“I think it is absolutely embarrassing there are countries and people who are that intolerant or that ignorant,” Miller told reporters Monday at the U.S. Olympic media summit. “It’s not the first time. We have been dealing with human rights issues since there were humans.
“My main emotion when I hear and deal with situations like that is embarrassment. As a human being, I think it is embarrassing.”
Miller also said it was “hypocritical and unfair” that athletes are told they cannot express views about such subjects at the Olympics.
“There are politics in sport and athletics,” he said. “They always are intertwined, even though people try to keep them separate. Asking an athlete to go somewhere and compete and be a representative of that philosophy and all the different crap that kind of goes along with it and then telling them they can’t tell them they express their views or they can’t say what they believe is pretty hypocritical and unfair.
I know this has already been talked about but this got me thinking. Is this alright for athletes to speak out against a country like Russia vs. the World Cup being in Qatar. How can a country (Qatar and the UAE) host the World cup and how will effect the World Soccer stage. Any thoughts?
