Black Lives Matter（ブラック・ライブズ・ マター）運動とオリンピック・パラリンピック 大会におけるアスリートの抗議行動

抄録

In the wake of the expansion of the Black Lives Matter （BLM） movement following the death of George Floyd in Minnesota in the United States in May 2020, athletes including Olympians and Paralympians, as well as international athletic organizations, began to actively express their views mainly on racial issues. In response, organizations such as the International Olympic Committee （IOC） and International Paralympic Committee （IPC）, as well as the National Olympic Committees （NOCs） and National Paralympic Committees （NPCs） of various countries, engaged in vigorous discussions on how to address this. The paper aims to shed light on the development of these discussions.

It focuses on the fact that the death of George Floyd became an opportunity for drawing attention to racial issues in regard to para athletes, which until then have received little attention. Some Para athletes have used SNS and other means to express their support of the BLM movement, and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee （USOPC） and the IPC posted information on the activities of these athletes on their official websites.

The organization that responded most quickly and also actively was the USOPC in the United States, where the BLM movement began. It established the Team USA Council on Racial and Social Justice, published its own guidelines for protest activities in the lead up to the Tokyo Games, and issued a series of recommendations, including for organizational reforms of the USOPC and other domestic governing bodies with consideration for minorities. At the same time, the IOC and IPC, led by the IOC Athletes’ Commission and IPC Athletes’ Council, conducted surveys of athletes and made recommendations for new guidelines for protest activities at the Games in light of the results of the surveys.

During the over one year of discussions on athletes’ protests over racial issues, the question of whether difficult situations unique to para athletes exist in relation to the social and political backdrop, including racial issues, was raised but never given sufficient consideration. There is a need for further consideration of this issue in the future.

Furthermore, in regard to what is included as the subject of the issues prohibited under Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter and Section 2.2 of the IPC Handbook, it remains ambiguous, and this was clear in the IOC’s response at the Tokyo Games. In view of the IOC’s and IPC’s advocacy of universality, clearly defining what is considered “political” in the context of permitting protests at Olympic and Paralympic venues, is expected to be difficult. In the future, more active protests and expression of opinions at the level of individual athletes, not only on racial issues but on political and social issues in general, is entangled with the risk that it will become an opportunity to bring in conflicts of nationalism at the state level.

As the paper observes, the expansion of the BLM movement has increased athletes’, including para athletes’, interest in and expression of opinions on political and social issues on a global level. In the future, we should also observe with attention how the reaction of Japanese athlete groups, athletes, and public opinion changes.