Athletes from across the globe taking a knee in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.

However, such Athlete protest was once forbidden at the Olympics.

Women’s soccer players from Great Britain and Chile kicked off the games by taking a knee to protest the racial discrimination that Black players on England’s national team faced after losing the UEFA European Championship earlier this month.

The Japanese women’s soccer team later did the same, a rare act of protest by a Japanese team. Costa Rican gymnast Luciana Alvarado took a knee and put her first in the air after finishing her floor routine on Sunday.

“This global stage with a global audience is a rare opportunity,” said Richard Lapchick, director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport and a professor at the University of Central Florida.

The pickup in demonstrations follows the International Olympic Committee’s recent decision to relax decades-old restrictions on athlete expression meant to maintain neutrality at the games.

The amended guidelines in Rule 50 of the Olympic charter now allow athletes to engage in demonstrations at select times and sites as long as those actions do not constitute or signal “discrimination, hatred, hostility or the potential for violence.”

The latest actions highlight a longtime paradox for athletes: They are held up as heroes until they use their platforms to make political statements.

That has started to change thanks to National Football League quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who was sidelined from his job after taking a knee to protest police brutality during the U.S. national anthem at a 2016 game.

But even now, athletes aren’t immune to the consequences of speaking out. American gymnastics star Simone Biles and Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka both faced criticism for bringing mental health to the fore during this year’s Olympic games.

Osaka also took a thrashing on social media after losing a match at the Olympics on Tuesday, with some questioning why she represented Japan as the final torchbearer in the games’ opening ceremony.

China surprised the U.S. and Australia with a world-record performance in the women’s 4×200-meter freestyle relay on Thursday.

Katie Ledecky took the anchor leg for the Americans in third place, nearly 2 seconds behind the Chinese and also trailing the Aussies.

Ledecky passed Australia’s Leah Neale and closed the gap significant on China’s Li Bingjie, but couldn’t quite catch her at the end.

Li touched in 7 minutes, 40.33 seconds, denying both Ledecky and Ariarne Titmus another gold medal.

After winning both the 200 and 400 free individual titles, Titmus led off for Australia in the relay.

The Americans claimed silver in 7:40.73, while Australia took the bronze in 7:41.29.

It was the first swimming world record of the Tokyo Games — in fact, all three medalists broke the previous mark of 7:41.50 set by the Aussies at the 2019 world championships.

A serbian national Milutin Sredojević Micho that once propelled Uganda Cranes to their first AFCON qualification after 38 years of waiting in 2017 has been reappointed to head the Cranes.

He also helped Uganda to attain it’s best ever FIFA ranking to the 62nd position.

The Federation of Uganda Football Association (FUFA) announced Tuesday that Micho has been named the new head coach of Uganda Cranes on a three-year renewable contract effective 1st August 2021.

“He will address the media on Tuesday 3rd August 2021.” FUFA announced.

According to details, the Head coach has a contractual mandate to name his backroom staff.

“After exactly 4 years of AFRICAN FOOTBALL studies on Universities of life and football at ORLANDO PIRATES, ZAMALEK and ZAMBIA, going back to my AFRICAN FOOTBALL HOME,” Micho posted on his twitter account.

The Cranes managerial role became vacant after FUFA sacked Northern Irishman Jonathan Mckinstry after a string of dismal performances.

Micho was first appointed as the national team manager in 2013 where he lasted four years until his departure in 2017.

The 51 year old was a fan favourite before he left for South African side Orlando Pirates where he spent two years.

It was from there that he switched to Egyptian giants Zamalek before joining the Zambian national team,the Chipolopolo in 2020.