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.
AFLW star Tayla Harris at the unveiling of a prototype statue that will be made to honour her achievements in women’s football at Federation Square.
AAP Image/David Crosling
We might think of sporting statues commemorating great players. But three new statues are showing us they can commemorate great cultural moments, too.
The Australian Olympic Committee posthumously awarded sprinter Peter Norman with an Order of Merit in June. His daughter Janita accepted the award on his behalf.
David Crosling/AAP
Tim Liao, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Sprinter Peter Norman has been memorialised in many ways in the US for his support of Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Olympics. In Australia, it’s taken much longer.
Almost 50 years ago, a white, non-American athlete supported Black athletes protesting racial injustice. Peter Norman paid a price for taking a stand. Canada’s Sidney Crosby is no Peter Norman.
The silence at the end of Rio 2016 will only last until we switch on our televisions for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Reuters/Issei Kato
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.
Tommie Smith and John Carlos carry the coffin of Peter Norman, who died in 2006.
Sporting celebrities and stars have always featured centrally in the psyche of the Australian nation. Our athletes are portrayed as positive role models and many of their indiscretions and behaviours are…