THIS SPORTING LIFE: SPORTING PROTEST

A Brief History Of Sporting Protest
By Gary Evans

Margaret Court. That name mean anything to you? She's widely regarded as the greatest female tennis player of all-time, she won a record 24 grand slams and was also the first woman in the open era to take the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open in a single year. If you are unfamiliar with her prowess on the court, perhaps you're aware of her abhorrent views off it.
Court, speaking to an Australian newspaper, believes gay people engage in "abominable sexual practices". The converted evangelical Christian went on to say: "I've nothing against homosexual people. I help them to overcome. We have people [at the Victory Life Centre, where she is a pastor] who have been homosexual who are now married." Presumably for her sporting achievements rather than her mediaeval opinions on homosexuality, Marge has a tennis court named after at Melbourne Park, the home of the Australian Open. 

This week, British tennis player Laura Robson played her first-round Aussie Open tie on the Margret Court Arena. She lost. But she did so while wearing a rainbow-coloured hairband – the colours adopted by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender pride. Robson is not the first athlete to use the sporting arena as a political platform. In 1936, sprinter Herman Neugass, swimming coach Charlotte Epstein, speedskater Jack Shea, track and field athletes Norman Cahners, Milton Green, Lillian Copeland and Syd Koff and the Long Island University Blackbirds basketball team all boycotted the Olympics in Hitler's Nazi Germany. (Although black athlete Jesse Owens made an equally profound statement by becoming the most successful athlete at the games, winning four golds, much to Hitler's dismay.)
At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico, in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement, two African American sprinters, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, punched the air with black-gloved fists after collecting their medals. Widely known as the "Black Power" salute, Smith would later explain it was, in fact, a gesture in support of all human rights. Either way, it is perhaps the greatest sporting-political statement ever made.

At the 1995 Rugby World Cup, Nelson Mandela used sport to unite a nation that – although recently free from apartheid – was still very much divided by colour. Mandela had witnessed black South Africans cheering against their home team, as, to them, the Springboks represented white supremacy and prejudice. With the help of national captain Francois Pienaar, Mandela succeeded in gaining support for the team from the non-white population. The South Africans went on to lift the World Cup, with a unified country cheering them on. So incredible was their story, it was made into movie in 2009 – Invictus, starring Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman.

Sadly – and possibly because she was told to do so by her minders/sponsors – Laura Robson played down her political stand at this year's Australian Open, saying she was not aware that gay rights activists had instructed fans to take rainbow-coloured flags to the Margaret Court Arena. "It was just a rainbow-coloured hairband," she said. "I didn't see anything about a protest today. I wore it because I believe in equal rights for everyone. That's it." Regardless, Robson proved that sport can still provide the perfect stage to protest again injustices, whatever they may be. Long may it continue.

Gary Evans is a contributing writer to Rolling Stone magazine and Sabotage Times. Follow Gary on Twitter: @GazEvans