Athletes divided over NFL protests

Park City (USA): U.S. Winter Olympic athletes were as divided as the nation on Monday on the NFL player protests during the US national anthem in the wake of comments by Donald Trump.

Remarks and tweets by Trump insulted NFL players who kneeled during pre-game renditions of “The Star-Spangled Banner” to follow Colin Kaepernick’s protest move from last season over racial discrimination to African-Americans.

That led to most NFL players locking arms with each other and owners Sunday in protest of Trump’s free speech put-down, more players than ever electing to kneel after Trump said players should be fired for insulting the nation.

U.S. Olympic Committee chief executive Scott Blackmun backed the protests and supported athletes’ freedom of expression.

“I think the athletes you see protesting are protesting because they love their country, not because they don’t,” Blackmun said. “We fully support the right of our athletes and everybody else to express themselves,” he added.

While noting the Olympics ban all forms of demonstrations, he added, “we certainly recognize the importance of athletes being able to express themselves.”

Blackmun mentioned Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising their fists from the medal podium during the US anthem at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, calling it “a seminal moment not only for the Olympic movement but for the US Olympic team.”

Three-time US women’s figure skating champion Ashley Wagner, a 2016 world runner-up and 2014 Olympic bronze medalist, proudly supports the song she wants to hear on medal podiums.

“Hearing that anthem means I’ve had a really great day and I have nothing but great things to say about it,” Wagner said.

Wagner, 26, is the daughter of a US Army colonel and was born on a base in Germany, one of 10 places she called home as a child and self-described “Army brat.”

“To me it represents all the men and women who have fought for the flag when it waves,” Wagner said of the US anthem.

“I also recognize not everybody has that experience when they are hearing the anthem. Freedom of speech is one of those rights they are fighting for. If you choose to use it, more power to you,” he added further.