Despite the statements from Olympics officials in Japan, that political demonstrators will be punished, the Colin Kaepernick crowd among the Olympic contenders here have gotten busy:

According to the Washington Post:

Gwen Berry turned away from the American flag and raised a T-shirt over her face as the national anthem played Saturday, minutes after she qualified for the Olympic team at the U.S. track and field trials in Eugene, Ore. Berry has demonstrated on the podium before, but her impromptu protest Saturday came only after what she called a “setup” by meet officials.

Berry said she had no expectation to protest after she finished third in the hammer throw — and in fact did not even think the national anthem would be played. The song is played only once a night at the trials, not during every medal ceremony as at the Olympics. Afterward, she said an official told her the anthem would be played before she took the podium and posed for pictures.

“I feel like it was setup,” Berry said with a burst of laughter. “I feel like they did that on purpose, and I was pissed, to be honest. I was thinking about what should I do. Eventually, I just stayed there and just swayed. I put my shirt over my head. It was real disrespectful. I know they did that on purpose, but it’ll be all right. I see what’s up.”

Why the heck is this creature permitted to compete at all for the U.S., given her seething hate for the country that gave her all those opportunities to develop her talent? Can you say 'height of ingratitude'? Can you imagine what some competitor athlete from, say, Kenya or Malawi might be thinking? Some other flag for this person with all those problems with America might be more appropriate.

As Dinesh d'Souza noted, this is very bad for the Olympics in general:

We’re going to see more of this. It’s going to make patriotic Americans cheer for foreign competitors and against the anti-American Americans.

Hammer thrower Gwen Berry turns away from flag while anthem plays at trials - 'I feel like it was a set-up' https://t.co/TnIFwzy5Fh

— Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) June 27, 2021

Actually, it might just make them tune out. Why bother to watch Olympic shows that turn into political hectorings from pipsqueak athletes who grossly overestimate the appeal that their tired been-there-done-that protests have to audiences?  Other professional sports learned this the hard way and lost profits and audiences. Now the Olympics will start to see the same sort of thing, amazingly, all directed at America as other athletes from other nations respectfully stand under the flags of their own countries.

The International Olympic Committee vowed to ban this sort of crap as a danger to their mission -- after input from more than 3,500 international athletes, 70% of whom told the committee that they didn't want their moment of medal glory ruined by some jerk trying to get headlines with personal protests. A look at the photo of the two higher-ranked athletes who outperformed Berry in the hammer throw is just such a sad thing, their bona fide achievements overshadowed by this clown ranked number-three with her childish tantrum protest.

Berry, though, comes from a different sort of atmosphere, one where ego and tantrums (two very bad qualities in competitive athletes) seem to be actually encouraged by U.S. Olympic officials.

Get a load of this toad who positively encourages U.S. athletes to pollute their hard-won athletic victories with cheap protests:

USA Track and Field CEO Max Siegel said “I’m not dealing in hypotheticals, and I’m not at all worried because our athletes are thoughtful.”

“It’s not new to us as an organization, us being proactive in terms of educating athletes to use their position for positive social change,” Siegel said. “It’s what we do every day. We’ve been trying to educate athletes on how you can use the platform and be positive advocates.”

No wonder Berry has kept up with this wretched flag-protesting act, she's got the white U.S. Olympic officials right behind her, egging her on as their favorite useful idiot.

This isn't Berry's first protest rodeo and she's already told the press that she's convinced she can get away with it even at the Olympics, which has stated that it means to ban the practice:

Berry said she wouldn’t be surprised if the USOPC [U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee] support leads to a cascade of demonstrations in Tokyo that the IOC will be hesitant to stop.

“The IOC can’t punish us all, the IOC can’t ban us all, and the IOC doesn’t want any problems,” she said in a recent interview with TV station KSDK in St. Louis.

 That's a pretty good sign that she plans to protest and she's convinced that every athlete out there will join her.

One can only hope that she learns the hard way that yes, the IOC can. 

What a sad thing that now we cheer the IOC rather than the U.S. team these days, given the idiocy of the athletes. Going Kaepernick can do that. If the IOC backs down, our only choice then is to tune out. Nice idea, those Olympics were, too bad the protests ate them.

Image: Logo, via Wikipedia // public domain

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