Greek Athlete Kicked Off Olympic Team After Racist Tweets: Was It the Right Decision?

Actually I didn't know about the 68 games, a little before I was born well a year anyway interesting was that the IOC President Brundage was a Nazi sympathizer and the Australian winner wore the Olympic human rights badge and while not expelled from the games he was ostracized by his country's media and was banned for two years upon his return. So there is precedent for making statements although this was looked at as a "black power" statement this was actually a Human Rights statement by black athletes; wonder if this would be allowed today?

I doubt it.
It represents an internal politcal statement, and has no business in the international spotlight.

Tasteless. Stupid. But a ban of her life's work? No wonder Greece is screwed up.

Besides...she's hot!

Everyone has the right to their personal views.

Should Olympic athletes be stopped from expressing personal views and politics. No. Remember this political statement at the 1968 Olympic Games?

Tommie Smith in the middle and John Carlos on the right, expressed their personal views and the Olympics organizers stripped them of their medals and forced them to leave the Olympic Village, and in fact to leave Mexico. I remember the 1968 Olympic Games. You do not.

The IOC still lists them as medal winners.
The USOC probably had their feelings hurt.
I remember the 1968 Olympics and I ignore the American media BS as much as possible. Parochial, jingoistic crap.

The white guy expressed his opinion, on the podium, too, but did it through a pin he wore. The Olympic committee did not penalize him though, for whatever reason.

He was ostracized by his own country and the media though and was not allowed to compete for two years and wasn't selected for the 72 games, probably good thing though Munich was a bad year, so I wouldn't say he got off easy.

I don't know how old you are, but I was 13 then. I do remember.

idiots,.

She has her opinion but the olympics are to be about the athlete not politics. In the olden days nations would stop their wars to hold the games.

What she said was silly yes, but she certainly didn't deserve to be kicked off the team for it.

Personal views have nothing to do with athletic abilities.

she absolutely has a right to her opinion...and her country and the olympic committee has the right to say they do not like her sharing her opinion while she is representing their country...seems like it was more than just one tweet...she was waaaay too political in her tweets.

She has the right to her opinion no matter what it is.

Yes, she is an embarrassment to her country. God forbid she says those things while at the Olympics. Any person should take pride in such a big representation for their country, why post stupid racists things on twitter... she then apologized six times in one hour, YOU KNEW IT WAS WRONG....

People's opinions should not be a factor; there is still freedom of speech in this country.

If you weren't a complete idiot you might have realized the athlete was Greek, not from "this country," which I'm assuming is America.

OK I'm not an idiot but I failed to read that; so there ISN'T freedom of speech in Greece?

Can't say, I'm not a Greek citizen or resident. Either way, I don't necessarily agree with the ban so I won't argue with you on that point.

Wow what's wrong with ?
You had to add complete idiot didn't you

What's wrong with what? I think you missed something.

There is also free speech in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19. Which also has due process guarantees. And Greece signed it.

Awesome, thanks for answering the previous poster's question for me :D
If you had read my post you'd know I wasn't arguing the point of free speech or lack thereof.

Competing in the Olympics is a privilege extended to athletes by their countries. If the country doesn't want them on the team, too bad.

Being dumb enough to post those views/comments on a social media site immediately before the Olympics would be enough to get you kicked off most teams!

It was the political correct and popular decision.

For me it is at the discretion of the nation the athlete competes for. If the views of an athlete does not overall represent the views of that athletes nation than I find it perfectly within the rights of the athletes nation to kick that athlete to the curb. They serve their nation as a privilege and an honor. Those sponsoring them do not have to keep them on their nations Olympic squads if their views are in contrast with their sponsors.

Yes and no, really.

On one hand, the Olympic Games are not only a challenge of strength and agility, but also a test of sportsmanship. If not liking black people means you'll give a black competitor hell for beating you at the Games just because they were black, you shouldn't be allowed to participate. Your home nation's people might also look at you with scorn if they believe in racial equality, since they chose you to represent them in the Games and you decided to represent yourself instead.

On the other hand, however, the Games are designed to take people's minds off politics because they're games of strength and agility, not games of political debate and intelligence. In the end, ultimately, you're representing your home nation for your strength and flexibility, not for your opinions and your ability to think.

PC needs to leave the athletic field of competition.

I guess I am getting old and don't understand why young people go on twitter and say stupid things, don't they know it's going out to the world for review?????????

Most certainly. What would happen if she said something like that at the Olympics? To many different races colors and creeds there to try and pull that!

It was the right decision.

She was representing her country because of her athletic ability and for no other reason. Athletes are not vetted for their political views to see if they measure up to the Olympic "ideals" before being selected, so I don't see why her personal views - even if she makes them public, should cause her to be dropped. I know the authorities think they are acting to stamp out racism at large, but this will be seen as an over-reaction by many and will end up having the opposite affect...

if you're gonna spout your racist
views and you're an olympic athlete,you
should expect to be held accountable.

When you a representing something bigger than yourself you should be conscious of that status and not let you personal views be seen as representative of the group. As this lady can attest, that causes problems.

I guess she didn't learn from Fuzzy Zoeller.

Like it or not athlete's are like ambassadors to other countries, they represent thier own country and good sportsmanship, conduct is expected with the highest caliber.