Anthony Ervin Urges ‘Solidarity’ in Light of Thomas Bach’s Deterrence of Protests

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Anthony Ervin; Photo Courtesy: JD Lasica

Olympic gold medalist Anthony Ervin this weekend tweeted a response to IOC President Thomas Bach’s dissuasion of protest at the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.

Bach Friday, in a guest column for The Guardian, cautioned against making the Olympics about anything other than sports. “Otherwise,” Bach wrote, “the Games will descend into a marketplace of demonstrations of all kinds, dividing and not uniting the world.” Bach, who last month was awarded the Seoul Peace Price, continued:

“The Olympic Games cannot prevent wars and conflicts. Nor can they address all the political and social challenges in our world. But they can set an example for a world where everyone respects the same rules and one another. They can inspire us to solve problems in friendship and solidarity. They can build bridges leading to better understanding among people. In this way, they can open the door to peace.”

Ervin tweeted a response to a Reuters story on the editorial: “Bach, I understand your duty to resist these calls for reform; but I also know you’re smart. You’ll soon realize that joining us IS the solidarity”

Bach’s piece signals his ongoing support for Olympic Charter Rule 50, which Ervin has taken aim at before. Rule 50 bars athletes from “protests and demonstrations” during official ceremonies or competitions during the Games, including but not limited to “Displaying any political messaging, including signs or armbands; gestures of a political nature, like a hand gesture or kneeling; refusal to follow the Ceremonies protocol.”

Rule 50 has come under increased scrutiny in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests that have intensified globally since the May killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by police in Minneapolis. Many athletes have used their platforms to bring attention to structural racism, systemic injustice and police brutality. A number of athletes and athletic bodies have called for a review of Rule 50.

Though Bach’s editorial doesn’t mention the rule by name, the explicit separation of politics and sport and the invocation of the largely ineffective (and for a generation of athletes, disastrous) boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics by Western nations hammer the point home. “Opening the door to peace” through sport implies a desire to keep the door to outside issues closed.

Anthony Ervin, the gold medalist in the men’s 50 free at the 2000 and 2016 Olympics, has never subscribed to such a separation of an athletes’ sporting and non-sporting sides. In response to a comment about the editorial by Inside The Games’ Duncan Mackay, Ervin wrote: “If you think those are fair and valid points from that height, then keep climbing and you’ll find further fair and valid points. In no marketplace is everything bullish or equally bullish. With a libertine freedom to demonstrate the focus will remain on the medal performances.”

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Erik Lebsack

3 years ago

Do you want people to abandon the olympics like they have professional sports? Then there will be no funding and no support made possible by big TVs contracts. Irvin thinks he’s bigger than sport. If there was no olympics you would t know his name but he wants to ruin it for others.

Donald P. Spellman

3 years ago

Reply to Erik Lebsack

Erik Lebsack : Well, ERVIN actually realizes that politics, culture, sports, and economics can intersect at moments in history too……unlike the IOC.

Erik Lebsack

3 years ago

Reply to Erik Lebsack

Donald P. Spellman not with a happy ending. He will try to ruin things I’m sure thinking it’s for the greater good but sometimes what the world needs is two weeks of togetherness where we aren’t dividing and everyone is included in the festivities

Katy Elizabeth

3 years ago

Reply to Erik Lebsack

Erik Lebsack I don’t know that I’d agree that Ervin believes he’s bigger than his sport. Pretty sure he understands the difference between getting to the Olympics and an NFL player with a $2M annual contract. The Olympics have been involved as a stage in global politics since they’ve existed.

Rhi Jeffrey

3 years ago

Reply to Erik Lebsack

Erik Lebsack as someone who personally knows ERVIN, this is not his personality or his intention at all (to ruin it for everyone else). Ervin is one of the kindest people I have ever known and always has his head in the game for the benefit of others before himself. To claim he thinks he’s bigger than sport shows just how little you actually know of this person.

Swifter

3 years ago

Reply to Erik Lebsack

Hitler’s 1936 olympics were all politics.
Munich 1972 terror attack was completely political.
1980 olympics boycott and 1984 counter boycott were all political (as were the 1976 boycotts).
State sponsored doped medals are political.
But the ATHLETES speaking is the problem?
Thats ridiculous.
Shutting people mouths IS politics.
Free speach is a basic right.
Rule 50 needs to erased, or otherwise ignored.