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Cathal Dennehy: Why has athletics run away from the Israel question?

At the recent World Athletics Championships, I thought this would be a hot topic. I thought wrong.

Sat, 04 Oct, 2025 - 06:46

How much slaughter is too much slaughter? How many victims are too many victims? How long can one nation go on killing children, aid workers, journalists, blowing up schools and hospitals, before the world of sport says enough and decides to make a stand?

If these feel like inappropriate questions for this section of the newspaper, well, so be it. Guilty as charged for not sticking to sports. This may be the toy department of journalism, where we come to forget the horrors unfolding elsewhere and debate more trivial matters like VAR decisions and split seasons and loutish Ryder Cup fans, but the question should still be asked: How much longer can sport claim it is apolitical when it so clearly demonstrated – in its stance against apartheid-era South Africa and the Russian invasion of Ukraine – that it can bare its teeth and take action against certain crimes against humanity?

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