Sports has now expanded to include much more than just fun and games. Every level of sports has become a business that generates big money and gives its athletes a platform to influence. On the field, the sports world produces heroes that are discussed around the dinner table, with a searing passion otherwise saved for debating politics or religion. In the Olympic world, sports help give nations credibility. For good and bad, the sports world is bigger and more powerful than ever, with athletes having more and more influence and a bigger platform.
In recent years, as politics has become more polarizing, commentators and politicians have repeatedly declared that professional athletes are “out-of-touch-millionaires” who should “shut up and dribble.” Players such as Colin Kaepernick and LeBron James have pushed back and become more politicized however many believe politics should be kept out of sport.
The question is, have athletes only recently become more political? And should sport and politics mix? This question has a long and complicated answer.
The Olympics is perhaps the worlds biggest sporting event where countries compete for gold, silver and bronze. However, the Olympics, both ancient and modern, has always been political.
In ancient Greece, independent city-states came together to discuss politics, form political and military alliances, and celebrate military victories, all while their representatives competed in races and games of strength.
In the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Hitler attempted to use the games to show off his regime and its ideology that the Aryan people were the dominant race. Hitler was undermined by Jesse Owens, an African-American track and field athlete, who made a political statement when he won four gold medals, beating the athletes representing Hitler’s Germany. Owens’ motivation for victory was never explicitly political, but due to the climate surrounding the Games, he had made a statement nonetheless.
In the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos appeared shoeless and wearing black socks at the medal ceremony, to represent black poverty. They raised their black-gloved fists in what they called a “human rights gesture”. The two sprinters were widely condemned afterwards, and were expelled from the Games. Many Americans shunned them on their return too. However, they made their point on one of the world’s largest platforms and have since been recognised for their bravery in the midst of America’s civil rights struggle.
However, major political statements have been made outside the Olympics too.
One of the most notable examples is the greatest boxer of all time, Muhammad Ali, who stood against the Vietnam War very early on, and refused to serve in the army.
“I ain’t got no quarrel with those Vietcong…no Vietcong ever called me nigger.”
– Muhammad Ali
Ali was banned from boxing by U.S. authorities because of his stance, and soon became a figure of black power, the Civil Rights Movement and the anti-Vietnam War movement. Ali was convicted of draft evasion, stripped of his titles and sentenced to five years in prison. It was not until a lawsuit in 1970 that Ali won back his title. He would continue in historical boxing matches now known as Rumble in the Jungle in 1974 and Thrilla in Manila in 1975, defeating George Foreman and Joe Frazier and become a three-time world champion.
Though these are all major political statements, the best example of the connection between sports and politics is how it influenced the end of apartheid in South Africa.
For many years South Africa participated in international sport, and several South African athletes achieved excellent results. All of that changed in 1960 as more African countries gained independence dramatically increasing the pressure to end apartheid.
South Africa under apartheid was subjected to a variety of international boycotts, including on sports. For example, in 1961 the country was suspended from the world football body FIFA and in 1970 the country was formally expelled from the International Olympic Committee. In addition, South Africa’s involvement in the Rugby World Cup, Cricket World Cup and Formula One was also greatly limited due to boycotts by athletes and protests.
The wide spread ban of South African sporting teams helped many white South Africans think more deeply about the unfairness of apartheid. It also made countless people across the globe aware about apartheid and support the boycotting of sporting events.
Apartheid ended in the early 1990’s and lead to a once unthinkable moment in 1995 where South Africa hosted the Rugby world cup. Many saw the green jersey of the South African team (the Springboks), with only one non-white player, as a symbol of apartheid repression. Nelson Mandela brought the country together as before a crowd of 65,000 that was almost completely white at the Rugby World Cup Final, Mandela strode onto the field wearing a Springboks jersey. The crowd, silent at first and then began chanting “Nelson! Nelson! Nelson!”
South Africa would go on to win the game, and South Africans both black and white celebrated the victory.
Mandela would go on to deliver one of the most famous speeches on the power of sport.
Mandela said it best when he said that “Sport has the power to change to change the world. It has the power to inspire, it has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair, it is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers.”
Although many believe that sports and politics should stay separate, history has shown that they are indeed intertwined and that athletes can often make the most powerful political statements.
