Many Africans are denied access to sporting events, and athletes and performers are exposed to discrimination and racial abuse.

The Olympics kicked off in Paris last week under the slogan ‘Games Wide Open’, reflecting the desire ‘to allow everyone to enjoy the Olympic experience to the full, while driving significant social impact.’ It promises inclusivity and mass participation in a genuine celebration of sport.

However, the Games aren’t insulated from the wider sociopolitical context in which they are played. European visas have become increasingly difficult for Africans and Asians to obtain. Contestants and performers of African descent have had their nationalities and identities questioned, and France banned its athletes and officials from wearing hijabs.

In a European political landscape fraught with anti-immigrant and racist sentiment, where exclusive national identities and policies are gaining momentum, the Olympics are far from open to Africans and other non-Westerners.

Many African and Asian travellers have described the humiliating and costly visa application processes required to visit European countries. The European Union (EU) made an estimated €56 million in fees for rejected visa applications from African countries in 2023. Last month, fees increased by 12.5%.

In 2023, Africans received 704 000 negative responses for Schengen visa applications. The rejection rate for Africans applying for Schengen visas is 10% higher than the global average (Chart 1). Seven of the top 10 countries with the highest rejection rates (40%-47%) are African. Applicants from poorer countries experience higher rates of rejections. Some speculate that the EU is rejecting African visas in order to pressure African countries to take back forced returnees.

Chart 1: Schengen visa rejection rates, 2014-2023                         Chart 2: Olympic participation by men and women, 1900-2024

Sources: SchengenVisaInfo and International Olympic Committee

Malian-born French dual citizen Aya Nakamura sang last Friday at the Olympics opening ceremony. For months, rumours of her performance sparked an onslaught of online racism, calling her ‘vulgar’ and saying Paris wasn’t the Bamako market. Far-right politicians, including National Rally party leader Marine Le Pen, claimed Nakamura was not French enough and would ‘humiliate’ the country. Even her defenders called her inclusion ‘political’, despite her being France’s top-selling artist.

These Olympics are the first to achieve full gender parity (Chart 2). Gender parity on the field of play, however, doesn’t necessarily mean inclusive. This historic feat is soiled by the French government’s decision to ban all its representatives from wearing any religious headwear, despite widespread criticism from human rights organisations that it would deter Muslim girls and women from playing sports. France said it considered national athletes and representatives civil servants who were legally obliged to represent secularism and neutrality.

In recent decades, there has been an influx of athletes of African descent in European sports. Globalisation, professionalism, higher competition standards and higher salaries have caused African athletes to move to foreign countries and clubs.

In football, a 2021 KPMG report showed over 500 professional African players in first teams across 11 top-tier European leagues – 6% of the player base. This calculation was based on primary nationality only and excluded players of African origin who play for non-African national teams. Second- or third-generation Africans with European or dual citizenship likely comprise an even higher number.

Of the 24 nations that qualified for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, only three (South Africa, Egypt and Namibia) had no dual nationals on their squad. Thirty-one players had to miss the English Premier League games to represent their countries.

The top four teams in the recent 2024 European Football Championship (EURO 2024) – Netherlands, France, England and Spain – reflected a similar makeup. When Spain won the final against England, its opening goal came from star Nico Williams, assisted by teen sensation Lamine Yamal. Yamal was born in Barcelona to an Equatoguinean mother and a Moroccan father. Williams was born in Ghana and migrated with his family to Spain. His brother Iñaki represents Ghana.

Following England’s loss in the final, Bukayo Saka, born in London to Nigerian parents, was racially abused, with a barrage of comments and emojis on Instagram that were eventually deemed hate speech and removed.

After England lost to Italy in the EURO 2020 final, three of England’s players of African descent – Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and Saka – received extreme vitriol, including comments that they weren’t real Britons and should return to Africa. This abuse is a sobering reminder of the double-edged sword many African sports stars face: heroes when their representative countries win, but racially attacked when they lose.

Commentators highlighting this hypocrisy are often told to ‘keep politics out of the sport.’ Yet sport has frequently been a political enterprise. Whether a tool for activism, such as protesting against police brutality during the US national anthem, a symbol of nation building (1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa), or banning apartheid South Africa from the Olympics (1964-88).

When France won the 2018 FIFA World Cup final, South African comedian Trevor Noah quipped, ‘Africa won the World Cup,’ because 12 out of 23 French players were of African descent. His comment sparked a debate about whether these players were any less French, whether dual African-European identities were possible, and how nationalist hardliners used dual identities to create second-class citizens.

Nationalist hardliners are gaining popularity in France. The Union of the Far-Right secured the largest share of votes in the first round of the 2024 French elections on an openly xenophobic and racist platform. In January, France fast-tracked the 2024 Control Immigration and Improve Integration law, which makes it harder to obtain asylum and allows for deporting some asylum seekers before appeal.

In February, the EU approved the Pact on Migration and Asylum, which allows for detaining asylum seekers for up to six months, including unaccompanied minors. Ukrainian refugees are exempt from the pact’s restrictions, following a trend of focusing restrictions on migrants from Africa and the Middle East.

Sport is often celebrated as a great equaliser because power, wealth, politics, race or nationality can intersect in the same arena. However, it requires costly facilities, equipment, coaching and leisure time – and can also be used to systemically exclude or discriminate. For the Olympics to be truly ‘open’, the organisers and host countries must walk the talk.

Written by Xhanti Mhlambiso, Researcher, Rule of law, ISS; and Aimée-Noël Mbiyozo, Senior Research Consultant, Migration, ISS