When play starts at the Tokyo Games on Wednesday, acts of free expression of the kind athletes were long banned from making at the Olympics will take centre stage.
The British women's soccer team has pledged to take a knee before kickoff against Chile in their Olympic tournament opener in Sapporo, to show support for racial justice.
Still, it is a limited freedom allowed by the International Olympic Committee, which just this month eased its longstanding ban on all athlete protest inside the Games field of play. The change followed two reviews in 18 months by the IOC's own athletes commission which advised against it.Medal podiums remain off limits for protest, and even the IOC concessions left each sport's governing body free to retain the ban.
``FIFA believes in freedom of speech and opinion, and this applies to players, coaches, officials and any other person or organization within the scope of FIFA's activities,'' soccer's world body said in a statement. Soccer and athletics are the progressive end of the 33 sports governing bodies at these Summer Games.
``There is not really a `one size fits all' solution,'' Bach said when asked about the apparent contradiction of some Olympic athletes having fewer freedoms than others in Tokyo.
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