Germany's World Cup silence adds to vocal sporting protests

Germany's World Cup team made a statement by covering their mouths when they lined up for a team photo before losing to Japan in the World Cup on Wednesday. 

The players were indicating they had been gagged because FIFA threatened disciplinary action if they and other European teams wore "OneLove" rainbow armbands in Qatar. 

They are not the first athletes to use the big stage to make a political point. 

Raising a fist 

The first global political blow of the television era was struck in Mexico City on 17 October 1968. As black American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos stood on the podium wearing their gold and bronze 200m medals, each raised a gloved fist in a Black Power salute. They were expelled from Mexico City and dropped from the US team, but the moment has proved an enduring and emotional template inspiring protesters who have followed. 

Tommie Smith and John Carlos (Getty images)

One-armed salute 

At the 1980 Moscow Olympics, Soviet fans jeered Poland's Wladyslaw Kozakiewicz in the pole vault final. After outjumping home favourite Konstantin Volkov and, assured of gold, breaking the world record. Kozakiewicz turned, grinning, to the crowd and punched upward with his right arm while clutching his right bicep with his left hand. It was an involuntary muscle spasm, said the Polish government, when the Soviet Union demanded he be stripped of a medal. Less than two months later, the strikes that gave birth to the Polish Solidarity movement started. 

Taking a knee  

Colin Kaepernick, the San Francisco 49ers Super Bowl quarterback, and team-mate Eric Reid, jeopardised their careers when they knelt, rather than stand, during the American anthem before a game in September 2016 to protest police violence against black people.