“Rule 50.2 of the Olympic Charter states: ‘No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.’”
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What about when an athlete wins and drops to their knees in prayer to their invisible sky god?
@aral Let's also remember 1968. Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised gloved hands in a Black Power salute (popular at the time) on the Olympic podium. With a nod to Australian Peter Norman, who stood calmly with his arms at his sides, as Smith and Carlos requested when he asked.
#TommieSmith #JohnCarlos #Olymics #1968 #BlackPower #PeterNorman #FuckTheIOC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Olympics_Black_Power_salute
@aral This is all I need of the Olympics now: Viktor Petrenko, born in Ukraine under the USSR, making a return to Olympic competition at the 1994 Lillehammer games to skate for recently independent Ukraine. A bit past his prime, but turning in a thrilling free skate.
#Olympics #FigureSkating #Ukraine #Petrenko #ViktorPetrenko #1994 #FuckTheIOC
@aral In the IOC's ruling, they acknowledge who this athlete wanted to memorialize, and they mention the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but they very carefully weasel-word their way around connecting the two: "...died following Russia's invasion...", not "from Russia's invasion" or "from Russian attacks".
Hell, you could say "Bill died in a pedestrian accident, after humankind's invention of the wheel..."
In doing so, they accidentally state they do not see a political connection between the two, thereby invalidating their own position for the reason why this athlete expression is not okay, but the athlete holding up a photo of his parents who died in a plane crash was fine.
In treading carefully in order to appease Russia, they destroy their own (weak and still fading) credibility.
@aral They are allowed to do it themselves, but you 'little people ' can't, unless they agree with it, of course. There have been several times in recent years when a company has not been represented due to their decision...
@aral
Wikipedia's “Concerns and controversies” starts slowly, but has some hard hitters, like Latvia boycotting coverage of “““neutral””” Russian athletes, pissing “fuck ICE” in the snow, censoring Toussaint Louverture, Hearskevvych, another Ukrainian ban, Oleh Handei for a poem.
And Israel.
And the IOC answer that they grade genocide.
And did I mention Russians fake-ass-neutrality?
At least they got booed along with JD Vance: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-team-marches-smattering-boos-milan-games-opening-ceremony-2026-02-06/
@aral Except when the IOC is involved. 🤣
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57924111
@aral Meanwhile, on foxnews.com (don't ask how I ended up seeing this) people are unironically leaving comments like this:
@aral "Fun" fact : the modern olympic flame ritual (runners carying/passing the torch) was created by the nazis for the Berlin olympics in 1936...