JOA endorses IOC warning about protests at Tokyo Games

The Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) says it shares  the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) position that no political protest will be allowed at this summer's Games in Tokyo, Japan. But the JOA's athletes' representative Michael Frater says athletes' freedom of speech should not be ignored. 

The image of Americans John Carlos and Tommie Smith raising their black gloved  fists in protest while on the medal podium at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City remains one of the lasting images of the Games throughout the years.

But international Olympic committee president Thomas Bach has warned that such protests will not be welcomed at this summer's Tokyo Games in Japan. According to president Bach, politicians and athletes should keep politics out of this year's Tokyo Olympic Games to protect the event's neutrality and its status as a peaceful meeting place.

He added that there would be sanctions for raised fists or taking a knee at the 2020 Games and that previous protests at the Games had no effect whatsoever. Athletes who break protest rules in Tokyo face three rounds of disciplinary action  by the IOC.

Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) president Christopher Samuda says the JOA endorses the view  of the world governing body. Protests at the Olympic Games by Jamaican athletes is not totally unfamiliar.

At the 2000 Sydney Games in Australia, placard-bearing members of the  athletics team  staged a protest against Merlene Ottey's participation in her sixth Games. However, Samuda says he is not worried about any such occurrence in Tokyo.

But while noting that athletes should avoid political protests at the Games, athletes' representative with the JOA and three time Olympian Michael Frater says athletes' rights to freedom of speech must also be respected. But even with the warning by the IOC, Frater says he would not be surprised if political protests are still carried out.

The new IOC warnings come after two American athletes were reprimanded by the US Olympic Committee for medal podium protests at the Pan American Games in August in Lima, Peru.