This is the kind of thing athletes need to do this summer, when they’re in Bejing for the Olympics: “German pole vaulter Anna Battke plans to protest China’s intervention in Tibet at the Beijing Olympics. Although Olympic regulations prohibit political statements, Battke wants athletes to dress up as Tibetan monks and Chinese officials and symbolically shake hands.”
Anna Battke is an athlete and 23-year-old psychology student. In an interview with the SPIEGEL she said: “What is happening in Tibet at the moment is simply tragic.” In her opinion, it’s “the obligation of athletes to call attention to injustice.”

In order to do so, she envisions a demonstration during the opening ceremony: half of the athletes would dress up as Tibetan monks, while the other half would dress as Chinese government officials. “Then we could symbolically shake hands with each other.”

Although the plan sounds good, it’s not likely that she’ll get a lot of athletes to join her protest. ‘The Olympic Charter bans any kind of political statements from the games.’ “If they have to choose, many would feel that a nice Olympic victory is more important to them,” Battke explained. However, she isn’t going to remain silent: “I’ll come up with something, whatever happens,” she said.