JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Lewis highlights racial discrimination and gender inequality in sports

by

Rachael Thompson-King
1700 days ago
20200701
U.S. Olympic gold medallist Tommie Smith, center, and his teammate John Carlos, who won bronze in the 200-meter race, raise their fists during the U.S. national anthem at the 1968 Summer Games in Mexico City. Australian silver medalist Peter Norman is at left. (AP Photo)

U.S. Olympic gold medallist Tommie Smith, center, and his teammate John Carlos, who won bronze in the 200-meter race, raise their fists during the U.S. national anthem at the 1968 Summer Games in Mexico City. Australian silver medalist Peter Norman is at left. (AP Photo)

"Olympic Or­der is the Olympic Move­ment high­est award for dis­tin­guished con­tri­bu­tions to sports. The list is long and in­cludes Av­ery Brundage and Lord Kil­lian­in. John Car­los, Tom­mie Smith and Pe­ter Nor­man aren't on (the) list. Av­ery Brundage was giv­en in 1975. In 1975 Rule 50 es­tab­lished 1616.

"Amer­i­can ath­letes Vince Matthews and Wayne Col­lett...Why were they ex­pelled from the Olympic Games? What is the sig­nif­i­cance of their ex­pul­sion?

"In 1968, the IOC (In­ter­na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tee) it is claimed de­clared the black pow­er salute 'im­ma­ture be­hav­iour'. The USOC (Unit­ed States Olympic Com­mit­tee) de­clared it was against " the Olympic prin­ci­ples". 52 years lat­er...Where are we? This isn't a bat­tle on­ly to be fought by the ath­letes alone."

Above is a se­ries of tweets post­ed by T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) pres­i­dent Bri­an Lewis, us­ing the Twit­ter plat­form over the past few days to high­light the racial dis­crim­i­na­tion and gen­der in­equal­i­ty that the sports world con­tin­ue to face.

"The IOC must con­front its his­to­ry, ex­am­ine its his­to­ry, make re­vi­sion and give an apol­o­gy," said Lewis, speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia Sports, yes­ter­day.

"It is im­por­tant for the IOC to be brave, open and hon­est in dis­cussing sys­tem­at­ic dis­crim­i­na­tion. John Car­los, Tom­mie Smith and Pe­ter Nor­man as well as Vince Matthews and Wayne Col­lett, the IOC owes them an apol­o­gy."

Car­los and Smith are for­mer Amer­i­can track and field ath­letes whose protest at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mex­i­co re­mains one of the most his­toric im­ages of sports. Smith and Car­los while on the podi­um to re­ceive their medals in the men's 200 me­tres event wear­ing black gloves raised their fists, sig­ni­fy­ing black pow­er and lib­er­a­tion. Nor­man, an Aus­tralian, was the third ath­lete on the podi­um who wore a badge of the Olympic Project for Hu­man Rights in sup­port of his fel­low ath­letes.

Amer­i­can duo Matthews and Col­lett are re­mem­bered for their protests dur­ing the medal cer­e­mo­ny at the 1972 Games in Mu­nich, where they talked to each oth­er while the US an­them was be­ing played.

On the oth­er of the scope is for­mer IOC pres­i­dents Brundage, who was in­fa­mous for his racism, sex­ism and ant-Semi­tism.

In a re­cent ar­ti­cle pub­lished in the Sport In­tern, Lewis re­ferred to Rule 50 of the Olympic Char­ter which bans demon­stra­tions and pro­pa­gan­da.

"Rule 50 must be amend­ed," said Lewis.

"Con­sis­tent with the Unit­ed Na­tions De­c­la­ra­tion on Hu­man Rights, free ex­pres­sion dur­ing cer­e­monies, for ex­am­ple, should be al­lowed.

"It has been claimed that Rule 50 is need­ed to keep the Olympic Games free of po­lit­i­cal pro­pa­gan­da. It has al­so been claimed that demon­stra­tions on the field of play are counter to the Olympic ideals and dis­re­spect­ful of fel­low ath­letes. I would ar­gue the op­po­site. If the fun­da­men­tal prin­ci­ples of Olymp­ism in­clude the ed­u­ca­tion­al val­ue of a good ex­am­ple and so­cial re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, then sure­ly the icon­ic im­age cre­at­ed by John Car­los, Tom­mie Smith and Pe­ter Nor­man is a great case of Olymp­ism in ac­tion.

"The claim that sport is free of pol­i­tics, both good and bad, does not stand up. Es­pe­cial­ly on racial is­sues. Think of the sport­ing boy­cott of apartheid South Africa, for ex­am­ple. For more re­cent po­lit­i­cal en­gage­ment, think of the laud­able ef­forts re­gard­ing North and South Ko­rea. Think of the align­ment with the Unit­ed Na­tions."

Ac­cord­ing to Lewis, the IOC is not in­flex­i­ble cit­ing oth­er changes that the body made over the years in­clud­ing chang­ing the rule that on­ly al­lowed am­a­teur ath­letes to com­pete and al­so the par­tic­i­pa­tion of women at the Games.

"A law, rule or reg­u­la­tion can't re­main if it be­comes un­just," said Lewis adamant­ly.

How­ev­er, he did praise the work done by the IOC in the pro­mo­tion of gen­der equal­i­ty in sports. Ear­li­er this year, the IOC reaf­firmed its com­mit­ment and pri­or­i­ty of gen­der bal­ance through its "Gen­der Equal­i­ty Re­view Project" which Lewis was a part of the work­ing group.

"The aim of the project is to pro­vide a so­lu­tions-based ap­proach to achiev­ing gen­der equal­i­ty. The group made 25 rec­om­men­da­tions like raise aware­ness, share prac­tices and take a lead­er­ship role in sports to push for gen­der equal­i­ty."

Lewis knows the task is not a sim­ple one for the IOC as de­ci­sions are made through a process and of course con­sul­ta­tions but he wants the head body to take the same ap­proach to racial dis­crim­i­na­tion say­ing: "Take the lead­er­ship role to push for racial equal­i­ty and ef­fect re­al change.

"In­ter­na­tion­al sports can't with­stand the light shin­ing on their his­to­ry of racism. Sports re­flect so­ci­ety. It is im­por­tant for the IOC to ad­dress the is­sue and not be on the wrong side of his­to­ry, said Lewis, who added:  "I am the leader of the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee and pres­i­dent of the Caribbean As­so­ci­a­tion of Na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tees (CANOC). We, in the Caribbean, are prob­a­bly the most im­pact­ed by slav­ery so it is my du­ty, re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and oblig­a­tion to high­light the is­sues.

"The IOC be must be in front of the curve. De­nial is not a strat­e­gy. We can­not hope that the mur­der of George Floyd by the po­lice will dwin­dle and die down by the 2021 Games."


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored