Professor Boykoff travels to the Paris 2024 Olympics to further discover the declining social and political popularity that surrounds the games.
Professor Jules Boykoff knows the Olympics. After all, as a college student, he played on the national soccer team, which feeds players to the Olympic games—and, more recently, he lived in London during the lead-up to 2012 Summer Olympics, and Rio de Janeiro in 2016, and this past summer, in Paris for the most recent gathering and spectacle of athletics.
But to say that he is gob smacked by the Olympics Games is the wrong takeaway.
A pol-sci professor at Pacific University and the Chair of the Politics & Government Department, during his most recent interaction with the 2024 Olympics, Professor Boykoff did a great deal of writing for news sources such as The Nation, Los Angeles Times, Scientific American and Time. In addition, he sixth book about the Olympics was released last March. Titled What Are The Olympics For?, his book digs deep in the world behind the curtain of the entertaining Olympics; mainly in relation to the treatment of the athletes involved as well as touching on larger social issues like macroeconomics and environmental safety. While doing media work Boykoff strives to understand the effect the mega-event has on the athletes, environment, and community hosting.
“Part of my recent studies is to work inside of communities in the Olympic City that are affected by the Olympics,” shared Boykoff in an interview with The Index. “They are communities that are often marginalized.” The importance of understanding what the communities and economical effect the Olympics has on the host city helps Boykoff share his findings with news sources and his writings. While he was in attendance at the Paris Olympics, Boykoff appeared on French National TV and other networks, including BBC, CNN, and CBC. These news sources allowed him to share and gather information about activism in the Olympics.
Specifically, Boykoff’s personal experience as an athlete creates a connection with the current players. In the mid-90s, he played for the under 23 Men’s National Soccer team, and followed up with a four year professional career. “I support athletes as workers and I want them to have a healthy workplace,” Boykoff explains when discussing poor living environments, pay income, and treatment. An example of this was in the Tokyo Olympics when 800 athletes got Covid while living in the Olympic bubble; further proving the lack of efficiency in safety and treatment for the athletes.
The mistreatment of athletes is just one of the reasons why activism around the Olympic games is growing. In a previous book, published in 2020, NOlympians: Inside the Fight Against Capitalist Mega-Sports in Los Angeles, Tokyo and Beyond, Boykoff examines the global rise of anti-Olympics activism. Focusing specifically on the upcoming 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, a group of Democratic Socialists of America have boasted a campaign ahead of the mega-event. Boykoff’s research is based on more than 100 interviews. Their personal experience and concerns surrounding the games is what pushes the fight of transformative politics of democratic socialism.
“Sports have a lot of power in society and with that power comes responsibility,” Boykoff concludes. “I think serious changes need to be made.”
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