Protest, Activism, and the Olympic Games: An Overview of Key Issues and Iconic Moments

Since the early days of the modern Olympics, luminaries within the International Olympic Committee have actively discouraged mixing sports with political protest. However, throughout the history of the games, activism has often bubbled to the surface. This has taken two predominant forms: (1) athlete activism and (2) political movements that springboard off the games to express their dissent, taking advantage of the media spotlight that flashes over the host city during the Olympics. Historical interplay exists between political movements and athlete-activist moments: protest groups create discursive space into which athletes can strategically move. This article is a panoramic historical survey featuring episodes of both athlete-activism and movement protest, from Irish athlete Peter O’Connor at the 1906 games to Tommie Smith, John Carlos, and Peter Norman at the 1968 Olympics, from South African activists who leveraged the Olympic Charter to fight Apartheid in the 1960s and 1970s to activists who took to the streets during the Rio 2016 summer games. Along the way, I delimit the central grievances that movements have raised vis-à-vis the Olympics both historically and in the twenty-first century – from high costs and social displacement to the militarization of the public sphere and broken legacy promises.