The 2022 Winter Olympics will be held in Beijing a year from now, and more than 180 organizations are calling on governments to boycott the event. The U.S. Olympic Committee (USOPC) announced last December that it would no longer prohibit athletes from “peacefully and politely protesting in support of racial and social justice for all humanity. Some analysts say Olympians may be more active in the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Interpreting Article 50 of the Olympic Charter
Led by the U.S. Olympic Committee, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which leads 206 National Olympic Committees, is reviewing the relevant Article 50 provisions of the Olympic Charter and is expected to announce the results in the coming months.
Article 50 of the Olympic Charter prohibits athletes from demonstrating (except through press conferences, team meetings or the media) at any Olympic venue, site or other area.
In a statement, the IOC said, “The IOC Athletes’ Commission has engaged in dialogue with representatives of athletes from around the world to explore how Olympic athletes can support the principles in the Olympic Charter in different ways on the one hand, and respect the Olympic spirit on the other.”
Should or shouldn’t athletes “interfere” with politics?
In principle, the IOC could ban athletes from competing and strip them of their medals for protesting at events, but the organization has not done so.
Rob Koehler, secretary general of the advocacy group Global Athletes, said, “National Olympic Committees must ask the IOC to bring the Olympic Charter into line with the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights… …athletes need to be given a voice and a voice to express themselves, which is why we are calling for the repeal of Rule 50.”
At the August 2019 Pan American Games, U.S. fencer Race Imboden and chainstalker Gwen Berry got down on one knee and raised their fists during the awards ceremony to express their protest against the Trump administration in the United States.
In the aftermath, the U.S. Olympic Committee placed them on probation, but later apologized.
At the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos gained fame for raising their fists in salute to black rights. The event is considered one of the most overtly political statements in modern Olympic history.
The two athletes were not punished by the International Olympic Committee, however, were expelled from the U.S. Olympic Committee.
Canada is split on whether to go to the Beijing Winter Olympics or not
Both the U.S. State Department and a Canadian parliamentary subcommittee have accused China of genocide in Xinjiang. China’s tyranny in Hong Kong has also shocked the world. And Beijing has refused to release the two Canadian citizens it has detained.
However, the Canadian Olympic Committee has confirmed that it will not boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The organization says a boycott is not the answer to the problem. Canadian Olympic organizers will remind athletes to beware of trouble when they compete in China next year for fear Beijing will arrest critics of the city under Hong Kong’s national security laws.
David Shoemaker, chief executive officer of the Canadian Olympic Committee, said, “We will be telling athletes to let them know what they say in Beijing and what the consequences will be for the topics they talk about.”
Shoemaker added that athletes have the right to free speech; he opposes a boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing next February because a boycott is unlikely to change China’s policy toward Muslims in the country or the fact that China is detaining two Canadian citizens and could even make the situation of the two Canadians worse.
John Higginbotham, a retired Canadian diplomat who advocated a boycott of the Beijing Olympics, said Beijing’s actions in recent years “have reached the point where a boycott is warranted. …… What more do we want? To wait until two of our citizens are publicly executed by Beijing?”
Rukiye Turdush, an activist and president of the Canadian East Turkestan News Center, said, “Athletes represent the values of a nation. They are a symbol of national pride. …… Participating in the Olympics in a country where genocide is ongoing does not make Canadians proud or inspired. On the contrary, it makes us ashamed.”
The phenomenon of athletes protesting and participating in politics was further highlighted during the protests that swept the country last summer in the United States, which also caused a ripple effect internationally. The same “racial and social justice for all humanity” that athletes face in the face of the Chinese Communist Party‘s obvious human rights problems is inevitably following the Beijing Winter Olympics.
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