{"id":940,"date":"2014-02-07T14:52:30","date_gmt":"2014-02-07T13:52:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/?p=940"},"modified":"2014-03-13T09:31:12","modified_gmt":"2014-03-13T08:31:12","slug":"sport-sochi-and-the-rising-challenge-of-the-activist-athlete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/sport-sochi-and-the-rising-challenge-of-the-activist-athlete\/","title":{"rendered":"Sport, Sochi and the rising challenge of the activist athlete"},"content":{"rendered":"

What happens off the field stays off the track and the dais but plays OK at the press conference \u2013\u00a0that is the rather convoluted message from International Olympic Committee (IOC<\/a>) president Thomas Bach in the face of potential political protests at the\u00a0Sochi Winter Olympics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bach is trying to narrow the scope available to dissenting Olympic athletes. They face punishment if they make their move when medals are being contested or dispensed. The local Games organisers want to go further by confining shows of activism to a \u201cSpeakers\u2019 Corner<\/a>\u201d somewhere in Sochi city.<\/p>\n

Such is the complexity of life for the activist athlete at the \u201cProlympics<\/a>\u201d. And Sochi and Russia have certainly given the politically aware athlete plenty to work with. Last year, Russia\u00a0passed laws<\/a>\u00a0making it an offence to discuss homosexuality with minors.<\/p>\n

To avoid any awkward ambiguity, Sochi mayor Anatoly Pakhamov recently fouled the welcome mat of his Olympic city when\u00a0he stated<\/a>\u00a0that:<\/p>\n

[homosexuality] is not accepted here in the Caucasus where we live. We do not have them in our city.<\/p>\n

Much has changed since the days when officials could rule their young athletic charges with a rod of iron. This does not mean that the balance of power has shifted entirely. But today\u2019s \u201cblazerati<\/a>\u201d are required to negotiate with athletes who can create a storm of controversy with a brief gesture on live television or a single tweet.<\/p>\n

Athletes harness their fame<\/h4>\n
\"Australian
Australian rugby star David Pocock is among the international sportspeople supporting the Principle 6 campaign \u2013 citing the Olympic Charter \u2013 against Russia\u2019s anti-gay laws. (Twitter\/@pocockdavid)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In recent decades sportspeople have joined the likes of film and pop stars in the global celebrity ranks. It is hardly surprising that some have emulated activist actors and \u201cprotest\u201d singers in using their fame to advance social causes, such as those in support of the\u00a0Principle 6<\/a>\u00a0campaign against Russia\u2019s anti-gay laws.<\/p>\n

At one time film studios would discourage such activities for fear of damage at the box office. Record company executives would worry about alienating apolitical music fans. But screen and music celebrities became bigger than the companies that housed them, and greater political autonomy for artists followed.<\/p>\n

Sport, with its rigid hierarchies and myths of transcending the lives of mere mortals, has been a harder nut to crack for activist athletes. They are still vulnerable to being labelled troublemakers and malcontents.<\/p>\n

Big-name sportspeople, though, wield their own power. They commonly run their own charitable foundations as a way of \u201cgiving something back\u201d. It would be overly cynical to dismiss this in all cases as a calculated extension of image manufacture and tax minimisation, but it is unlikely to provoke debate or conflict.<\/p>\n

Taking a strong political stance is a more hazardous extra-curricular activity. It will certainly engage those with conflicting points of view. It is also likely to make sports’ governing bodies nervous about their relationships with corporate sponsors and governments.<\/p>\n

Olympians and other sportspeople are now more likely to use conventional and social media to present views. Even if sport officials can ban athletes from engaging in social media at certain times (such as a ski jumper standing at the top of the hill), they cannot continually patrol digital communication. Doing so opens them up to charges of unwarranted\u00a0interference and censorship<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hence the concentration on the times when the \u201cwhole world is watching\u201d, the live competition and ritual.<\/p>\n

Seizing the moment<\/h4>\n
\"Peter
Peter Norman, Tommie Smith and John Carlos.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is hard to discuss this issue without conjuring up images of the\u00a0black power salutes<\/a>\u00a0by American 200-metre runners Tommie Smith and John Carlos on the medals podium at the 1968 Mexico Olympics. Australian Peter Norman wore an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge in solidarity with Smith and Carlos, who were expelled from the Games.<\/p>\n

Norman was ostracised by Australian Olympic officialdom. His treatment led to a belated parliamentary apology in 2012, six years after his death.<\/p>\n

The IOC would be most unhappy if, for example, victorious Sochi Olympians wore rainbow-coloured gloves in solidarity with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people as their countries\u2019 flags were raised. But there is much more to athlete activism than visual podium polemic.<\/p>\n

It might involve\u00a0joining an Amnesty International campaign<\/a>, as Australian rugby player David Pocock has done, to end discrimination against Russia\u2019s LGBTI community. Or a soccer player like Manchester United\u2019s Rio Ferdinand speaking in support of\u00a0Kick It Out<\/a>, football\u2019s equality and inclusion campaign founded by the Professional Footballers\u2019 Association.<\/p>\n

But what counts as athlete activism may be much more unstructured and unpredictable than dedicated sport-related campaigns. Few are as strange as the unilateral diplomacy pursued by retired basketballer\u00a0Dennis Rodman in North Korea<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The activism may also not be progressive. There is a history of loaded on-field gestures such as the Fascist-linked \u201cRoman salute\u201d by Italian footballer and manager Paolo\u00a0di Canio to Lazio supporters<\/a>\u00a0in 2005 and the \u201cquenelle\u201d \u2013 said to be an inverted Nazi salute \u2013 that England-based French footballer Nicolas\u00a0Anelka performed<\/a>\u00a0late last year.<\/p>\n

Greek triple jumper Voula Papachristou was expelled just before the London 2012 Olympics\u00a0for posting tweets<\/a>\u00a0that mocked African immigrants and supported the far-right Golden Dawn Party.<\/p>\n

The relationship between politics and sportspeople is many-sided. It ranges from carefully planned strategic interventions to seemingly unpremeditated signals and utterances.<\/p>\n

Images of the Olympic black power protest or of AFL player\u00a0Nicky Winmar lifting his jumper<\/a>\u00a0in 1993 to display his black skin in proud defiance of sustained racial abuse from Collingwood supporters are lasting reminders of sport\u2019s power to crystallise a burning issue such as racism.<\/p>\n

Each mega sport event offers a fresh opportunity for athlete activists to run the gauntlet of official disapproval in pursuit of unparalleled visibility for their cause. The Sochi Winter Games may be remembered less for gold-medal winning performances than for a media blizzard of activist athlete-generated politics.<\/p>\n

\n

Previously published by theconversation.com\/au<\/a> (Academic rigour, journalistic flair).<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Copyright \u00a9 David Rowe 2013<\/strong>
\nEmail:\u00a0d.rowe@uws.edu.au<\/a>
\nTwitter: @rowe_david
\nWebsite:\u00a0http:\/\/www.uws.edu.au\/ics\/people\/researchers\/david_rowe<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What happens off the field stays off the track and the dais but plays OK at the press conference \u2013\u00a0that is the rather convoluted message from International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach in the face of potential political protests at the\u00a0Sochi Winter Olympics. Bach is trying to narrow the scope available to dissenting Olympic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[16,17],"class_list":["post-940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-okategoriserade","tag-sochi-2014","tag-winter-olpympics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t