Olympics committee decides to allow athletes to exercise their rights to protest

East Dockery

Dec 11, 2020, 5:00PM

The US Olympic and Paralympic made the decision to allow athletes to participate in peaceful protests. The statement was released on December 10th, 2020.

Only forms of action such as raising of fists and kneeling are acceptable. This decision was a result of the unification of athletes who were adamite about using their platform the create change.

“The podium belongs to the three athletes who make it to that spot,” said Moushaumi Robinson, a gold medalist in track and field who leads the Team U.S.A. Council on Racial and Social Justice.

“Once the clock is at double zero, once the race finishes, the three individuals or three teams, they own that time, and it is their time to express or not express, to do or not do, to stand or not stand, in that moment that they’ve earned.”

The decision however is clearly only mildly supported. Even though athletes have been given this permission, they are also warned to be cautious with their protests and to not push any boundaries.

“I support the right of athletes to be a part of the world we live in, and I don’t think we can have it both ways,” Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics. “As long as they do it respectfully, with due deference that there will be other athletes on that podium with them, I am not going to get sleepless nights on this.”

Regardless, this is still a big step for the Olympics and the athletes given the Olympics’ history of protests.

In the 1968 Summer Olympics, American sprinters John Carlos and Tommie Smith raised their fists on the medals podium during the playing of the U.S. national anthem. They did this in solidarity with the justice for African Americans. This event then produced Rule 50, which prohibited athletes from displaying any form of protests.

To see how events that have taken place over the course of time were able to reverse this notion, it brings honor to athletes such as Smith and Carlos. That is why athletes such as Robinson are continuing to fight.