tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/john-carlos-29741/articlesJohn Carlos – The Conversation2021-07-04T11:28:25Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1329542021-07-04T11:28:25Z2021-07-04T11:28:25ZThe Olympics are ‘on the wrong side of history’ when it comes to free speech<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408720/original/file-20210628-17-1rkvj8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=32%2C16%2C5335%2C3629&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A statue in honour of U.S. Olympians Tommie Smith, left, and John Carlos is seen on the campus of San Jose State University in San Jose, Calif. The pair of sprinters were expelled from the Olympics in 1968 after they raised their fists on the medals stand to protest racial inequality in the United States.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Tony Avelar) </span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 250px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/the-olympics-are--on-the-wrong-side-of-history--when-it-comes-to-free-speech" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>An important debate is brewing about free speech at the Olympics. After years of the International Olympic Committee restricting the free expression of athletes at the Games, some prominent athletes are calling for the unlimited right to speak freely — including the right to protest. </p>
<p>The advocates include Canadian decathlete Damien Warner, an Olympic bronze medallist in 2016, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/summer/trackandfield/damian-warner-interview-olympics-protest-1.5609694">who has said</a>: “If there’s something on their mind, then athletes should be allowed to speak.” The IOC, he said, is “on the wrong side of history.” The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Olympic Advisory Committee <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1101840/usopc-protest-position-council-rule-50">takes a similar view</a>. </p>
<p>In response, the IOC has <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1109443/athletes-demonstrate-allowed-tokyo-2020">relaxed its Rule 50</a> on “advertising, demonstrations and propaganda” to allow free speech in interviews and meetings, but has stood firm on the prohibitions against “political” statements on the field of play and during ceremonies. The committee threatens to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/michellebruton/2021/04/21/ioc-athletes-will-be-punished-for-protests-such-as-raising-a-fist-or-taking-a-knee-at-olympics/?sh=3fca80f82ce5">punish any athlete who disobeys</a>. </p>
<h2>Understanding Rule 50</h2>
<p>The IOC Athletes’ Commission <a href="https://olympics.com/athlete365/what-we-do/voice/athlete-expression-rule-50/">supports Rule 50</a>, saying it believes “the focus at the Olympic Games must remain on athletes’ performances, sport and the international unity and harmony that the Olympic Movement seeks to advance.”</p>
<p>But another of the recommendations from the Athletes’ Commission, following a survey and consultation process, was to “increase opportunities for athletes’ expression during the Games.”</p>
<p>“The feedback was that they didn’t want it to interfere with the competition itself, so ensuring that the competition itself was protected,” <a href="https://www.sportsnet.ca/olympics/article/survey-canadian-olympic-athletes-podium-protests">explained Rosie MacLennan</a>, a double gold medallist in the trampoline and chair of Canadian Olympic Committee Athletes Commission.</p>
<p>In worldwide polling, Rule 50 has won the support of the majority of athletes for this position. The Canadian Olympic Committee Athletes Commission has reported that 80 per cent of surveyed athletes supported the rule.</p>
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<img alt="Trampoline athlete Rosie MacLennan grips her thighs during a jump in her routine" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408722/original/file-20210628-15-ond1ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408722/original/file-20210628-15-ond1ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408722/original/file-20210628-15-ond1ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408722/original/file-20210628-15-ond1ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408722/original/file-20210628-15-ond1ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408722/original/file-20210628-15-ond1ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408722/original/file-20210628-15-ond1ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Two-time Olympic trampoline champion Rosie MacLennan, chair of the Canadian Olympic Committee’s Athletes Commission, says most athletes are against podium protests.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz</span></span>
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<h2>Growing athlete activism</h2>
<p>The push for free speech is an artefact of growing athlete activism in recent years in response to racism in European soccer, the unrelenting police violence against Black people and other minorities in countries like the United States and Chinese human rights violations in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong.</p>
<p>At the 2019 Pan American Games in Peru, two American athletes, fencer Race Imboden and hammer thrower Gwen Berry, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/08/11/who-is-race-imboden-fencing-medalist-who-protested-over-trump-gun-control/">conducted silent protests against</a> “racism, gun control, mistreatment of immigrants, and a president who spreads hate” back home.</p>
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<p>For many years, Rule 50 completely prohibited critical athletes’ statements or demonstrations at games — and sporting bodies compelled their athletes to comply and athletes went along with it.</p>
<p>The style was epitomized by basketball superstar Michael Jordan, who famously <a href="https://theundefeated.com/features/we-finally-have-answers-about-michael-jordan-and-republicans-buy-sneakers-too/">avoided political statements</a> “because Republicans buy shoes too.”</p>
<p>When the Canadian skier Laurie Graham likened herself to a cruise missile flying down the hill to a World Cup victory, I asked her not to use a metaphor of death and destruction for a peaceful activity like sport. She quickly agreed, which thrilled me. But then she said that she didn’t want to get in trouble with her sponsors, who told her to avoid controversy. </p>
<h2>The need to speak out</h2>
<p>As a competitor in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics who wrote a widely syndicated student newspaper column from the Olympic Village, I fully support the right to free speech. I have always believed that athletes should take responsibility for the circumstances and sports in which they are involved and they cannot do that without the right to speak out. </p>
<p>Athletes should be able to wear personal signifiers, such as Indigenous sashes or rainbow fingernail polish, both of which have been allowed or banned from competitions and ceremonies at different times.</p>
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<img alt="Athlete with raised arm waving at crowd." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408724/original/file-20210628-21-pvs33s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408724/original/file-20210628-21-pvs33s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408724/original/file-20210628-21-pvs33s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408724/original/file-20210628-21-pvs33s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408724/original/file-20210628-21-pvs33s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408724/original/file-20210628-21-pvs33s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408724/original/file-20210628-21-pvs33s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">U.S. athlete Gwen Berry waves as she is introduced at the women’s hammer throw final during the 2019 Pan American Games. She and fencer Race Imboden were reprimanded by U.S Olympic and Paralympic Committee CEO Sarah Hirshland for violating Rule 50, which prohibits inside-the-lines protests at the games, after Berry raised her fist and Imboden kneeled on the medals stand at the Peru Pan-Am Games.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)</span></span>
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<p>Free speech is an internationally established human right. It’s not something that should be conferred or denied by a vote. The majority should never be able to silence the minority.</p>
<p>I still subscribe to <a href="https://www.econlib.org/library/Mill/mlLbty.html">John Stuart Mills’ admonition</a> that “if all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”</p>
<p>The intercultural education cherished by the <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/olympic-movement#:%7E:text=The%20Olympic%20Movement%20is%20the,by%20the%20values%20of%20Olympism.&text=It%20also%20includes%20other%20organisations%20and%20institutions%20as%20recognised%20by%20the%20IOC.">Olympic Movement</a> would be enhanced by completely free speech. We can’t be hectoring others about what we believe, but we do need to be honest about who we are.</p>
<p>I’ve spoken in China about athletes’ rights. While few agreed with me, no one was shocked. They listened. So did I. The IOC should embrace and support such interactions and tell authoritarian hosts that this is what the Olympics are about.</p>
<h2>What will the punishment be?</h2>
<p>If some athletes still decide to protest in Tokyo or at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and are punished, that punishment will become the issue. I would be horrified by a repeat of 1968, when the IOC expelled U.S. sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos from the Mexico Olympics for protesting against poverty and racism from the victory podium — in effect banning them for upholding the Olympic aspirations. </p>
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<img alt="Two athletes with fists raised in protest standing on Olympic podium." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408723/original/file-20210628-23-1j7qyld.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408723/original/file-20210628-23-1j7qyld.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408723/original/file-20210628-23-1j7qyld.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408723/original/file-20210628-23-1j7qyld.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408723/original/file-20210628-23-1j7qyld.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1084&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408723/original/file-20210628-23-1j7qyld.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1084&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408723/original/file-20210628-23-1j7qyld.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1084&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">In this 1968 photo, U.S. athletes Tommie Smith, centre, and John Carlos extend gloved hands skyward in racial protest during the playing of national anthem after Smith received the gold and Carlos the bronze for the 200 metre event at the Olympic Games in Mexico City. Australian silver medallist Peter Norman is at left.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo)</span></span>
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<p>With all the challenges facing Tokyo and Beijing, it’s unlikely that Rule 50 will be reconsidered before both Games take place. But the issue won’t go away, and I would like to think the final restrictions will be abolished by the Paris Olympics in 2024.</p>
<p>In the meantime, athletes like MacLennan, who regularly consults Canadian athletes, should take advantage of the opening provided by the IOC consultation to push for ongoing athlete engagement and athlete-centered reforms on an international basis — including much more significant athlete voice and vote on decision-making bodies.</p>
<p>Once in-person meetings resume, athletes should revive the former practice of open meetings in the Olympic Village where they can introduce and discuss the issues most on their minds — including the geo-political issues that buffet the Games.</p>
<p>If there was genuine opportunity for athletes to become involved in sport governance and public policy, there would be far less reason for them to demonstrate. </p>
<p>Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games, always saw the Olympics as a pedagogical project and athletes as the self-actualizing subjects of their activity and learning. If athletes are to learn, they need to learn to deal with political and intercultural issues and when and how to speak out.</p>
<p>The IOC should embrace free speech as a contribution to its highest goals.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132954/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I am an honorary member of the Canadian Olympic Committee.</span></em></p>The International Olympic Committee’s Rule 50 still restricts the freedom of speech of athletes, despite the recently relaxed stipulations. A respected Olympian says the IOC must change its policy.Bruce Kidd, Professor Emeritus of Kinesiology and Physical Education, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1493442021-01-27T13:40:52Z2021-01-27T13:40:52ZHow to protest China’s human rights violations without boycotting the 2022 Olympics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380102/original/file-20210122-23-10sxn05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5859%2C3918&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Olympic flags fly over a section of Great Wall of China to mark the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>With one year to go before the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, there <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2020/10/a-boycott-of-the-2022-beijing-olympics-would-work/">has been talk</a> <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2020-11-12/human-rights-groups-weigh-boycott-2022-winter-olympics-beijing">of boycotting the Games</a> to protest China’s <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/features/uighurs/">persecution of its Uyghur population</a> — and for the continued <a href="https://ipolitics.ca/2020/10/08/boycotting-the-2022-winter-games-should-be-one-way-canada-sticks-it-to-china/">detention of two Canadians</a>. </p>
<p>The act of boycotting the Olympics is not as simple as it appears.</p>
<p>Governments don’t send athletes to the Olympics. National Olympic Committees send athletes — and they are <a href="https://www.playthegame.org/knowledge-bank/downloads/autonomy-in-national-olympic-committees-2017-/e3cb0290-dadf-4ed0-940b-a78b00b46398">supposed to operate independently</a> from their country’s government.</p>
<p>In Canada, the <a href="https://olympic.ca/">Canadian Olympic Committee</a> is a not-for-profit corporation. If the government of Canada wanted to boycott the Beijing Olympics, it would have to persuade the Canadian Olympic Committee not to send athletes.</p>
<h2>Pulling funding for athletes</h2>
<p>The government could try moral suasion or it could simply pull funding to coerce the Canadian Olympic Committee to go along. But pulling funding from Olympic athletes, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20160804-many-olympians-struggle-just-to-make-ends-meet">who are already arguably underfunded</a>, may not be a popular decision.</p>
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<p>If the government did get involved, the Canadian Olympic Committee and Canadian athletes could face sanctions from the International Olympic Committee. The IOC has <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/ioc-bans-india-from-olympics-1.1272480">banned India’s National Olympic Committee from the Olympics over political interference</a>. And <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1103458/italian-olympic-committee-tokyo-2020">Italy’s National Olympic Committee recently raised concerns about sanctions</a> in response to a new law reducing its power in Italian sport.</p>
<h2>Boycotts are historically ineffective</h2>
<p>Even if the Canadian Olympic Committee went along with a boycott, it is unlikely to be effective.</p>
<p>The two most significant boycotts of the Olympic Games — the American-led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games and the Soviet-bloc boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Games — failed to achieve their goals.</p>
<p>The 1980 boycott was in response to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan, but the Soviets remained in Afghanistan until 1989. The 1984 Soviet-led boycott was a response to the 1980 boycott. The 1984 Games, the first to turn a massive profit, saw <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1984/08/14/boycott-i-dont-think-it-devalues-the-gold-medals/a14b2026-ea97-4d57-9699-fec011384281/">American athletes winning a record number of medals</a> because of the absence of Soviet and other Communist bloc athletes.</p>
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<img alt="The Olympic flame is flanked by scoreboards signifying the formal opening of the the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380107/original/file-20210122-23-1p1odgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380107/original/file-20210122-23-1p1odgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380107/original/file-20210122-23-1p1odgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380107/original/file-20210122-23-1p1odgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380107/original/file-20210122-23-1p1odgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380107/original/file-20210122-23-1p1odgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380107/original/file-20210122-23-1p1odgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Athletes from the Soviet Union and other Communist bloc nations boycotted the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles in retaliation to an American-led boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Eric Risberg)</span></span>
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<p>A boycott of Beijing 2022 could look at lot like the 1984 boycott.</p>
<h2>Boycott could help Chinese athletes</h2>
<p>China wants to <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-china-wants-to-become-a-winter-sports-superpower-a-sports-complex-in/">become a winter sports power</a>. If the Games were boycotted by Canada and other countries that are traditionally strong winter sports performers, it would open the way for more Chinese athletes to win medals. </p>
<p>More medals won by Chinese athletes would benefit the government of China, rather than punish it for its actions against the Uyghur population or the two imprisoned Canadians.</p>
<p>The focus of the debate over human rights and the Olympics needs to be on the International Olympic Committee. The IOC, which holds the rights to the Games, could put pressure on China. But that’s unlikely.</p>
<p>First, there is no provision in the <a href="https://stillmed.olympic.org/Documents/Host_city_elections/Host-City-Contract-XXIV-Olympic-Winter-Games-in-2022--Beijing-Execution-no-signature.pdf">Host City Contract</a> between the International Olympic Committee and the city of Beijing that would enable the IOC to remove the Games based on human rights issues.</p>
<p>Additionally, the IOC would not want to find a new, last-minute host for the 2022 Winter Games after already delaying the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo by a year due to COVID-19. The IOC is committed to the Games going ahead as planned, seen in the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/tokyo-olympics-refute-cancellation-report-1.5883305">refuting of a recent report</a> suggesting that the Tokyo Games will be cancelled.</p>
<p>Although one might look to the International Ice Hockey Federation’s recent removal of the 2021 World Championships from Belarus as an example for the IOC to follow, it’s a slightly different situation. Formally, the federation pulled hosting rights <a href="https://www.iihf.com/en/events/2021/wm/news/24134/iihf_to_move_2021_world_championship">to protect the safety of players and officials</a>. Informally, it pulled hosting rights because a <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/skoda-belarus-ice-hockey/31049014.html">major sponsor threatened to withdraw funding</a>. Neither of these appear to be the case for Beijing 2022.</p>
<h2>Sport diplomacy a better route</h2>
<p>Instead, it’s probably more helpful to use participation at the Beijing Games as a way to raise awareness of human rights issues and a <a href="https://www.sportandeu.com/post/athletes-or-diplomats-in-tracksuits">form of sport diplomacy</a>.</p>
<p>We have seen this play out with <a href="https://thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/16/01/2020/UN-body-welcomes-milestone-in-Qatar-labour-reforms">Qatar’s labour law reforms</a> following intense scrutiny as it prepares to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Professional sports leagues have also provided an avenue for athletes to <a href="https://theundefeated.com/features/how-the-nba-social-justice-efforts-dominated-the-season/">raise awareness about Black Lives Matter</a>, an example of positive engagement.</p>
<p>The hurdle to this approach is the <a href="https://stillmedab.olympic.org/media/Document%20Library/OlympicOrg/General/EN-Olympic-Charter.pdf#_ga=2.239645891.1593872523.1609787342-2034070448.1606947990">Olympic Charter’s Rule 50.2</a> that states: </p>
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<p>“No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.”</p>
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<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Australian silver medalist Peter Norman stands on the medal podium as Americans Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise their gloved fists in a human rights protest." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380105/original/file-20210122-19-sz2niu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380105/original/file-20210122-19-sz2niu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380105/original/file-20210122-19-sz2niu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380105/original/file-20210122-19-sz2niu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380105/original/file-20210122-19-sz2niu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=700&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380105/original/file-20210122-19-sz2niu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=700&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380105/original/file-20210122-19-sz2niu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=700&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In one of the most famous examples of an Olympic protest, American sprinters Tommie Smith (centre) and John Carlos (right) raise their gloved fists in a Black Power salute at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This rule has <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/society/olympics-protest/">been criticized</a> and the <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/society/olympics-protest/">International Olympic Committee’s Athlete’s Commission</a> is putting forward recommendations to reconsider the rule, <a href="https://olympic.ca/press/coc-athletes-commission-releases-seven-recommendations-on-rule-50/">including input from Canadian athletes</a>. </p>
<p>This is not to say that raising awareness, demonstrations and protests by athletes will solve the problems. But history shows us that athlete protests can have a powerful effect.</p>
<p>What could affect more change? Having more athletes with the bravery of <a href="https://www.history.com/news/1968-mexico-city-olympics-black-power-protest-backlash">Tommie Smith, John Carlos</a> <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1101989/peter-norman-smith-carlos-mexico-award">and Peter Norman</a> — who used the medal podium at the 1968 Mexico Olympics to protest anti-Black racism — or Canadian athletes staying home next year?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149344/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ryan Gauthier does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The 2022 Winter Olympics will be held in Beijing next February. Those opposed to China’s human rights violations are calling for a boycott. That’s a complicated form of protest.Ryan Gauthier, Assistant Professor of Law, Thompson Rivers UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/619792016-08-17T05:03:50Z2016-08-17T05:03:50ZWhy being a sporting role model isn’t as simple as most people think<p><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-17/olympic-spirit-displayed-after-fall-on-track-in-rio/7749930">New reports</a> of Nikki Hamblin (New Zealand) stopping during the 5000m finals at the Rio Olympics to help fellow competitor Abbey D’Agostino (US) after they’d crashed on the track have evoked the “Olympic spirit”. The New Zealander also waited until D'Agostino, who was injured in the fall, could continue the race, sacrificing any chance of catching up to the main pack.</p>
<p>Hamblin’s actions are reminiscent of a small handful of other such moments at previous Olympics. Canadian sailor Lawrence Lemieux abandoned his silver medal position in the 1988 Seoul Olympics to rescue the crew of a capsized competing vessel. Lemieux missed out on a regular medal in the event, but was awarded the Pierre de Coubertin Medal for Sportsmanship by the International Olympic Committee president, who said his act embodied the Olympic ideal.</p>
<p>Athletes are increasingly expected to be good role models. But while Lemieux is outstanding, we don’t usually expect athletes to sacrifice their chance of winning to help others. In fact, the ideal of good sportsmanship carried to this extreme would be in tension with that other aim of Olympic competition – winning. </p>
<p>What, then, is the right balance between sportsmanship and coming out on top?</p>
<h2>The right stuff</h2>
<p>Discussion about athletes as role models often arises in response to bad behaviour. Recent on and off-court incidents involving tennis player Nick Kyrgios, for instance, prompted a public discussion about his <a href="https://theconversation.com/character-and-behaviour-off-the-field-should-not-be-selection-criteria-for-the-olympics-60520">suitability for Olympic selection</a>.</p>
<p>The contrasting cases of Lemieux and Kyrgios invite a distinction between two different meanings of role model. On the one hand, it picks out exceptional individuals such as Lemieux who exemplify qualities like sportsmanship. And, in a more mundane sense, it applies to anyone in the public eye. </p>
<p>All Olympic athletes are role models in the mundane sense. They represent their country, wearing its Olympic colours. Their performance is televised and commented on. Often, commentators also recount the athlete’s personal story to engage the audience watching their performance on television. </p>
<p>Given this, and since children are encouraged to follow and emulate their achievements, perhaps it is reasonable to expect that Olympic athletes meet a minimum standard of conduct. </p>
<p>Some minimum standards are already built into the rules of sport. An athlete such as Oscar Pistorius, who is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/06/oscar-pistorius-jailed-for-xx-years-reeva-steenkamp">serving time for murder</a>, for instance, cannot represent his country in the Olympics during his sentence. </p>
<p>Likewise, athletes who are involved in match-fixing or use performance-enhancing drugs are usually suspended. In extreme cases, unsporting behaviour can also be punished by disqualification. Several women’s badminton players <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/01/sports/la-sp-on-badminton-scandal-20120801">were disqualified</a> during the London 2012 Games, for instance, when they were found to be attempting to lose matches to secure easier finals.</p>
<h2>Increasing scrutiny</h2>
<p>But should we require more than this? Public scrutiny of athletes is increasing. This includes their political views, how they use their money and free time, and how they treat their partners and children. </p>
<p>Social media give us access to athletes’ personal lives and opinions. Improved microphones and cameras capture more of what happens on the field than ever.</p>
<p>One justification for this scrutiny is the influence of sports culture on wider society. When Kyrgios made a comment about opponent <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/aug/14/nick-kyrgios-apologises-stan-wawrinka-comment--atp-fine">Stan Wawrinka’s girlfriend</a>, it rang alarm bells for those worried about <a href="https://theconversation.com/playing-the-woman-healy-and-kyrgios-expose-sports-sexism-problem-46137">sexism in sport</a>. </p>
<p>Identifying his outburst as an instance of “<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3196589/Nick-Kyrgios-sledge-Stan-Wawrinka-puts-Thanasi-Kokkinakis-Donna-Vekic-spotlight-Australian-tennis-bad-boy-said-pair-slept-Vekic-started-dating-Wawrinka.html">slut shaming</a>”, mainstream media outlets drew attention to the way athletes’ behaviour can normalise sexist cultural practices. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, we are often blind to the social injustices around us. So while current sensitivity to sexism means Krygios’ comments to Wawrinka were widely condemned, in many cases it is those who draw attention to social problems who are criticised.</p>
<h2>Negative publicity</h2>
<p>In fact, some of the greatest role models in Olympic history were initially censured for their commitment to causes that were controversial at the time. </p>
<p>Tommy Smith and John Carlos’ <a href="http://time.com/3880999/black-power-salute-tommie-smith-and-john-carlos-at-the-1968-olympics/">black power salute</a> on the podium at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico is remembered by many as a defining moment in Olympic history. But, at the time, they were expelled from the Olympics and vilified at home. </p>
<p>More recently Australia’s beloved Indigenous runner, Cathy Freeman, was criticised for flying the Aboriginal flag at the 1994 <a href="http://nga.gov.au/federation/Detail.cfm?WorkID=27708">Commonwealth Games</a>. She was described as “un-Australian” and accused of politicising sport. </p>
<p>Six years later, the public felt differently. Freeman’s gold medal run in the 400m sprint at the Sydney 2000 Olympics was hailed as a moment of <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/sport/athletics/15-years-ago-today-cathy-freeman-ran-her-way-into-the-nations-heart-20150925-gjuo2q.html">reconciliation</a> between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.</p>
<p>Out gay athletes such as 2008 diving <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/news/diving/a-perfect-10-as-mitcham-dives-for-gold/2008/08/23/1219262633209.html">gold medallist</a> Matthew Mitcham are widely hailed as role models for gay, lesbian and bisexual kids. In contrast, intersex athletes still face accusations of cheating and risk of <a href="https://oii.org.au/30507/special-rapporteur-fgm/">human rights violations</a>. </p>
<p>Polish sprinter Ewa Klobukowska, who was stripped of her 1964 Olympic medals due to a failed gender test, was listed recently as one of the Olympics’ <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/tarnished-gold-some-of-the-great-olympics-cheats-7869830.html">greatest cheats</a>. But she would not fail current testing criteria. In a different era, Klobukowska might be regarded as a role model and trailblazer for intersex rights.</p>
<p>This suggests that it’s very difficult to pin down which athletes are good role models. But to underline just how subjective it is, it is worth considering one final type of role model athlete: the redeemed sinner. </p>
<h2>When prodigals return</h2>
<p>Perhaps the best example at this Olympic Games is US swimmer Michael Phelps. He is almost as well known for his drink-driving arrests and recreational drug use as for his achievements in the pool. But in a recent <a href="http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/16425548/michael-phelps-prepares-life-2016-rio-olympics">feature article</a>, journalist Wayne Drehs argues that the swimmer has changed. </p>
<p>The new Phelps is presented as a self-aware teetotaller, rehabilitated from his addictions and reunited with his father. He sounds like the sort of person we would be happy for children to emulate. </p>
<p>But is Phelps a really a good role model, or has Drehs just spun a good story? </p>
<p>Given that there is no bright line between those who are good role models and those who are not, we need to be cautious about making rules for athletes’ conduct. Such rules are as likely to be used against the next Tommy Smith or John Carlos as Nick Kyrgios. </p>
<p>But what about the influence of athletes on kids? This is more of a problem if bad behaviour goes unremarked. Quality conversations at home and in the media about the things athletes do can help. This is perhaps most important when behaviour reflects social practices, such as how we treat women or those from different backgrounds.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/61979/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katrina Hutchison does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Athletes are increasingly expected to be good role models. But we don’t usually expect them to sacrifice their chance of winning to help others.Katrina Hutchison, Postdoctoral research fellow, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/619042016-07-27T10:44:33Z2016-07-27T10:44:33ZAll the Olympics are a stage, and all the athletes merely players: the rich history of the modern Games<p>The Olympics transfix us. Six in every ten people in the world – including both you, dear reader, and me – watched the London 2012 Olympics. Use of the word Olympics increased in relative frequency 3,300% between 1924 and 1984. But what are the Olympics to us, how are we to read them socially and politically?</p>
<p>The Olympic Games are a theatre — sometimes farce, sometimes tragedy, theatre of the absurd, opera buffa, reality TV, morality play or soap opera — where geopolitical, social and technological dramas are played out. </p>
<p>The Olympic village (which first appeared in the 1932 Los Angeles Games) is itself a microworld, where all nationalities, creeds and colours come together and everyday dramas of sex, politics, human achievement and human weakness are played out. </p>
<p>Olympic competition is itself a media-constructed reality.</p>
<h2>The Olympics as cinema</h2>
<p>There’s always been an easy spillover between the Olympics and the mass media. Athletes have slipped seamlessly into media celebrity. Olympic weightlifter Harold Sakata won a silver medal in the 1948 London Olympics, but became better known as Oddjob in the James Bond film Goldfinger. </p>
<p>Less known is British freestyle wrestler Ken Richmond, the bloke who bangs the huge bronze gong at the start of J. Arthur Rank films. Appropriately, he won a bronze medal at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.</p>
<p>But cinematic links with the Olympics go much further back. Norwegian figure skater Sonja Henie (gold medallist in three successive Olympics from 1928) became one of the highest-paid actors in the world. </p>
<p>Buster Crabbe (US gold medallist swimmer 1932) appeared in over 100 movies. Like Crabbe, shot-putter Herman Brix (silver medal, Amsterdam 1928), swimmer Johnny Weissmuller (five gold medals 1924-1928) and decathlete champion Glenn Morris (1936) all appeared as Tarzan, the last <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarzan%27s_Revenge">alongside US Olympic swimmer Eleanor Holm</a> (1928 and 1932). </p>
<p>Weissmuller, fondly remembered by children of my generation as Jungle Jim, featured in Tarzan’s celebrated <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Bc7KDyLV80">nude swim</a>, ostensibly with Maureen O’Sullivan, but actually with stand-in Olympic and world champion swimmer Josephine McKim.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131918/original/image-20160726-31198-zdapaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131918/original/image-20160726-31198-zdapaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131918/original/image-20160726-31198-zdapaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131918/original/image-20160726-31198-zdapaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131918/original/image-20160726-31198-zdapaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131918/original/image-20160726-31198-zdapaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131918/original/image-20160726-31198-zdapaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Buster Crabbe, US gold medallist, in Tarzan the Fearless (1933).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tom Simpson/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Olympics have also been the subject <em>of</em> film. Glenn “Tarzan” Morris also appeared in Leni Riefenstahl’s superb documentary of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030522/">Olympia (1938)</a>, considered one of the best films ever made. </p>
<p>The classic <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082158/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Chariots of Fire (1981)</a> was a morality play looking at the clash of spiritual and worldly values, when the evangelical Scottish athlete Eric Liddell refused to run on Sunday and sacrificed his chance of winning the 100-metre sprint. Liddell later returned to his birthplace in China as a missionary, only to die in a Japanese internment camp weeks before the liberation. </p>
<p>Spielberg’s dark <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0408306/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Munich (2005)</a> explored the massacre of Israeli athletes in the 1972 Munich Games, and more recently <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106611/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Cool Runnings (1993)</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1083452/">Eddie the Eagle (2016)</a> have recounted some of the farcical aspects of the Games – the equally improbable efforts of a Jamaican bobsleigh team and an English ski-jumper.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Jpdg5XOZZDY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Even Olympic venues are like film sets, scattered across the world’s most exotic destinations from Paris to Rio. Just like film sets, they’re often improvised and dismantled soon after the Games have finished. </p>
<p>Hitler’s architect, Albert Speer, improvised the 1936 Olympic stadium using 152 anti-aircraft searchlights pointed straight upwards. The <a href="http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/artdok/37/3/Teil_2.pdf">Lichtdom</a>, said British ambassador Sir Nevile Henderson, was “like being inside a cathedral of ice”. </p>
<p>Hermann Göring, never a fan of high art (“Whenever I hear the word ‘culture’, I reach for my revolver”), was unimpressed; Speer had commandeered all the anti-aircraft searchlights in Berlin, leaving the city unprotected. </p>
<p>The Berlin Olympic Village was converted to military barracks soon after the Games; perhaps the Allies should have read the signs. </p>
<h2>… as political drama</h2>
<p>In the ancient Olympics, warring states agreed to lay down their arms and establish an Olympic peace — Pax Olympica. In the modern era, the Games become a stylised working out of geopolitical tensions. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.orwell.ru/library/articles/spirit/english/e_spirit">George Orwell</a> famously described sport as “war without the bullets”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you wanted to add to the vast fund of ill-will existing in the world at this moment, you could hardly do it better than by a series of football matches between Jews and Arabs, Germans and Czechs, Indians and British, Russians and Poles, and Italians and Jugoslavs, each match to be watched by a mixed audience of 100,000 spectators.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Olympic nations represent a kind of global geopolitics in miniature, shifting, coalescing and dividing as global politics change. The old Soviet Union is now represented by 15 national Olympic committees, the former Yugoslavia by seven, and the two Germanies by one. </p>
<p>There are, in fact, more Olympic “nations” – 206 – than there are countries in the <a href="http://www.un.org/en/member-states/">United Nations – 193</a>. </p>
<p>The International Olympic Committee (IOC) crystallises and provides the imprimatur for new geopolitical realities: accepting Japan back into the fold of civilised nations in 1952, and Germany in 1956; rehabilitating South Korea after the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Park_Chung-hee">10.26 assassination</a> of president Park Chung-Hee by awarding it the 1988 Games; acknowledging the Soviet Union and Communist China in 1952; and refusing recognition of the Japanese puppet state Manchukuo in 1936. </p>
<p>While the IOC Charter strictly forbids direct political interference in national Olympic committees, there is a wide gap between theory and practice. After the Soviet soccer team lost to heterodox Yugoslavia at the Helsinki Games in 1952 (a 5-5 draw; then 1-3 in the replay), Stalin disbanded the team, who were provided with new homes “inside the Arctic Circle”. </p>
<p>He had a historical precedent: in 1912, Tsar Nicholas dissolved the Russian soccer team after their 16-0 loss to Germany in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. Clearly, Stalin set the bar a bit higher than the tsar.</p>
<p>The Games have also been the stage for celebrated political set pieces. I was 10 months old when there was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_in_the_Water_match">blood in the water</a> during the waterpolo clash between the Soviet Union and Hungary in the 1956 Melbourne Games. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131921/original/image-20160726-23692-1y7moqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131921/original/image-20160726-23692-1y7moqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131921/original/image-20160726-23692-1y7moqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131921/original/image-20160726-23692-1y7moqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131921/original/image-20160726-23692-1y7moqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131921/original/image-20160726-23692-1y7moqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131921/original/image-20160726-23692-1y7moqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">American sprinters John Carlos and Tommie Smith’s black power salute at the 1968 Mexican Olympic Games.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Carlos,_Tommie_Smith,_Peter_Norman_1968cr.jpg">By Angelo Cozzi via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Hungarians, on their long sea voyage to the Antipodes, were unaware of the Soviet invasion of their homeland. The clash was a bloody affair, with the Hungarians ultimately winning 4-0 and going on to win the gold medal. </p>
<p>In 1968, the Mexican military killed at least 49 students protesting against the Games in the Tlatelolco Massacre. Mexico also saw the Olympic podium used to stage the celebrated black power salute by John Carlos and Tommie Smith, with the Australian silver medallist Peter Norman stood by.</p>
<p>In 1972, militants from the Palestinian Black September movement murdered 11 Israeli athletes in the Munich Games village. </p>
<h2>… as feminist realism</h2>
<p>Women first appeared in the 1900 Olympics. The 22 women among the 997 athletes were limited to ladylike sports: tennis, sailing, croquet, equestrian and golf. Over the years, the number of sports open to women has gradually increased, bringing, in 2016, the unthinkable — women’s rugby. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131924/original/image-20160726-31195-19n1x4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131924/original/image-20160726-31195-19n1x4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131924/original/image-20160726-31195-19n1x4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131924/original/image-20160726-31195-19n1x4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131924/original/image-20160726-31195-19n1x4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1053&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131924/original/image-20160726-31195-19n1x4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1053&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131924/original/image-20160726-31195-19n1x4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1053&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">English tennis player Charlotte Cooper, who, in 1900, became the first female Olympic champion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charlotte_Cooper.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today, women constitute about 40% to 45% of Olympic competitors.</p>
<p>There is one unisex sport (equestrian), although at various times both sailing and rifle shooting have been unisex. And there is one sport where, thankfully, men have not been allowed to compete: synchronised swimming. </p>
<p>In others sports, there are odd historical hangovers of sex differences: there is no 1,500-metre swim for women; women compete in the heptathlon rather than the decathlon; and men’s and women’s gymnastics are radically different. </p>
<p>One can only say that there’s been a long march towards gender equality, but we wouldn’t want to take things too far too fast, given that the Australian Matildas, one of the best women’s soccer teams in the world, were recently <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2016/05/25/matildas-beaten-7-0-by-newcastle-jets-under-15-boys-team/">beaten 7-0 by an under-15 boys’ team</a>.</p>
<p>Gender issues have been played out in the Olympic theatre in other ways. Indeed, the Olympics have more than anything brought into question the whole notion of binary gender and what it means to be a man or a woman. </p>
<p>This issue poses a particular quandary for the Olympics. On the one hand, as the Matildas well know, it’s just not fair to have men competing against women in most sports. On the other hand, it’s not the place of the IOC to be telling people what sex they are.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132111/original/image-20160727-7058-qk84aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132111/original/image-20160727-7058-qk84aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132111/original/image-20160727-7058-qk84aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132111/original/image-20160727-7058-qk84aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132111/original/image-20160727-7058-qk84aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=945&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132111/original/image-20160727-7058-qk84aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=945&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132111/original/image-20160727-7058-qk84aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=945&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mary Edith Louise Weston in 1936, before gender change operations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Weston_(athlete)#/media/File:Mary_Edith_Louise_Weston_1936b.jpg">Unknown via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sex testing was first requested by IOC executive member, and later president, Avery Brundage in 1936, over concerns about British javelin and discus champion Mary Louise Edith Weston. In 1936, Mary had a sex change to become Mark. It ran in the family; a year later, Mark’s elder sister Hilda also had gender re-assignment treatment. </p>
<p>The most famous transgender athlete — until Caitlyn Jenner — was Stanislawa Walasiewickz, a Polish sprinter who won the gold medal in the 100-metre dash in the 1932 Olympics, and silver in Berlin. Later, living as an American under the name Stella Walsh, she was found upon her death (she was shot during an armed robbery in 1981) to have male genitalia.</p>
<p>At the same Games, German Dora Ratjen competed in the high jump, finishing fourth, but was later found to be intersex.</p>
<p>Sex testing initially consisted of a physical examination, literally a “nude parade” of women. Chromosomal testing was introduced in 1968, and in 2012 hormonal testing for abnormal levels of testosterone began. </p>
<p>The official IOC position is that rather than sex testing, this is a test to determine if certain athletes are “unfairly advantaged” by an accident of birth. One can only say that this is a tricky position to maintain: just about every athlete is unfairly advantaged by an accident of birth, certainly relative to you and me, at least. That’s why they’re elite athletes.</p>
<p>In 2009, after South African runner Caster Semenya won gold in the women’s 800-metre run, the International Amateur Athletics Federation began receiving emails from people who had doubts about Semenya’s gender because of her masculine appearance. Some unkind commentators even pointed out that her name was <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/caster-semenya-gender-storm-is-the-answer-790360">an anagram of “Yes, a secret man”</a>. </p>
<p>The results of chromosomal tests were never released, but Semenya was cleared to run again. After winning the silver medal in London, Semenya will be among the favourites in Rio. Watch this space.</p>
<h2>… as romcom</h2>
<p>The Olympic stage is a theatre of sex in another way: it is a festival of youth where the athletes compete, celebrate and fornicate. And <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnclarke/2012/07/16/who-will-win-the-sex-olympics/#7e6efd6d18c6">fornicate they do</a>, by all accounts. </p>
<p>The London Games provided 150,000 condoms — 15 per athlete — for the 17-day event. That’s enough for 30 couplings per pair, or 1.7 couplings per day. </p>
<p>But Olympic love has flourished even in condom-less environments, and in those more innocent days when men’s and women’s living quarters were separated, as they still are for Muslim athletes. </p>
<p>In 1956, US gold medal hammer thrower Hal Connolly met and fell in love with Czech discus champion Olga Fikotová, a cross-Iron Curtain romance that blossomed into a marriage. </p>
<p>The scenario was repeated 48 years later in Athens when gold medallist rifleman Matt Emmons (US) fell for Czech riflewoman Katerina Kurková. Perhaps it was a shotgun wedding. </p>
<p>There are, in fact, dozens of Olympic lovers, most famously legendary Czech distance runner Emil Zatokpek and his wife Dana, a gold-medal-winning javelin thrower, who were witnesses to the Connolly wedding.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132115/original/image-20160727-5645-ovimdh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132115/original/image-20160727-5645-ovimdh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=856&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132115/original/image-20160727-5645-ovimdh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=856&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132115/original/image-20160727-5645-ovimdh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=856&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132115/original/image-20160727-5645-ovimdh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1075&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132115/original/image-20160727-5645-ovimdh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1075&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132115/original/image-20160727-5645-ovimdh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1075&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_de_Coubertin#/media/File:Pierre_de_Coubertin_Anefo2.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>… as morality play</h2>
<p>The founder of the Games, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_de_Coubertin">Pierre de Coubertin</a>, envisaged them as a competition between gentleman amateurs, playing fairly and competing on a level playing field, figuratively and literally. </p>
<p>Native American athlete Jim Thorpe was relieved of his two gold medals from the 1912 Stockholm Games when it turned out he had accepted money for playing baseball. </p>
<p>But the myth of professionalism, freighted with classist assumptions, was a lost cause from the start. Gradually, begrudgingly, the Games were opened up to full professionals. </p>
<p>Fairness also proved to be an elusive ideal. </p>
<p>Over 50 Olympic athletes have been stripped of their medals, mainly for doping. Most famously, they included US swimmer Rick DeMont at the Montreal Games, Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson at Seoul, US sprinter Marion Jones, who lost her five medals from Atlanta and Sydney, and US cyclists Lance Armstrong and Tyler Hamilton in Sydney and Athens. </p>
<p>The vexed question of artificial performance enhancement has plagued the Olympics, and raises a basic moral question: what does “natural” mean? What is the difference, one might ask, between taking the blood-booster EPO and training in altitude tents, which has the same effect, or for that matter having a natural genetic variant? </p>
<p>Although we think of cheating mainly as a pharmacological indiscretion, there have also been interesting cases of “technology doping”. </p>
<p>Boris Onishchenko, a Russian pentathlete, rigged his electrofoil at the 1976 Olympics to mark a score before he actually hit anyone, eliciting a protest from the British. He was known thereafter as “Boris Disonishchenko”. Soviet President Brezhnev was not happy, and Onishchenko was last seen working as a taxi driver in Kiev.</p>
<p>The issue of technological performance enhancement was raised again when the “blade runner” Oscar Pistorius became the first disabled track and field athlete to compete at the able-bodied games. Several sports scientists argued that his blades provided him with an unfair advantage, allowing a greater return of elastic energy. </p>
<h2>After the theatre</h2>
<p>By September, the stage will be dismantled, and our revels will be ended. Our athletes will melt into air, into thin air. The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces shall dissolve and, like this insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a rack behind. </p>
<p>All that will remain will be the cold wind whistling through the empty stadiums and the athletes’ Potemkin villages. Until, that is, we switch on our televisions for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/61904/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Olds receives funding from the ARC and the NHMRC. In the past he has also been funded by the Australian Sports Commission.</span></em></p>The Olympic Games are a theatre — sometimes farce, sometimes tragedy, reality TV, morality play or soap opera — where geopolitical, social and technological dramas are played out.Tim Olds, Professor of Health Sciences, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.