BuzzFeed · Aug 14, 2024
Jesse Owens, Noah Lyles, And 12 Other Olympic Athletes That Protested
It's impossible to invite countries worldwide to compete in a multi-sport event like the Olympics without politics seeping through. Athletes are humans, and to expect them to stay silent in the face of adversity and injustice is to diminish their voices on the very platforms where they were invited to showcase their talents to the world.
However, apoliticism is an expectation that the International Olympic Committee has for everyone participating in their games. Ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics, they issued their Declaration by the IOC against the politicization of sport, which states, "Sports organizations within the Olympic Movement shall apply political neutrality."