What do you think about taking a knee at the Olympics?

People won’t like my answer, but I’m giving it anyway. By being in the Olympics you are representing your country. Save your distaste for how you think your country is handling things for a different platform, such as a peaceful March or rally.
The olympics is a place for the best of the best athletes to show their skills. If you are unhappy with your country or hate your country, don’t represent them. No one is making you perform.

The last couple of Olympics I have watched less and less – not because of protests or knees or anything like that.

Two reasons why I don’t watch as much:

1) Far too many commercials – advertising that goes on forever. I want to see sports not salesmanship.

2) Too many ‘features’ about what the athlete did when he or she was 15, or their hard life, or their families, or whatever. I just don’t care. Give me sporting events, not feature stories.

So I’ll start watching but I doubt I’ll stay on for long.

Free speech.
Even athletes have a right to express how they think.
If they want to act like a fool and take a knee at the podium then it’s OK with me.

I have absolutely no problem with that whatsoever.
People who are upset about that just hate to be reminded about their country’s failings.

UEFA is similarly shitty for banning rainbow armbands and banners, because they do not want to offend homophobe nations.

As for this idea that they should just shut up during public events: wrong.
That is like saying that workers should limit strike activities to weekends and holidays.
It is ludicrous.
Protests are meant to be disruptive and uncomfortable, otherwise they have no impact.
Globally visible events like these are absolutely the right venue to protest.

I’ll answer that question, if and when our society as a whole, stops tolerating police judicial murders of people of color. Good enough? As of the present, I wouldn’t blame them. It’s an intolerable situation, for a nation that can’t seem to go one day and not be harping on freedom freedom freedom. Maybe if we are embarrassed on an international platform, we will shit or get off the pot. Finally. Just my two cents.

The thing is – the athletes are going to protest anyway – regardless of the Olympic bylaws and the potential for punishment.

And if the IOC tries to punish them – take away a medal, not allow them to participate – the blowback against the IOC will be fast and embarrassing – far, far worse than the protest itself.

The IOC may feel better about having this ‘rule’ in place, but it’s going to come back and hit them in the face, and they’re going to lose big.

I’m not sure how I feel about it. But let’s turn it around – how would you feel if the Chinese athletes did something to protest the repression in Hong Kong? Would that be acceptable?

I think that card has been played enough. We get it! Now get back to honoring the flag and this country properly.

The reason why these protests are so effective is that people react so strongly to them. All they are doing is making a symbolic act by taking a knee. Suppose the public reaction was, yeah go ahead and do your thing. Then the protest would no longer be effective and the athletes would stop protesting for fear of looking foolish.

@kritiper which flag?

Not everyone is American, you know.

Are Brazilians allowed to protest against their autocratic incompetent dictator?
Are Ukranians allow to protest against Russian occupation?
Are Maoris allowed to protest against New Zealand?
And then there’s Venezuela with a horrible history of human rights.

Or are they all supposed to smile and just swallow their mistreatment because @kritiper says they should all support their authoritarian governments?

@kritiper
“We get it!”
Clearly not.

@kritiper That’s a bit like saying “The beatings won’t stop until moral improves.” Blacks are still being killed at a much higher rate than whites. Not to mention the other inequities.

The OP asked for my opinion and I gave it.

To each their own.

I’m of two minds, but I’ll side with the participants freedom of expression.

How can we support not participating in Beijing over politics, as a country, if we don’t recognize an individual’s right to peacefully protest?

What are we afraid of, that the world will know we have internal problems like every other country? Newsflash, they already do. Pick your battles.

@janbb You will not find Chinese athletes protesting ANYTHING that might embarrass the CCP. Such loss of face for the party would have repercussions for any responsible unimaginable to us in the West as well as their families.

I believe I am now indifferent to whether or not athletes protest at the games. I will admire their courage in risking their careers and the sacrifice of a lifetime of effort in making a point before the world. But the games themselves to me are no longer matter of ideals. They are circuses where the athletes themselves matter might just as well be exhibited in cages. It’s overpriced spectacle in keeping with modern entertainment. Just hype enriching a few at the expense of many.

@stanleybmanly Yes, I understand but I was making a point. Substitute any athletes protesting wrongs in their country that we acknowledge. Maybe South Africans during apartheid? We would probably cheer them on.

I side on Freedom of Expression.

Tommie Smith and John Carlos protested at the 1968 Olympics. They were and are heroes in my mind.

@janbb so are you asking should we cheer them on? I too believe they should do as they choose, but tolerance of it will certainly put an end to the whole glitterfest. EVERYONE has something to bitch about and most of the gripes are probably legitimate.

@stanleybmanly No, just questioning the issue and thinking about parallels. I actually wish that nationalism and the idea of countries competing in our ever diminishing world is a bad idea all together. I’d bee happier if the Olympics were recast, if they need to happen at all.

I’m kind of sick of virtue-signaling myself, but I’m not going to get outraged over it. But I have to admit I laughed at that picture of Gwen Berry pouting while the national anthem was being sung. Lol

First, I want to say when athletes were taking the knee in protest in America I immediately supported it. It was not disruptive, it was not violent, and it reached a broad audience.

When I heard this story about the Olympics I also wondered how I would feel if it was Chinese players, or any other country, similar to what @janbb and @elbanditoroso pointed out.

My dominating feeling is I always am bothered when politics gets in the way of the athletes playing. I think it is horrible when a country won’t participate in the games because of politics. It’s unfair to the athletes, and I feel like the Olympics is a moment when the world comes together and suspends conflict and differences for a moment.

I actually don’t think of the athletes as representing their country as much as I think of them as being the best in the world.

Now, athletes might bring politics into the games, and I think it’s better not to, but if someone does, I don’t support removing their medal.

I approve of peaceful protest. The flag, the anthem, these are symbols of the United States, which seeks to be defined by its adherence to justice and democracy.

In 1968 Vera Caslavaka, a Czech gymnast, silently protested the occupation of her country by the Soviets, on the podium.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/45900544

In 1980, Tommie Smith and John Carlos bowed their heads and raised black clad fists in protest (40 years! Has much changed??) but few remember Australian Peter Norman who was also on the podium, who wore a badge symbolizing an opposition to racism in sports.
https://www.cnn.com/2012/04/24/sport/olympics-norman-black-power/index.html

This stuff isn’t new. I feel that even if these athletes are stripped of awards, the message is more important.
@janbb mentioned Hong Kong, I am sympathetic to their protests, I am sympathetic to the protests of our own athletes.

@Desmosthenes. If it were a LGBTQ athlete do you think it would be amusing to you?
Sorry but as many of your questions inspire deep thought and soul-searching, this post seems very flippant and unlike you.

The games themselves are like the rest of life these days. Basically a tawdry business with lots of cheats and cheap illusion. The participants are routinely doped and exploited like race horses in the service of their respective countries rendering the athletics themselves a matter of which nation is slicker or can throw more money toward the effort.

@KNOWITALL She claimed that the anthem was being played just to spite her personally and I find that to be arrogant and paranoid given the evidence suggesting that is not the case at all. I am not going to go as far as the right-wingers who are saying she should be banned from the Olympics because I’m not going to pretend I care that much. But I do think that athletes should try to minimize the public display of shitty attitude. If an LGBTQ athlete had a similar bad attitude yes, I might also find it amusing. (Partly for selfish reasons because given the negative reaction to Gwen Berry, I don’t want someone doing something like that to be part of the public face of LGBTQ athletes and giving the LGBTQ community a bad rap).

@Desmosthenes Interesting thanks, that’s not the story I read and I’m from her home state.
I actually don’t know what to say when protesting inequality is just a ‘shitty attitude.’ 30 years ago you walking hand in hand with a guy could have gotten you killed or worse, so it’s difficult for me to process.
Seems a bit ungrateful to those who paid a very high price for your freedoms.

Berry said she was told the anthem would be played before her and other athletes took the podium, and she felt “it was very disrespectful” that the anthem was played once they took the stage facing the crowd.

I think that this version of the anthem should have been played:
https://youtu.be/J20CQfMl17c?t=31

@KNOWITALL I think we all draw the line in different places. I never considered Kaepernick taking a knee to be a “bad attitude” though I know many did. Not all methods of protest are the same. And I am of course not arguing that any of these athletes don’t have the right to do what they’re doing or should be banned from participating because of what they’re doing. I’m just saying I don’t care for it personally.

@Desmosthenes Okay, I can’t say I understand but thanks.

“All we are saying is that we can’t just ignore the fact that this is happening in Russia where these anti-gay laws are preventing the Olympic values being lived and enjoyed by millions of people.” 2014 Olympics

Tommie Smith and John Carlos “Black Power” was in 1968 @canidmajor. Unless you’re referring to another incident.

Right, @Dutchess_III, my bad. One of the other articles I had read was from 1980.
(I just get so confuzzled!!!)

The main point of the article I linked was to point out that Norman, by virtue of displaying a small patch, showed solidarity with Smith and Carlos and was vilified in his home country.

Hopefully the US (anyway) has grown up a little since then.

Not a chance in hell.