As the Olympics open this weekend in Sochi, Russian politicians hope the Games will showcase all that country has to be proud of. But for this Olympics, pride also has another meaning - in relation to the worldwide discussion of Russia's laws stripping away gay rights.
Last week the president of the International Olympic Committee accused world leaders of using the Olympics as a political platform on the backs of athletes.
The Olympics, both IOC and Russian officials insist, is no place for politics.
History would tell us otherwise.
The Olympics has always been about more than sport. It's also about national pride, about money and a soft-focus internationalism. Politics has always been part of the equation.
Three Olympics have been cancelled for world wars. In 1936, Hitler tried to use the games to promote Nazi values. The 1980 Moscow Olympics was widely boycotted over the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.
What we're prepared to turn a blind eye to - and what we aren't - varies. Discrimination based on sexual orientation is probably easier to ignore, for instance, than that based on race or religion. Ditto on aggressive acts of war.
Getting the Olympics has always been a huge achievement. Increasingly, the world community is asking that standards of how countries treat their own citizens be part of that equation.
Pointing that out shouldn't be left to athletes. It's time the International Olympic Committee itself upped its game in applying these standards when it comes time to choose host countries and a ticket to the golden rings.
