I love the Olympics. They feel pure. A gathering of athletes who have trained their whole lives to compete. And not just in swimming and gymnastics and track and field. But in dressage, the air pistol, the canoe slalom, and even the trampoline.
In the midst of that purity there is something else - protest.
On the eve of the 2021 Olympics more than 150 sports organizations, athletes, activists, and educators signed an open letter calling on the International Olympic Committee to allow athletes the "fundamental right" to protest, and for the removal of the "Rule 50" ban, which prohibits athletes from protesting at Olympic sites, including at the podium. Some athletes have already pledged that they will protest on the podium in some way if they medal.
Those signing include US hammer thrower Gwen Berry who turned away from the American flag at the June trials, and familiar names from Olympic protest history past - African American medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos.
It was 1968, the Summer Olympics in Mexico City. US 200-meter sprinter Tommie Smith had won the gold, and John Carlos the bronze. They both stepped to the podium, and raised their black-gloved fists to the air.
I remember how excited I was when I found out we were interviewing Carlos some 50 years later. I’m a white boy living in Wisconsin who wasn’t even born yet when he put that fist in the air. But I get chills just writing about it. It was a seminal moment in American history and civil rights. We’re re-airing that interview this weekend in our show “Sprinting To the Finish Line.”
John Carlos raised that fist for himself, yes, but also for so many after him who are continuing the work not yet done.
-Charles