The US Olympic Committee in December issued a statement that paved the way for using the Olympics as a platform for protests by deciding that athletes “will not be sanctioned for peacefully and respectfully demonstrating in support of social justice causes”. Here we go. Doubling down, they recently issued guidelines for what will and will not be allowed at the Olympic games that will be held this year in Japan, after having been postponed one year due to the pandemic. Athletes will be allowed to “raise their fists”at the start line or podium, or “kneel during the national anthem”. They will also allow wearing hats or facemasks with political phrases like “Black Lives Matter” or words like “equality” or “justice”. Not allowed are hate symbols as defined by the Anti-Defamation League or any actions that would prevent other athletes from competing, such as obstructing the field of play. Apparently the 9-page document defines acceptable demonstrations as having to involve “advancing racial and social justice; or promoting human dignity of individuals or groups that have historically been underrepresented, minoritized, or marginalized in their respective social context.” They also amusingly provide a disclaimer of sorts, stating that the Olympic organization cannot prevent third parties from making “statements or taking actions of their own”, although based on current trends in corporate America, it would seem unlikely that any corporate sponsor would risk the backlash of withdrawing financial support from any athlete that has done an effective job of portraying themselves as a victim of racial inequities.
Recall, gone are the days when top Olympic athletes in this country toiled in obscurity, maintaining their amateur status by subsidizing their athletic training with conventional employment on the side. Professional athletes have been able to compete in every Olympic sport since 1986. Today’s upper echelon of Olympic athletes, the ones that will have an opportunity to use the podium as a platform, have cash rained down on them from wealthy benefactors, well-funded government organizations, and multi-national corporations. Many compete on professional circuits for prize money and are rewarded handsomely for product endorsements. High profile Olympic athletes have done well financially with Snowboarder Shaun White amassing some $20M from endorsements and sponsoring events. Bode Miller, the renegade alpine skier, accumulated some $8M from endorsements, and Ted Liggety, another alpine skier raked in $2M in endorsement deals, prize money and business ventures. According to Sports Management Degree Hub, corporations may sponsor entire teams rather than just one individual athlete, making many athletes’ gear resemble a NASCAR-like patchwork of corporate logos. Swimmer Ryan Lochte was reportedly receiving some $2.3M from multiple sponsors, with clauses based on medal performance. And apparently not on conduct. And the US Olympic Committee itself is big business, making over $625M annually from broadcast rights and another $120M from corporate sponsors. This enables them to reward Olympic athletes with what is essentially prize money for winning medals, with $25 thousand for gold, $15 thousand for silver and $10 thousand for a bronze. Again referencing Sports Management Degree Hub; some companies may “partner with the USOC to participate in the Olympic Job Opportunities Program, pay[ing] full-time salaries and benefits to (Olympic) athletes while allowing them to work part-time.” Granted, the top athletes fare well while the bottom tiers still struggle to make ends meet, particularly in the lesser known sports and those that don’t command prime time television spots. The top ten runners in the world can earn $100K or more annually although there is a precipitous drop in earning power as the rankings fall. Sprinter Usain Bolt reportedly raked in $31M in 2019 alone. But only 20% of the top 10 track and field athletes make over $50K annually says the Hub, with over 50% making less than $15K annually from their athletic pursuits, requiring income from another vocation. Obviously lesser known athletes competing in sports such as fencing, curling, biathlon, and the shooting sports are going to be in a league with the bottom tiers of the more well known Olympic sports like track, skiing and cycling.
But that brings me to my point. After years of sacrifice why should an athlete’s breakthrough podium moment be marred by some self-aggrandizing superstar creating a spectacle with a social justice warrior display at the awards ceremony? And even the opposite is true: will lesser-knownathletes in lesser-known sports seek to gain the spotlight by engaging in a garish display of woke protest? Will the third place finisher draw the cameras away from the patriotic gold medalist because of a fist-in-the-air salute and a BLM T-shirt? It is unfortunate, but we know how the media will respond. They will heap praise and attention on the racial and social justice display to the detriment of what the Olympics is all about: sportsmanship and competing to represent your country. Who hasn’t witnessed the emotional podium appearances of our female Olympic gymnasts, after years of grueling training, parents bawling in the stands while the little pixies finally get their tear-filled moment in the sun, proudly standing with hand on heart as the Stars and Stripes is hoisted to the rafters to the strains of the Star Spangled Banner? Chokes me up every time. Is that Olympic moment, like so many other standards of decorum, going to be cast aside and, in essence, be sacrificed for the cause? Has the USOC even consulted the NBA? When the NBA decided to pacify their overpaid egomaniac stars, and that BLM and virtue signaling was more important than public opinion, viewership plummeted. Revenue followed. The NFL had a similar experience. Why then, would you take the most revered of international sporting events, aside from soccer’s World Cup, perhaps the greatest source of national pride in sports, and turn it into a platform for disgruntled pampered athletes to display their woke social activism? Disgusting. It will be an interesting experiment given the polling numbers that show the protests are not well received by the public. Will the networks respond by not showing medal ceremonies? Will the rather loose guidelines by the USOC allow athletes to push the envelope with displays of wokeness extending onto the field of play? Will this be largely an American phenomenon, making us appear as the egocentric, ugly Americans that the rest of the world already thinks we are? We shall see. For me, the first self-centered, disrespectful display and I’m out, relegating the Olympic games to my ever-expanding trash bin of sporting events I will no longer watch. And my bet is I’m not alone.
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