Dylan Bettencourt
The decision to ban all social media teams from posting any pictures which display their athletes taking the knee at this year’s Olympic games has been reversed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Reports suggest that the initial decision to ban the footage was passed down to all social media teams on Tuesday evening. Great Britain’s women’s first football encounter against Chile was the reference point, as the game was hours away from kickoff, according to the Guardian.
The decision was overturned on Thursday, with social media teams now able to post footage of their athletes taking the knee.
Teams are allowed to take the knee in an ongoing protest against racism, with all teams so far deciding to take the knee, which has already been seen on live television. These images, however, were not allowed to be posted to any of the official social media pages until Thursday.
The Olympics has historically been an event where iconic pictures of protests stem. Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising their fists to protest against the poor treatment of black people in the United States at the 1968 Olympics being the most famous example.
What made this judgement even more peculiar is the IOC have recently watered-down Rule 50, which previously barred all athletes from making any sort of “demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.”
Racial abuse in sports is still a common feature for athletes of colour and taking the knee encourages further solidarity in the fight to remove it from our society. Great Britain’s chef de mission, Mark England, said the team was appalled by the racial abuse the England players faced following their Euro 2020 final defeat.
He said: “Certainly the women’s football team here feel very strongly about the online abuse and about the racism, Kick It Out campaign and about taking a knee, and we absolutely support them in that.”
IOC president Thomas Bach said that taking the knee at this year’s games is permitted as it does not violate Rule 50.
Image source: @CNN
