Said Gwen Berry, explaining her behavior when the national anthem played as she took the stand after qualifying for the U.S. Olympic team, WaPo reports.
She'd finished finished third in
the hammer throw, and, we're told, she didn't think they'd be playing the national anthem for each medal ceremony at the trials, the way they do for the Olympic finals.
She continues:
"It was real disrespectful."
By that, she means not that she was disrespectful to turn away and pull her T-shirt over her head, but that they were disrespectful to play it.
"I know they did that on purpose, but it’ll be all right. I see what’s up.... It really wasn’t a message... I didn’t want to be up there. I felt like it was a setup. I was hot. I was ready to get my pictures and get to some shade.... It was funny because they said they were going to play it before we walked out... It just happened they played it when we were out there. So, you know, it’s okay. I really don’t want to talk about the anthem because that’s not important. The anthem don’t speak for me. It never has.... I think sports is a distraction. Sports is entertainment. But my purpose and my voice and mission is bigger than the sport. So me being able to represent my communities and my people and those who have died at the hands of police brutality, those who have died to this systemic racism, I feel like that’s the important part...."
For the Olympics, she demands that the officials authorize protest:
"It’s our sacrifice. It’s our podium. It’s our moment. So we should be able to protest whatever we want. It’s not for them to decide... When I get there... I’ll figure out something to do."
Sports is a distraction. Sports is entertainment — that is indeed true. True for spectator sports. But nobody needs sports for their distraction and entertainment. There are so many other things in this world. She's asserting that sports is mere distraction and entertainment while announcing her intention not to provide entertainment. She wants to use the occasion to offer painful critique, and she is pissed off that she didn't get the chance to think up the form of the critique and had to come up with something on the spot and chose swaying and putting a shirt over her head.
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Stan writes:
I will not be entertained; I will not be distracted. I just won’t watch. Ms Barry will lose the opportunity to proselytize because the large majority of people like me, who in the past thought the Olympics were an example of the exalted human experience of sport, will realize, at long last, that like war, the Olympics is "politics by other means.” And we’ve had *enough* of that.
Lucien writes:
In case you missed it, Deanna Price set several American records on the way to winning the hammer throw trials with a throw of 80.31 m. (263’6”).
She might medal at the Olympics. The race-baiting attention hound who finished third at the US trials probably won’t have to worry about being on the podium in Tokyo, but maybe she can pull some “look at me” stunt anyhow.
I didn't like the third place person taking attention from the winner.
I was fascinated by the body type of the winner (and second place woman). I guess that's what it takes to throw the hammer.
Tim writes:
As far as I am concerned, the Olympics can join MLB, the NFL, the NBA and the female equivalents. A pox on all their houses. I no longer watch any of them, and have no intention of restarting. When they alienate enough fans, and the viewership dries up, followed by the money drying up, they can be virtuous in their poverty.
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