The IOC is one thing. The Greek OC is another thing. They both have their priorities, their history, and their reputation to think about, and based on that they take decisions that may or may not align. This would have been an entirely different story if the IOC - the organization that can actually be blamed for the things you list in that paragraph - had been the one to pronounce the ban. But it wasn't. The Greek OC took this decision - plenty of OCs in other countries wouldn't have, that's for sure, and the IOC's not stupid enough that they'd have done it themselves. No doubt part of the Greek OC's motivation was their view of the Olympic spirit and racism not belonging on the Games; and no doubt another part was simply that they wanted to protect Greece's reputation, which right now is in a dubious state both in general and more specifically in sports (having two of their biggest Athens 2004 heroes stripped of their medals for doping was painful to say the least, and Athens 2004 is rapidly becoming proverbial for how disastrous Olympics can be when you do them wrong).


I actually agree with you, but as long as selection or non-selection is up to the national OCs, I think this decision was inevitable under the circumstances. Which is one of the reasons why I don't think it should be up to the national OCs.

Yes, but if they hadn't banned her they'd have had far more people thinking bad of them.