Sportswashing is the word du jour for the modern sports world. Editor, Kurt Johnston explains how Saudi Arabia has joined this recent trend in the first of a multi-part series analyzing Saudi Arabia’s sportswashing effort.

The Russian flag has been conspicuously absent from the last three Olympic Games after investigators banned the country due to a doping scheme sponsored by the Russian state. Despite the ban expiring last year, Russia will be missing from Paris 2024. This ban is independent of cheating scandals and is instead caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.