Athletes will discuss and decide on how best to support the core Olympic values "in a dignified way", the International Olympic Committee said, as calls to change rules restricting protests at Games grow louder.
Olympic Rings Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Athletes will discuss and decide on how best to support the core Olympic values "in a dignified way", the International Olympic Committee said, as calls to change rules restricting protests at Games grow louder.
Several major sports have moved to allow protests following George Floyd's death in U.S. police custody on May 25, including world football's ruling body FIFA and the National Football League (NFL).
Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter, however, bans any form political protest during the Games.
"No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas," the rule states.
IOC President Thomas Bach said consultations between athletes' groups around the world were under way.
"The IOC Executive Board supports the initiative of the IOC athletes' commission to explore different ways for athletes to express support for the principles enshrined in the Olympic charter in a dignified way," Bach told a virtual news conference.
After reading a resolution of the IOC Executive board condemning racism, Bach was repeatedly asked whether athletes at next year's Tokyo Games could go down on one knee, as many have done in recent weeks, to show their support for the Floyd protests.
"I will not preempt in any way these consultations with many athletes representatives," Bach said. "It would not be fair if now I make a statement giving directions or instructions."
"The framework has been set and now let the athlete commission and athletes discuss among themselves and come up with relevant proposals."
Athletes who breach Rule 50 are subject to discipline on a case-by-case basis and the IOC issued guidelines in January clarifying that banned protests include taking a knee and other gestures.
Photo: By Angelo Cozzi (Mondadori Publishers) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Meanwhile Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto says the rearranged Olympics will "not be done with grand splendour", but will be simplified.
The Games, originally scheduled to start next month, were postponed for a year in March by the International Olympic Committee and the Japanese government due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since then, organisers have been looking at ways to reduce costs and streamline the Games.
Following a virtual presentation to the IOC Executive Board in Lausanne, Tokyo 2020 organisers stressed the need to simplify the Games without giving details about how it would be done.
"The Games will not be a grand splendour but will be a simplified Games," said Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto.
"In order to simplify the Games, we need to review and understand international federations, NOCs, broadcasters and partners. These stakeholders must act in unison to make sure of a simplified Games."
Muto said more than 200 ideas to simplify and reduce costs for the rescheduled Games had been discussed but gave no timeframe as to when these changes might be implemented.
-Reuters