AMAC Exclusive
In recent years, our nation’s most treasured sporting events have become consumed by players, leagues, and corporations abusing their platforms to advocate left-wing political causes—but when it comes to athletics, just as in foreign relations, politics has historically stopped at the waters’ edge. As the world gears up for this summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, however, there are signs that the left’s insufferable wokeness is already destroying yet another once-great institution—the unifying patriotism and extraordinary excellence of Team USA.
Hammer thrower Gwen Berry turned her back to the flag as the National Anthem played while she was on the medal podium during Olympic trials on Saturday. Berry had previously been suspended for a year by the U.S. Olympic Committee for raising her fist during the National Anthem at the 2019 Pan American Games. But now, woke athletes like Berry have bullied the Committee into allowing anti-American protests during trials, and even demanded apologies for having been punished for breaking the previously existing rules. Berry has allegedly received such an apology from the CEO of the U.S. Olympic Committee, and is apparently going forward emboldened.
“The anthem doesn’t speak for me. It never has,” the athlete said.
After the National Anthem played during the medal ceremony on Saturday, Berry declared “It was a set-up” and “real disrespectful.”
“I was pissed, to be honest,” she said. Left unanswered is what Berry will do if she wins an Olympic medal and the anthem is played in recognition of her achievements at the Tokyo games.
Far from an anomaly, Berry’s actions are just the latest in a series of red flags that suggest America is barreling toward international mortification as our “woke” athletes attempt to out-virtue signal each other at the Summer Olympics. Her fellow American Athlete, fencer Race Imboden, was also suspended after he protested the National Anthem in 2019 by taking a knee.
Perhaps the most shocking prospect is that raised by transgender BMX Freestyle bicyclist, Chelsea Wolfe. Recently, social media posts of Wolfe’s surfaced in which she stated that she wishes to win an Olympic medal so she can have the opportunity to burn the American flag in front of the entire world, and also implied that someone should assassinate Donald Trump.
In a now deleted Facebook post, Wolfe shared an article from PinkNews, a UK-Based LGBTQ interest news site, discussing the Trump Administration’s stance on transgender athletes. She added a caption stating, “My goal is to win the Olympics so I can burn a US flag on the podium. This is what they focus on during the pandemic. Hurting trans children.” In the comments section, Wolfe also implied that President Trump should be assassinated. She stated that she “would never say that someone should explode the head of the President. That would be illegal….but I will say ‘with dynamite.’” This, she explained was “just a sentence fragment” that is “not necessarily related to the sentence that came before.”
The unusual phrasing of her posting was attributed to a comedic video in which an individual explains the legal ways one may incite violence against, or threaten to murder, the President of the United States. The social media posts were discovered by journalist Ian Miles Cheong, and Wolfe quickly deleted them after the first stories appeared.
All of this raises the question of whether the U.S. Olympic Committee, in lifting its ban on such extremism, is inviting a boycott by normal Americans. The NFL, MLB, and NBA have all seen catastrophic declines in viewership since “going woke.” Americans may be even less likely to tune in to see athletes they don’t know, playing sports they don’t watch, impugn their nation in front of the entire world.
While Wolfe’s ambition to burn the flag would certainly be unprecedented in American-Olympic history, the sentiments these leftist Olympians expressed have become commonplace in domestic athletics in recent years. Kneeling has become so frequent at national sporting events that many stadiums are either keeping their players in the locker room or not playing the anthem at all.
The Olympics, however, are an entirely different playing field. All Olympians are expected to represent their sovereign country, and the International Olympic Committee has made it clear that any form of protest is strictly prohibited. Presumably in an attempt to head off major international incidents rather than out of any concern for the reputation of the United States, the IOC has made clear that any “demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda” by any Olympian will be severely punished. This includes all “Black Lives Matter” apparel. Athletes who persist may face disqualification, which would likely cause the United States to lose medals.
Predictably if ridiculously, several athletes are now protesting the ban on protesting.
Most notably, World Cup soccer star turned political activist Megan Rapinoe stated, “So much being done about the protests. So little being done about what we are protesting about. We will not be silenced.”
Wolfe, the transgender athlete, has yet to clarify whether or not, if given the opportunity, she still intends to burn the flag. Burning a flag on the medal stand would certainly result in an individual’s immediate removal from competition. Currently, she is still an alternate for Team USA at the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. She released a statement to Fox News saying, “Anyone who thinks that I don’t care about the United States is sorely mistaken…One of the reasons why I work so hard to represent the United States in international competition is to show the world that this country has morals and values, that it’s not all of the bad things that we’re known for.”
“I take a stand against fascism because I care about this country,” she continued, “and I’m not going to let it fall into the hands of fascists after so many people have fought and sacrificed to prevent fascism from taking hold abroad. As a citizen who wants to be proud of my home country, I’m sure as hell not going to let it take hold here.”
The text of this “clarification” certainly suggests that Wolfe means to imply she is not currently proud of her country, merely that she one day hopes to be.
As of publication, Chelsea Wolfe has not apologized for or retracted her statement about assassinating the former president.