So, the IOC has forbidden to kneel during the anthem at the Olympics and threatened athletes who do it with sanctions. IOC's position here is of course unchanged since 1968, when it sanctioned Smith and Carlos for black power salute. The major difference is @TeamUSA position.

In 1968, the US team, led by the uber-conservative (and uber-racist) Avery Brundage, was among those who most vehemently wanted to punish Smith and Carlos. In 2021, the US team was the one to petition IOC to strike the rule forbidding political protests...

Of course, the dual IOC/USA repressions didn't scare Smith and Carlos in 1968, despite the risk of becoming blacklisted and outcast. I find it hard to believe that many black US athletes will be intimidated in 2021, when they will likely be regarded as heroes by many, if not most

The IOC's position looked to be on the wrong side of history 53 years ago, and it sure as hell looks even worse now. The entire "no political speech or propaganda at the Games" rhetoric is inane. What are anthems and flags if not political speech and propaganda?

And in case the IOC has spent its entire history in a soundproof room, it surely has noticed that the entire concept of the Games, to say nothing of their outcomes, has been coopted and appropriated by political regimes worldwide to promote themselves and their agenda.

Does nobody see the hypocrisy of mandating one form of political speech (anthems, flags and loyalty rituals around them) and forbidding the other? Politics is an ENORMOUS part of the Games. Politics of adulation and nationalism. Politics of protest should be as well.

(Also, as an ex-Soviet, I FUCKING HATE all rituals of loyalty to symbols of state. I've had quite enough of this bullshit in my life, thanks, from the Young Pioneer Salute to the flowers at Lenin's statue. Fuck all of them. I am a free man and I decide what to honor and how.)