The Olympic Truce may be doomed

By Richard Galant, CNN

Updated 1423 GMT (2223 HKT) February 6, 2022

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(CNN)On January 28, UN Secretary-General António Guterres asked nations around the world to lay down their weapons and observe an Olympic Truce from seven days before the Beijing Games until seven days after the end of the Paralympic Games. «Through the power of sports and the Olympic ideal, let us build a culture of peace,» he said.

The Olympic truce dates back almost 3,000 years to the early days of the ancient games when the leaders of three Greek city-states agreed to limit their battles. In modern times, the truce has been invoked as a universal goal by the UN regularly since 1993. But the treaty originally didn't actually aim to stop all wars, only to safeguard the athletes as they traveled to and competed at Olympia, David C. Young pointed out in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. As the Winter Olympics proceed in China this year, Guterres' worthy aspiration is being tested — we'll find out whether this year's truce may prove as limited as the earliest ones were. Worth noting: On the day of the opening ceremony the last time the Games were held in Beijing, in 2008, Russia invaded Georgia. This year's games began while a huge force of Russian troops remained perched on the Ukraine border and with US President Joe Biden sending troops to Eastern Europe. Read MoreChina's Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin met Friday before the opening ceremony in a show of harmony between the US rivals, agreeing, in general,