[ad_1]
As anticipation grows for the 2021 Tokyo Summer Games, many expect those attending to engage in a new way of protesting after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) eases restrictions on demonstrations and political expression during the games.
The move comes as several athletes from various sports have shown contempt for America, most recently US Olympic hammer thrower Gwen Berry, who turned away from the US flag during the national anthem after qualifying. for the Tokyo Olympics at the Oregon Trials. . Berry, who took part in an interview with CNN, was asked if she would be competing at the Olympics in Japan and she replied, “We’ll see… It depends on how I feel. It depends on what I want to do at that time and what I want to do for my people at that time.
The relaxation of the rules does not allow athletes to protest or demonstrate on the awards platform, at the opening or closing ceremonies, in the Olympic Village and during competition. The new ruling, however, gives athletes the opportunity to protest before the start of the games, as long as it does not include “physical interference” from another athlete or cause harm to others. It also prevents protests from happening during another team’s national anthem.
The change in the IOC comes after asking 3,500 athletes to give their opinion on political expression during the competition. According to Washington Times, the “poll found that 70 percent of athletes were opposed to protests during these times, while 67 percent disapproved of podium protests.”
“The new guidelines are the result of our extensive consultation with the global athlete community,” IOC IOC President Kirsty Coventry said in a statement. “While the guidelines provide new opportunities for athletes to express themselves before competition, they preserve competition on the playing field, ceremonies, victory ceremonies and the Olympic Village.
“This was the wish of the vast majority of athletes in our global consultation,” added Coventry.
Chelsea Wolfe, a transgender athlete, freestyle BMX rider and replacement for the US Olympic team, is also expected to protest at the event, as he previously said his goal “is to win the Olympics so I can burn a flag. American on the podium. “
“My goal is to win the Olympics so I can burn an American flag on the podium,” Wolfe wrote on Facebook in March 2020, including a story detailing Trump’s stance on transgender women competing against biological women. “That’s what they focus on during a pandemic. Hurt trans children.
Wolfe dismissed the now deleted post as being misinterpreted as hatred of America, telling Fox News: “Anyone who thinks I don’t care about America is sorely mistaken. One of the reasons I work so hard to represent the United States in international competitions is to show the world that this country has morals and values, that these are not all the bad things that we are known for. .
Follow Kyle on Twitter @RealKyleMorris are Facebook.
[ad_2]
Source link