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SPORTS Tuesday 21 January 2020
Protests or not, politics and Olympics are intertwined

By EDDIE PELLS among them — it does
AP National Writer not condone them on the
More than a half-century field of play or the medals
later, Tommie Smith and stand. It made all the more
John Carlos are cemented striking the picture the IOC
into Olympic lore — their tweeted out last Monday:
names enshrined in the Bach posing on a moun-
Olympic Hall of Fame in the tain with athletes in uniform
United States, their portrait from the United States and
an indelible fixture on the Iran at the Youth Olympic
universal sports landscape. Games — a political state-
As for that raised-fist salute ment during a time of strife
that transformed them into that is designed to forward
Olympic icons, while also the long-held IOC-driven
symbolizing the power ath- credo that the Olympics
letes possess for the short promote peace.
time they're on their big- Peace itself is dependent
gest stage — it's still forbid- on politics, and the people
den. who run the Olympics are
Such was the warning this well connected to that
month in the announce- In this July 7, 2019 file photo, United States' Megan Rapinoe celebrates after scoring the opening world.
ment by the IOC, whose goal from the penalty spot during the Women's World Cup final soccer match between US and The No fewer than nine mem-
athletes' commission Netherlands at the Stade de Lyon in Decines, outside Lyon, France. bers of IOC itself are princ-
banned kneeling and hand Associated Press es, princesses, dukes or
gestures during medals cer- sheiks — and that list doesn't
emonies and competiton. touch, retrograde attempt phasize the power dispar- —IOC President Avery include the multitude of
It's all part of an attempt to to stifle an increasingly out- ity between the athletes, Brundage's ham-handed government officials in-
tamp down political dem- spoken generation of ath- who are the show, and handling of South Africa's volved in organizations that
onstrations at this summer's letes. the agencies who run this status in the Olympics dur- branch out of the IOC. For
Tokyo Games. The mushrooming of live TV, multibillion-dollar enterprise ing apartheid. instance, half the World An-
"The eyes of the world will to say nothing of the out- and, for all intents and pur- —The 1972 massacre of ti-Doping Agency's board
be on the athletes and the lets now available on social poses, control the invitation Israeli athletes during the comes from governments
Olympic Games," IOC Pres- media, has empowered list. Munich Games. across the globe.
ident Thomas Bach said, in athletes — the best ex- Among the other questions —The U.S. boycott of the Bach has singled out politi-
delivering an impassioned amples from recent years not answered in the guid- 1980 Moscow Olympics, fol- cal concerns as a major di-
defense of the rules. would be Colin Kaepernick ance document: lowed by the Soviet Union's vider in the Russian doping
IOC athlete's rep Kirsty Cov- and Megan Rapinoe, but Who, exactly, will adjudi- boycott of the 1984 Los An- scandal that has embroiled
entry portrayed the guid- there are dozens more — cate the individual cases geles Games. the Olympics the past five
ance as a way to provide to use sports to send a mes- and how will cases be ad- —The IOC's awarding of years — implying it's as
some clarity on an issue sage. judicated? the 2008 Olympics to Bei- much an East vs. West issue
that has confounded both Rapinoe's reaction to the Who, exactly, will have ul- jing, in part compelled by as one based on decisions
athletes and authorities for IOC announcement: "We timate responsibility for im- promises to shine a light on that stem from painstaking-
decades. will not be silenced." As plementing sanctions? the country's attempt to im- ly accumulated evidence.
The issue, always bub- much as her play, Rapinoe's While those questions went prove human rights. The latest move comes in
bling, surfaced last year outspoken fight for equal unanswered, the docu- More recently, Bach has the run-up to what figures to
when two U.S. athletes pay for the U.S. women's ment did include the re- found the committee a be a divisive election year
— Gwen Berry and Race soccer team underscored minder that "it is a funda- permanent place at the in the United States, the
Imboden — used medal the American victory in the mental principle that sport United Nations, used the country that sends the larg-
ceremonies to make politi- World Cup last year and is neutral and must be Pyeongchang Games in est contingent to the Olym-
cal statements at the Pan made her, in the minds of separate from political, re- South Korea to strive for bet- pics, wins the most medals
American Games. Those many, the most influential ligious or any other type of ter relations between the and often lands some of
gestures brought a strong athlete of 2019. interference." Koreas and spent ample the most outspoken ath-
rebuke from the U.S. Olym- "So much for being done That concept, however, time negotiating deals with letes on the podium. Smith
pic and Paralympic com- about the protests," Rapi- runs counter to long thread leaders who have been and Carlos were booted
mittees, but the groups noe wrote on Instagram of Olympics-as-politics stor- kind enough to spend bil- from Mexico City after their
still appear confused and last weekend. "So little be- ylines that have dominated lions to stage the Olympics. protest. If history — to say
conflicted about the entire ing done about what we the movement since it was Though the IOC would nothing of Rapinoe's reac-
matter. (The USOPC didn't are protesting about." founded in 1896. argue that there are still tion — is any guide, the
welcome Smith and Carlos The athletes' commis- A truncated list includes: places to make political IOC could be placed in the
to an officially sanctioned sion said disciplinary ac- —Hitler's hosting of the 1936 statements in the Olym- position to decide whether
event until 2016. ) tion would be taken "on a Games (winter and sum- pic space — news confer- to make that same sort of
The IOC got its atheltes' case-by-case basis as nec- mer) in Nazi Germany. ences and social media statement again.q
commission, which has of- essary" and listed the IOC,
ten contradicted key ath- the sports federations and
lete movements in other the athletes' national gov-
Olympic areas, to get out erning bodies as those who
front on the issue and offer will have authority to make
its advice. It was essentially the call. It made no men-
no different from what the tion of what the sanctions
IOC itself has been touting could be. In that respect,
for years. Not surprisingly, it added confusion, and
some view it as an out-of- might have served to em-