IOC Is Looking Into Mao Pins Worn by Chinese Athletes

They may have violated Rule 50
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Aug 3, 2021 7:34 PM CDT
IOC Is Looking Into Mao Pins Worn by Chinese Athletes
Shanju Bao, left, and Tianshi Zhong, of China, celebrate their gold medals during a ceremony for the track cycling women's team sprint finals at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Monday, Aug. 2, 2021, in Izu, Japan.   (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

The image of Communist China's founding leader, Mao Zedong, made an unscheduled appearance at the Tokyo Olympics, and the International Olympic Committee said Tuesday it is "looking into the matter.” The gesture—Mao pin badges worn by two Chinese gold medalists at their medal ceremony—risks being judged a breach of Olympic Charter Rule 50, which prohibits political statements on the podium at the Tokyo Games, and at the upcoming 2022 Beijing Winter Games. After winning the women’s sprint in track cycling Monday, Bao Shanju and Zhong Tianshi wore pin badges of Mao, the AP reports. The leader who proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 remains an iconic figure in China 45 years after his death in 1976.

"We have contacted the Chinese Olympic Committee, asked them for a report about the situation," IOC spokesman Mark Adams said at the daily news conference at the Tokyo Games The incident came one day after American shot-put silver medalist Raven Saunders crossed the wrists of her raised arms on the podium. She was standing next to the gold medalist from China. It was unclear Tuesday if the Mao pins were a response to the shot-put medal ceremony. "It’s the intersection of where all people who are oppressed meet,” Saunders, who is Black and gay, said when asked about the gesture. The IOC has long claimed it is politically neutral and must maintain that stance to allow more than 200 national teams to arrive and compete at an Olympic Games as equals.

(More 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games stories.)

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