The order was issued just before the start of the UK-Chile match as part of the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament. Before the start of the whistle, the players of both teams knelt on the field, which was recorded by television cameras, and video reports from the event are also available on the Internet.
Later, other players followed in their footsteps, incl. From Sweden and the USA. However, it is pointless to search for this material in the official game profiles of social media – on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
Cheer up us at the Olympic Games in Tokyo! – check it out
The “Guardian” also cites the opinion of a person who started the activities of the International Olympic Committee, who stated that the organization’s behavior was unusual, and the Committee itself emphasized, among other things, the importance of the famous protest of Tommy Smith and John Carlos. At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico, these two black athletes raised their fists in reference to “black power” while collecting their medals on the podium.
The aforementioned photo-sharing ban also somewhat contradicts the recent relaxation of the so-called Rule 50 which prohibits athletes from expressing their political, religious and ethnic views during the Games. After the rules were “relaxed”, protests during the competition were allowed, although demonstrations while standing on the podium were still prohibited.
Thomas Bach himself, that is, the president of the International Olympic Committee, when asked about the gesture of kneeling before the Olympic Games, said that this is not a violation of established rules. A spokesman for the commission, when questioned by a British newspaper, did not give a direct answer to the matter, but noted that the live broadcast of the games of the kneeling athletes is being distributed to various broadcasters around the world and is available to a “huge television audience.”
October
