Americans want politics-free games

RIO DE JANEIRO: Most Americans want Olympic athletes to keep their political views to themselves in Rio de Janeiro, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, despite

RIO DE JANEIRO: Most Americans want Olympic athletes to keep their political views to themselves in Rio de Janeiro, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, despite one of the most intense political build-ups to the Games in recent decades.

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Host nation Brazil has been roiled by a domestic political crisis. And in a tense summer of fatal shootings by and against US police officers, American activists from the Black Lives Matter movement recently extended their campaign to Rio de Janeiro, marching through the city with Brazilian partners to protest against violent discrimination by Brazilian police. The poll of 3,015 people, interviewed online over July 22-26, found that a majority of Americans, whether they identify as white or as belonging to a racial minority, felt that it was best to keep politics out of the Olympics. The poll has a credibility interval of 2 percent.