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Jonathan White

Just five months ago, when Tokyo was still hoping that their Olympics were going to take place in 2020 and not 2021, the IOC doubled down on its commitment to eradicating politics from sport.
Cynics might suggest it actually reaffirmed its stance on keeping politics away from its commercial partners.
Things change. As we have seen in the past two or so weeks, where even Olympic partners like Adidas have got involved in the Black Lives Matter protests that have spread across first the US and then the world, including host city Tokyo.
Perhaps this change in temperature has led the IOC to offer what appears to be the first glimpse of compromise when it comes to athlete activism and its Rule 50.

#onthisday sprinters Tommie Smith and @DrJohnCarlos protested the racial oppression of Black Americans at the 1968 @Olympics. pic.twitter.com/Q9IORebh71
— Olympic Channel (@olympicchannel) October 16, 2017

The rule is in place to ensure neutrality, it says, but does allow for athletes to express their opinions in post-Games interviews and on social media.
It also prevents raising fists, taking a knee and political messages in both competition and on the podium.

He won a gold medal in 1960. He lit the cauldron in 1996. He carried the flag in 2012. Thank you Muhammad Ali. pic.twitter.com/TchnDIijSH
— Rio 2016 (@Rio2016) June 4, 2016

Still, IOC chair Thomas Bach has suggested that change to this could be afoot – as long as it takes place in a “dignified” way.
The question is how will the IOC wake up to being woke?
Will it have a preapproved list of causes that are OK, the ones that “represent the Olympic spirit”? Is Bach suggesting a compromise?
IOC to discuss easing protest ban at Olympics; considers downsizing Games
Compromise saw the introduction of designated protest zones for the 2000 Games in Sydney. Beijing in 2008 took it to its Kafkaesque conclusion.
That Games saw protest zones placed some 12 kilometres from the Olympic Park behind a litany of rules and bureaucracy.
This needed preapproval from Beijing’s Public Security Bureau, which demanded protesters submitted slogans, purpose of the protest, what would be shouted and what any banners would say, estimates for the number of protesters and the length of any protest. Foreigners needed to do all this in Mandarin.

"We condemn racism SO STRONGLY that we will BAN athletes from showing solidarity for an anti-racist movement." - @Olympics
https://t.co/2N1H3A1XAX
— Gabriela DeBues-Stafford (@gstafford13) June 10, 2020

Needless to say they went largely unused.
The irony is that the Olympics has a history of protest and the most iconic images of the Games are often ones of political protest.
History has been kinder than the media and public opinion were to Tommie Smith and John Carlos for their “Black Power” salutes at Mexico ’68.
Athlete protest ban at odds with Olympic history
The image of Jesse Owens atop the podium at the 1936 Games has been politicised after the fact. While Owens did not protest per se, his very presence is the protest at a Games in Nazi Germany.
Then there is Muhammad Ali.
The boxer won Olympic gold as light heavyweight in 1960 under the name Cassius Clay but famously said he threw his medal into the Ohio River over racial segregation in the US.

Olympic Channel refers to John Carlos and Tommie Smith podium protest as "fashion moments". "They made history & became legends" "bring major issues to the center of the Games" "they wanted to make a statement and they did" Why the sudden change @Olympics? https://t.co/BeNSMNfyKD
— Global Athlete (@GlobalAthleteHQ) January 10, 2020

Vilified at the time, Ali became a global icon, lionised for his protests against the Vietnam war. The Olympics know this – that is why Ali lit the torch at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta.
It is also why the Olympics themselves do not shy away from using the photo of the Mexico 200m podium, where the raised fists of Smith and Carlos stand proud, and still resonate.
That is why it was so rich when the IOC, ahead of the Tokyo Games, put its foot down to stamp out political protests and why this new line towards protest appears to be little more than lip service.

.@olympics needs to start being part of the solution. Racism and inequality doesn’t take a two week break for the the Olympics and athletes from around the world desperately need this platform to bring visibility and a voice to the issues we face as a society. https://t.co/YVyq8bufYW
— Kevin Sullivan (@ksully330) June 10, 2020

That was the criticism of the NFL last week. Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league should have listened to its players but at no point did it deal with its treatment of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
He, along with Eric Reid, led protests against police brutality by kneeling during the US national anthem in 2016. Kaepernick has not played in the NFL since; Reid has, but both agreed a financial settlement with the NFL last year.
This was a chance for the NFL to own what it did wrong. Instead, it is a halfway house, ready to slip back into its bad habits.
Trump takes issue with NFL over anthem kneeling
Many NBA players supported Kaepernick since the QB first took a knee before the game and more NBA athletes than the record 46 in Rio four years ago were expected in Tokyo this summer, depending on who qualified.
Whoever goes they are likely to be outspoken, as they should be.
Sport is arguably the most egalitarian element of society. All are equal under the rules, the finish line or the score determining the winner.

An honor to have Tommie Smith, iconic track and field star who took an unforgettable stand at the 1968 Olympics, celebrating #BlackHistoryMonth with us tonight on #WarriorsGround. pic.twitter.com/0aXWexfl09
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) February 7, 2019

Why not let the victorious athletes champion their causes?
It is what young people want, after all. We have seen that by the number taking to the streets of the world to demand change from their leaders.
Young people are what the IOC wants, too, as we have seen with the new sports added to the Games.
More than skateboarding, surfing and rock climbing, let the world watch its greatest athletes compete for the podium and then use it as a platform for change.


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Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

Tokyo 2020: Olympics needs to stand up for athletes to take a knee

Megan Rapinoe kneels during the US National Anthem prior to the match between the 2016 United States and the Netherlands Atlanta, Georgia. Photo: AFP

Tokyo 2020: Olympic protests are part of Games history despite IOC ban

Peter Norman, Tommie Smith and John Carlos protest on the podium in Mexico City in 1968. Photo: AP

TOPSHOT - Ethiopia's Feyisa Lilesa (silver) crosses the finish line of the Men's Marathon athletics event during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Sambodromo in Rio de Janeiro on August 21, 2016. Lilesa crossed his arms above his head as he finished the race as a protest against the Ethiopian government's crackdown on political dissent. / AFP PHOTO / Adrian DENNIS

Berlin-based Chinese dissident artist Ai WeiWei gestures as he speaks to AFP reporters in Berlin on August 15, 2019. - The Chinese artist Ai Weiwei sees no other way out of the Hong Kong crisis than a violent and massive repression of demonstrations by Beijing, according to the influential dissident in exile in an AFP interview. (Photo by John MACDOUGALL / AFP)

Greco-Roman wrestler Ara Abrahamian of Sweden places his bronze medal at the center of the competition mat in protest of the result in the men's Greco-Roman 84kg wrestling category during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on August 14, 2008. The Swede, who won the silver in the Athens Olympics, grudgingly climbed the podium but stormed off in a huff after receiving his prize, which he left on mat before stalking off the stage. AFP PHOTO / Peter PARKS

FILE - In this Monday, Nov. 5, 1984 file photo, President Ronald Reagan points toward the crowd as he speaks during a rally at Pierce College in the Woodland Hills area of Los Angeles. AP Photographer Nick Ut will be retiring from the AP in March 2017 after 51 years of taking photographs from the front lines of the Vietnam War to the red carpets of Hollywood. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

Tokyo 2020: IOC to discuss easing protest ban at Olympics; considers downsizing Games

Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, has said that the Tokyo 2020 games could be scaled back. Photo: Reuters

epaselect epa08477049 Tokyo 2020 organizing committee President Yoshiro Mori arrives at a press conference in Tokyo, Japan, 10 June 2020. Mori and Tokyo 2020 President Yoshiro Mori and CEO Toshiro Muto gave a press conference after attending an online IOC executive board meeting to discuss about the postponement of the Tokyo Olympic Games and possible ways to reduce costs. EPA-EFE/FRANCK ROBICHON / POOL

Tokyo 2020: athletes and officials react to ‘right decision’ to postpone Olympic Games

A countdown display for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics is photographed in Tokyo on Tuesday. Photo: AP

Sport

Other Sport


IOC have suggested they will look at ‘dignified’ protests at the rescheduled Tokyo Games but need to do more
Rule 50 bans athletes from raising a fist, kneeling and political messages in events or on podium



IOC have suggested they will look at ‘dignified’ protests at the rescheduled Tokyo Games but need to do more.


Muhammad Ali

Rio 2016 Olympic Games

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Column

Faster, Higher, Stronger

Faster, Higher, Stronger | Tokyo 2020: Olympics needs to stand up for athletes to take a knee

IOC have suggested they will look at ‘dignified’ protests at the rescheduled Tokyo Games but need to do more Rule 50 bans athletes from raising a fist, kneeling and political messages in events or on podium

IOC have suggested they will look at ‘dignified’ protests at the rescheduled Tokyo Games but need to do more

Rule 50 bans athletes from raising a fist, kneeling and political messages in events or on podium