In recent years, LeBron James and Colin Kaepernick have been showered with praise by Democratic politicians and friendly media outlets who talk about their bravery in taking political stances. Others take real stands with little to no media fawning. Artemi Panarin is one of the latter.
Panarin, a Russian hockey star for the New York Rangers, posted his support of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Instagram last month. Now, an accusation that he struck a young woman in Latvia 10 years ago has suddenly “resurfaced,” and Panarin has taken a leave of absence from the team.
The accusation comes from a former coach, a known supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin who has called for players critical of Russia to be jailed, and was written up in a Russian tabloid. Panarin says the story is fabricated, and the Rangers called it a clear “intimidation tactic.” The New York Post interviewed four of Panarin’s former teammates, none of whom could recall the incident happening.
Panarin isn’t the only current or former athlete to pay a price for speaking out against totalitarian regimes. German soccer player Mesut Ozil fell out of favor with his Premier League team, in part, because he spoke out against China’s genocide of the Uyghurs. NBA player Enes Kanter has been repeatedly harassed by the Turkish government after criticizing Turkish dictator Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to the point that he couldn’t play an NBA game in Europe out of fear for his own safety.
Others have shown themselves willing to make sacrifices to speak out against tyranny. Boxer Artur Beterbiev, a Muslim, threatened to give up his light heavyweight title rather than fight in China in 2019. Former Chinese soccer star Hao Haidong called for the fall of the Chinese Communist Party, calling it a terrorist organization and saying of potential retaliation against him and his wife that, “Today, we’ve made the biggest and most correct decision in our lives.”
These men actually embody the Nike slogan of “believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything,” which was used to promote a mediocrity like Kaepernick while selling shoes built with Uyghur forced labor. While hypocrites such as James take the same, corporate-approved positions of popular culture and establishment media, athletes such as Panarin take stands against the worst human rights abusers on the planet, knowing they will be retaliated against.
Panarin won’t get the same glowing coverage as James or Kaepernick, but he deserves recognition, as do Ozil, Kanter, Beterbiev, and Hao. They could have taken the same cookie-cutter social justice stances as everyone else and been showered in praise. Instead, they chose to put their reputations, careers, or even their lives on the line, knowing that their influence could be used for good.
