Swim Poll of the Week: Is it a political protest or a human right to take a stand against an issue on the Olympic podium?

swim-poll

This is the Swim Poll of the Week for Thursday January 23, 2020, sponsored by Strechcordz Swim Training Products. In our last poll, we wanted to know: Is it a political protest or a human right to take a stand against an issue on the Olympic podium?

Australia’s Mack Horton and Great Britain’s Duncan Scott became famous this summer at the World Championships when they took turns taking a stand against Chinese freestyler Sun Yang for the lack of punishment he had faced for his actions during a doping test in September 2018. Horton and Scott, as well as Sun, were issued warnings from FINA for their actions on the podium in Gwangju.

Outside of the sport of swimming, fencer Race Imboden and thrower Gwen Berry performed protests on the podium at the Pan American Games in regards to social issues going on in the United States. They were both reprimanded by US Olympic officials.

Since then, the International Olympic Committee placed a ban on all kinds of podium protests at the upcoming Olympic Games. This raises the question: is it a political protest or a human right to take a stand against an issue on the Olympic podium?

We asked and you answered with…

Here are the answers:

Political Protest (67%)

Human Right (33%)

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Krnt
Krnt
4 years ago

This has nothing to do with political.
It is purily human rights.
Everyone should be treated equally.

Craig Lord
4 years ago
Reply to  Krnt

There is truth in what you say: it depends how you phrase the question. As put, you can see why people might think ‘political’; if couched in the specifics of ‘Is it a political act or a human right to step aside for podium photos after the ceremony in order to avoid having your image used alongside an athlete who fell foul of anti-doping rules’ you are likely to get a different answer… and both domestic and international laws come into play where the athletes’ image rights are concerned. Those who govern athlete agreements are coming under pressure to make changes on such points. Right now, some agreements ask athletes to give up rights enshrined in law, placing the Olympic Movement beyond the law. That is unlikely to stand the test of time…

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