Protests, not boycotts, are the way to challenge China on human rights, letting athletes use their platforms to highlight issues hanging over the 2022 Beijing Olympics, according to U.S. women's soccer international Megan Rapinoe.
Although it is COVID-19 that has put this summer's Tokyo Games under threat, Rapinoe is rarely shy about sharing her thoughts be it on pandemics or politics.
"I don't think athletes should be pawns," Rapinoe told Reuters in a Zoom interview. "It is always a balance between boycotting and using the event as an opportunity to continue to speak truth to power and protest in some sort of way.