When the United States Women’s National Team took on Australia in the bronze medal match of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the entire team knelt during the national anthem in protest of racial inequality in the United States, but Carli Lloyd chose to stand instead. And now, she’s explaining why.
During a recent appearance on CBS Sports’ “Kickin’ It,” Carli Lloyd explained her decision to stand during the national anthem while her teammates knelt, revealing that she thought the team had “done enough of the kneeling.”
“I just felt like I had done it five other times and I just wanted to stand for this one,” Lloyd said on the show. “That was it, there was like no other thought or anything. … I just thought that we had done enough of the kneeling and I just wanted to stand for my last world championship game.”
"I just felt that we had done enough of the kneeling and I just wanted to stand for my last World Championship game."
On tonight's episode of Kickin' It, @kate_abdo asks Carli Lloyd about her decision not to kneel in at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. pic.twitter.com/juefQnbviD
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) October 18, 2023
Lloyd herself chose to kneel with her team on several occasions, but she seemed to think that the protests had simply become played out and were lacking meaning.
“But I’m in support of change that’s actionable change,” Lloyd said.
“And I just felt like it was just like a thing to do. Like it was just beginning to feel like a thing to do. It was an empty stadium, I don’t know how many people were watching the game. It was 10 seconds before, it was not like our team was wearing coats, it was a global thing people were doing.”
Lloyd’s actions and explanation drew a lot of criticism on social media.
Reminder that marginalized groups don’t get to decide when they’ve “had enough” advocating for themselves and real, actual allies empathize & show that allyship through their actions every day. Can’t believe this interview is getting so much oxygen. Shameful. https://t.co/ysqJcsAPPm
— My Deeper Well is Renaissance (@chrennix) October 18, 2023
the constant narcissism and victimization she tries to convey just makes me more certain that she was a horrible teammate https://t.co/dUtV9gbf2o
— n (@davidsonfc) October 18, 2023
“kneeling doesn’t do anything, it’s performative”
Fair enough, then how about going and taking significant action yourself Carli
Oh wait! You never did! https://t.co/ZHd1MuWjZ9
— Maxwell 2 Electric Boogaloo (@Number1NIKIStan) October 18, 2023
there’s no way she doesn’t realize how much privilege she has in order to be saying this. racism isn’t cancelled because of YOUR last game like??? https://t.co/NNt4AMcIJE
— ً (@captainmorganfc) October 18, 2023
Ignore her politics. Ignore her personality. Her inability to articulate an answer to a question she knew was coming is a good enough reason to stop putting her on TV. It’s a job where you’re paid to analyze, to provide insight, to explain and teach. She can do none of this. https://t.co/g9ZoHvqfVV
— Yves Saint Larentowicz (@O_lanta) October 18, 2023
https://twitter.com/OrangeJackius/status/1714780704637112792?s=20
Good on Kate Abdo for pushing the issue in her questions. Carli Lloyd had no better answer than basically "I wanted it to be about me and my moment and I felt like this small act of solidarity was more than I wanted to deal with. I did my kneeling."
Woof. https://t.co/g3IFyk0mFi
— Tanya Ray Fox (@TanyaRayFox) October 19, 2023
It’s clear that people weren’t necessarily happy with Lloyd’s explanation.
