Political messaging in sports has sadly become almost unavoidable.
The Left has nudged athletes into parroting their political agenda.
But the Olympics are putting a stop to one anti-American protest.
The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan are set to kick off in July.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the games were not able to be held during the summer of 2020, but everything is on schedule with the pandemic waning.
However, one thing fans won’t see at the Olympics is the anti-American anthem protests that have proliferated over the past five years.
The Olympics—like other institutions—have trended “woke,” but the International Olympic Committee announced that political statements will be prohibited.
From The Daily Mail:
“Against the backdrop of the Black Lives Matter movement protesting racial injustice, calls have increased in recent months for a change to that rule that would allow athletes to protest. Some international federation chiefs, including World Athletics’ President Sebastian Coe, have said that athletes should have the right to make gestures of political protest during the Games.
The IOC’s Athletes’ Commission chief Kirsty Coventry, who led a review of the rule, said the majority of athletes consulted were against any protests within the fields of play or the podiums.”
The IOC surveyed 3,500 athletes, and 70% of them said that they were against protests at the Olympics.
That 70% number is probably similar against spectators.
Only the “woke” Left is insistent upon inserting politics into sports—and everything else.
Since former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick started the anti-American anthem protests by kneeling, other athletes across the world copied him.
Kaepernick said he began his protest to fight against police brutality, but it quickly morphed into a generic, left-wing protest against “injustice.”
When Kaepernick began his protest, Barack Obama’s Department of Justice was already investigating police brutality—specifically in the Michael Brown case—and concluded that there was no misconduct.
The issue of police brutality and unarmed killings of black men is largely a media creation.
The corporate press amplifies the small handful of questionable police incidents in order to build grand narratives, draw ratings, and mobilize voters.
For some foolish reason, athletes in the UK and other countries joined in, but other sports leagues began to distance themselves from the protests when they became about promoting the Black Lives Matter organization.
As more people did their homework, they discovered that BLM is a far-left organization started by self-described “trained Marxists.”
An Olympics free of divisive anti-American protests is precisely what sports fans need.
Sports and entertainment are two institutions that bring people together, but the Left is determined to make those wedge issues, too.
Even the “woke” U.S. Women’s National Soccer team ended kneeling for the anthem because they felt it was time to move on.
They’re still pushing a progressive agenda, but at least they’re no longer disrespecting the American flag to do it.
