guardian

For years, Russia was excellent at sportswashing, says GlobalSportsMatters -- The recent fallout because of the war in Ukraine is totally unprecedented

Too Little Too Late, According to Independent.ie. Russia’s Been Doing This for Years, Why Didn’t We Care Back Then? And Plenty of Other Countries Are Still Getting Away With It. We Need to Seriously Rethink How We Handle International Sports

ProGolfWeekly thinks the accusations aren’t quite fair. Like, why are people so upset about the Saudi golf tour but not about golfing in China, which is just as bad?

And This Guardian Op Raises a Similar Point: We’re totally biased in terms of what countries we accuse of sportswashing. Why aren’t we talking about Israel?

Meanwhile, this Gulf News Op thinks the Western media uproar over sportswashing in Saudi Arabia is totally unfounded. The Saudis are just trying to boost business and get involved in international sports. Why blame them?

And Time Magazine argues that sportswashing can do good. In Saudi Arabia, sports are opening the country up to the world, giving young people more opportunities

ESPN has a similar take on the Qatar World Cup: International pressure actually led Qatar to reform its inhumane labor laws. The West is helping the country grow and liberalize!

But after all the effort and $$, does sportswashing even work? Spiked Online thinks not -- and in fact, it might have the exact opposite effect

Upset About Sportswashing? Int’l Policy Digest Has a Solution: Just Stop Watching -- It’s the Only Thing the Little Guy Can Do!