The first mask had the name Breonna Taylor — a black medical technician shot dead by plainclothes police in her home in Louisville during a botched drug raid this year. The second one had the name Elijah Mcclain — a black massage therapist from Aurora, Colorado — who died after being placed in a chokehold by police and being sedated by paramedics. These are the masks of Naomi Osaka; she has seven of them, one for each match she hopes to play at the US Open (if she goes all the way, and we are rooting for her), depicting seven Black lives lost to police brutality in the United States. Osaka is not alone. When cricket restarted with the West Indies tour of England, each match began with players and officials kneeling to a Black Lives Matter (BLM) banner. In F1, drivers are wearing BLM masks. BLM masks and banners were everywhere during the Champions League matches in Lisbon in August.
There have been historic moments of protest in sport before, but they have always been met with crushing opposition. Most organised sport have rules against protests, citing a hypocritical adage that “sport and politics should not mix”. But the presence of national flags and anthems during sporting events makes sport political. The International Olympics Committee put a rule in place for the Tokyo Olympics, banning “any form of political, religious or ethnic demonstrations”. With the wave of protest culture running through sport now, it is time to lay these old notions to rest.