African American News & Issues
Gwen Berry: “Activist Athlete” Tokyo Olympics 2021
Berry was formally reprimanded and put on 12-month probation by the U.S. Olympic Committee in 2019 for raising a fist after winning the gold medal at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru.
Gwen Berry is headed to Tokyo representing the United States at the 2021 Olympics in the hammer throw, a track and field event.
Berry, a two-time Olympian, was also in the 2016 Olympics in Rio. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1989 and is 32 years old.
On June 26, 2021, while qualifying for the U.S. Olympic team in Eugene Oregon, Berry was surprised to hear “The Star-Spangled Banner”, the U.S. National Anthem being played.
On the podium she turned away from the flag and draped her “Activist Athlete” tee-shirt over her head.
Berry said: “I feel like it was a set-up, and they did it on purpose. . .. I was pissed to be honest.”
Berry said she was told that the athletes would be on the podium before or after the playing of the national anthem.
“That’s what they’ve done the whole trials” Berry said.
Texas Republican politicians Senator Ted Cruz and Congressman Dan Crenshaw called for Berry to be removed from the USA Olympic team as she was unpatriotic.
Caitlyn Jenner, an Olympic decathlon winner in 1976 and candidate for California governor on the September 14th Newsom recall election in a statement said Berry’s actions were “disgusting” and to “stay out of politics” and not use the Olympic stage “for your own political gain.”
Berry responded: “I say Caitlyn Jenner does not know how it feels to be a Black person in American who’s representing a country [that] has literally done nothing for Black people in America. She needs to do her research and understand the history in America before she says anything like that.
Berry was formally reprimanded and put on 12-month probation by the U.S. Olympic Committee in 2019 for raising a fist after winning the gold medal at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru.
In June of 2020, the USOC supported peaceful protests and condemned “the systemic inequality that disproportionately impacts Black Americans.”
Berry tweeted “I want an apology letter. . . mailed . . . just like you and the IOC MAILED ME WHEN YOU PUT ME ON PROBATION. . . stop playing with me.”
Berry added to The Associated Press: “The anthem doesn’t speak for me. It never has. . .. I am here to represent those . . . who dies due to systemic racism. That’s the important part. That’s why I’m going.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said: “[p]art of that pride in our country means recognizing there are moments where we are, as a country, haven’t lived up to our highest ideals. And it means respecting the rights of people granted to them in the Constitution to peacefully protest.”
The 2020 Summer Olympics delayed because of the pandemic will be held from July 23 to August 8, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan.
The New York Times, CNN, and Wikipedia were sources for this story.
