Olympic soccer players who kneeled during protests were initially excluded from official highlights reels and social media channels. On Thursday, the IOC said kneeling protests would be shown in the future.
On Wednesday, soccer players representing five female teams kneeled as they called for racial justice after decades of athlete protest being banned at the Olympic Games. The International Olympic Committee has finally allowed athletes to protest inside event venues. Olympic Charter Rule 50 had prohibited athletes from protesting inside venues for many years. In response, the IOC has worked hard to strike a balance between enforcing the rule whilst celebrating the iconic image of U.S. sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising fists on the Mexico City podium in the 1968 Olympics.
Before the opening game on Wednesday, players from the British and Chilean teams knelt, followed in the later kickoffs by players from the United States, Sweden, and New Zealand. Australian team members posed with Australia’s flag of indigenous people. The IOC did not include images from these events in the official Tokyo Olympics highlights package sent by the IOC to media, including The Associated Press, that did not have live access to the games.
The new guidelines permit kneeling or raising fists before games or before races, but not on podiums at medal ceremonies. The IOC will continue to discipline athletes who protest on the podium.
