The International Olympic Committee has announced that they are banning international torch relays of the Olympic flame. This follows the Beijing Olympic torch relay which faced massive protest wherever it went around the world, but most especially in London, Paris, Hong Kong, and San Francisco.

The 2008 relay’s London leg was hit by several incidents and criticism over China’s ‘torch police’ security staff.

Organisers of the 2012 London Olympics have already said they had no plans to take the torch outside Britain.

Instead of representing a symbol of hope and inspiration, the Olympic torch became a magnet for protesters in 2008 en route to Beijing, sparking sometimes violent protests over China’s human rights record.

IOC executive director Gilbert Felli said: “After the (2004) relay in Athens, which was the first international relay, we came to the conclusion it was easier for the torch to stay inside the (host) country.

“There were difficulties with the NOCs (National Olympic Committees), and we also saw the risk with a torch relay going around the world.

“Beijing had planned an international torch relay and we accepted it. We saw in the debrief that the risk was there and the IOC decided not to do it (again).

“I think when the torch relay is inside the host country there is more control.”

They are who we thought they were: anti-democratic cowards who only want an anesthetized view of their host countries, polished to the satisfaction of international sponsors and prime-time TV specials. The problem for the IOC isn’t that they partnered with a brutal Chinese government that used the Olympics to sanitize their ongoing military occupation of Tibet and repression of dissent; no – the IOC’s problem is that protests made the Olympics look bad. It is the protesters that are the problem. You see, the IOC continues to refuse to confront the underlying disease – partnership with bad governments – and instead is focused only on the protests, a symptom of the disease of doing bad business with bad governments.

Keeping a torch relay in the host country ensures that the IOC can partner with whichever government they want to in the future and rely on any internal capacities for stifling protest and dissent to keep the IOC’s nose clean.