This is going to be a very important decision. IOC will have to expand and define the rule
Rule 50.2 of the Olympic Charter states “no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas”.
This is because if IOC bans the athlete, then they are going to define showing the photograph of friends who died in a war is ‘political propaganda’, but showing the photograph of relatives who died in plane crash is permitted. The key point is the athlete did not use a phrase like “End War in Ukraine”. They just had a set of photographs. This is going to be very tricky.
Meanwhile Russia and Belarus are banned from the Olympics because of the war in Ukraine. So the IOC already has an official stance with regards to the root issue. And it’s the side consistent with the athlete.
Ukrainian slider wears helmet despite IOC ban
https://www.bbc.com/sport/articles/c6274mgve33o
This is going to be a very important decision. IOC will have to expand and define the rule
This is because if IOC bans the athlete, then they are going to define showing the photograph of friends who died in a war is ‘political propaganda’, but showing the photograph of relatives who died in plane crash is permitted. The key point is the athlete did not use a phrase like “End War in Ukraine”. They just had a set of photographs. This is going to be very tricky.
Meanwhile Russia and Belarus are banned from the Olympics because of the war in Ukraine. So the IOC already has an official stance with regards to the root issue. And it’s the side consistent with the athlete.
They ended up banning him for a different reason: https://www.bbc.com/sport/articles/c309pj8d8qqo