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© Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.Soccer players kneel to start ew era of Olympic activism
By ROB HARRIS TOKYO©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
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Alfie Noakes
No mention in the article that...
"The International Olympic Committee and Tokyo 2020 organisers have banned their social media teams from posting pictures of athletes taking the knee at these Olympic Games, the Guardian can reveal.
An insider said the message was delivered from on high on Tuesday evening Tokyo time, with a specific reference to Team GB’s women’s first football match against Chile, just hours before it kicked off in Sapporo on Wednesday."
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/jul/21/tokyo-2020-olympics-social-media-teams-banned-from-showing-athletes-taking-the-knee
So, competitors were given special permission to make a 10 second anti-discrimination gesture but the IOC are removing that gesture from social media.
One wonders if the IOC social media were full of pictures Bach and Coates' trips to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. No surely not, there's no way the IOC leaders would stoop to exploiting tawdry political gestures while gaslighting the athletes....
Droll Quarry
They don't seem to have a problem participating in an event that will cause hardship, suffering and death to the people of Tokyo and Japan. They should have taken the knee and said no when asked to come to Tokyo 2020. It is easy to support an abstract cause when it does not affect you directly, a bit harder when it dings your fame and fortune.
jiji Xx
@ DQ
agree wholeheartedly.... the difference between standing up for something (or kneeling down for something?) and jumping on the already-safe mainstream bandwagon.
not that what I (or you, or any of us) think makes a blind bit of difference of course, but.....
Dale Spenser
How about just playing your sport and find other avenues to make protests.
tooheysnew
I think you’re confusing the Olympic Games with the Spanish Inquisition
lostrune2
Why are people complaining? They're not doing it during national anthems
When they were doing it during the national anthem, people said it's disrespectful to the national anthem
Now that they're not doing it during the national anthems, what are people complaining about now?
So it's not about the national anthem at all? Is that it? The national anthem complaints were just a red herring?
Randy Johnson
Recently, we have seen racism in the Euro's. And again in FT racing. Racism in sports must be stopped.
Recently?!?! Racism in europe has been rampant since the beginning of time. Don't kid yourself.
Tokyoite
Get a grip!
Anyway, back in the real world. As a person of Tokyo and Japan, I'm glad they're here, and got off to a winning start.