The Conversation

The Olympics have always been a platform for protest. Banning hand gestures and kneeling ignores their history

16-01-2020 Author: David Rowe, Emeritus Professor of Cultural Research, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University

It is the year of the Tokyo Olympics, and the International Olympic Committee was quickly out of the blocks with new guidelines regarding athlete protests.

The IOC is worried the biggest stories of the Games will be political gestures rather than sport performances, and so have introduced specific guidelines to prevent “any political...

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