Olympic Hammer Thrower Gwen Berry Protests National Anthem Ahead Of Tokyo Olympics

Gwen Berry is a U.S. hammer thrower who will be competing at the Tokyo Olympics. However, she was a part of a national anthem protest, according to TMZ. 

Berry did a well-enough performance on Saturday at the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials in Eugene. Oregon as a pro athlete and accepted the bronze medal at the podium.

It wasn’t until “The Star Spangled Banner” began to play and Berry refused to place her hand over her heart, unlike her competitors on the podium with her. 

At one point, while she was standing up there, Berry busted out a T-shirt she had on her that read “Activist Athlete” … holding it up high, and then putting it over her head while she continued to snub the flag/anthem as it played. She didn’t stop there, either. 

Afterward, she was obviously asked about her demonstration. Turns out, she was very upset by the whole thing — accusing organizers of staging the timing of it all and playing the anthem right when they knew Gwen would get up, almost daring her to react.

She said, “They had enough opportunities to play the national anthem before we got up there. I was thinking about what I should do. Eventually, I stayed there and I swayed … It was real disrespectful.” Berry went on to claim she was told the anthem would be played before the podium ceremony, adding, “I don’t really want to talk about the anthem because that’s not important. The anthem doesn’t speak for me. It never has.”

It’ll be interesting to see how Berry handles anthems at the actual games here in a few weeks. The International Olympic Committee has said athletes who compete are forbidden from making scenes like this, be it political, social or otherwise.

If they choose to do so anyway, they risk being fined — and possibly worse — all of which will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.