Boston Celtics player and newly-minted U.S. citizen Enes Kanter Freedom issued a call to action to America's athletes set to compete in Beijing's Winter Olympic Games starting later this week: get educated, then speak out.
At an event hosted by The Heritage Foundation titled "The Wrong Choice: China and the 2022 Winter Olympics," Freedom blasted the Biden administration, International Olympic Committee, and other countries for not doing enough to prevent China from being awarded the honor of hosting the Olympics. Freedom said that the United States' "diplomatic boycott is good, obviously," but added that "it is not enough to me — I feel like all the athletes out there need to say enough is enough."
"This is bigger than sports," Freedom continued. "All the gold medals in the world that you can win is not more important than your morals, your principles, and your values — I feel like all the athletes need to stand up for something bigger...Athletes have a huge voice and they need to use it," he added.
Talking about his own decision to become a vocal critic of the CCP and an advocate for the Uyghurs, residents of Hong Kong, and others persecuted by China's dictatorial regime, he explained the choice facing athletes and other celebrities with large followings. "Pretty much every athlete, actor, singer, rapper, or people who have platforms are scared to say a word when it comes to China because obviously there’s so much, you know, money involved, business involved, endorsement deals involved...shoe sales and jersey sales. So they are scared to say a word when it comes to China."
For Freedom, though, he saw the decision of silence versus speaking as a simple choice. "I was like, you know what, there are more things important than money and business in our time — I cannot just stay silent where my Muslim brothers and sisters pretty much get tortured and raped every day in concentration camps. So you know what, I’ll be the one — I’ll be the bad guy if you call it a bad guy — and just say it how it is. I just wish that more athletes would join me," Freedom added. "It is a lonely road but I always say God is with me."
With the Winter Games set to begin on Friday, Freedom also noted the fact that Team USA warned all its athletes to bring a burner phone with them to use in Beijing due to the CCP's surveillance state. "This is mind-blowing," Freedom said of the CCP's apps created under the guise of health and safety that will collect information from athletes. "You need to understand where you’re going," he said of America's athletes. "Whenever I had a conversation with one of the athletes, I keep bringing up the missing tennis player — I was like listen, look what they did to their own tennis player, Peng Shuai. Are we really going to trust with CCP with our own players?" he asked.
Freedom continued his remarks by pointing out "while the athletes are in China they’re not allowed to make any kind of statements about any political stuff — that’s pretty much chilling their freedom of speech."
"So whenever I have a conversation with athletes, I’m like listen...think about this: if your mother, your daughter, your sister, your wife was in the concentration camps in Xinjiang, would you still go to those games?" Freedom asked of the decision athletes made to compete in Beijing.
"Obviously we should support Team USA," Freedom continued. "I wish they were not participating in the 'Genocide Games' but obviously...all we can do now is support our — I’m saying our because I just became a citizen — our players. I hope that they can win the gold medal against any country...obviously against China."
"One thing we need to do is educate our athletes," Freedom said in closing. "Because obviously they have a huge platform, and there are so many kids out there idolizing them...all the kids out there following in our footsteps, I feel like we definitely need some educated athletes out there to just bring and amplify some of the real issues that are happening around the world."
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