Once The Games Got Underway The Public Criticism Went Quiet

                                                                  

SOCHI, Russia--Before the Sochi Games, a number of Olympic athletes pointedly spoke out against Russia's controversial gay 'propaganda' laws. The law mandates fines for speaking in defense of gay rights or saying gay relationships are equal to heterosexual ones in front of minors.

Australian snowboarder Belle Brockhoff, for instance, told The Atlantic before Sochi that she planned to "rip on (Russian President Vladimir Putin's) ass" after competing.

Once the Games got underway, the public criticism all but went quiet.

  There were no high-profile proactive statements or blatant symbolic gestures by athletes. A few athletes criticized the law when asked by reporters to weigh in and a Belgian performer who supports gay rights displayed rainbow colors, a symbol of the gay-rights movement, during her performance at the Games.

But the only really noticeable pro-gay act inside Olympic Park came when Italian Vladimir Luxuria, a transgendered gay rights activist, showed up at a women's hockey game in a rainbow skirt after broadcasting that she planned a protest. Police removed her from the park. A day earlier police detained her briefly after she unfurled a "gay is okay" banner outside the park.

So what happened?

"I really have already voiced my opinion and spoken out," said U.S. figure skater Ashley Wagner, responding to questions from reporters. Wagner has been outspoken in her criticism of the Russian laws. "My stand against the LGBT legislation here in Russia is really the most that I can do right now," she said. "I'm here to compete first and foremost."

It is an oft-spoken mantra by athletes.

Athletes who have spent a lifetime preparing for the Olympics say using the platform to promote a political or human rights cause distracts from the competition and from other athletes who may not share their views. As far as speaking out at the Games themselves, while competitors are allowed to voice opinions when asked, Olympic charter prohibits political propaganda in any "Olympic sites, venues or other areas."

Russian officials set aside a site where protests would be allowed but it was several miles outside the Olympics and mostly stood empty.

Olympic activism has been a complicated and controversial issue for decades – the most famous incident the black power salute by medal winners John Carlos and Tommie Smith in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics – and this year was no exception.

Brockhoff, speaking to reporters after failing to medal in ladies' boardercross, told reporters she began receiving "hate tweets" after speaking out against Putin. Sochi, she said, was not the right place to take a stand.

"I said before, if I didn't get a medal, nobody is really going to care," she said. Brockhoff said pressure she felt to advocate for gay rights was greater than the pressure she felt to compete. "I want to enjoy the Olympic experience, but after that I will definitely be voicing my opinion."

Tennis great Billie Jean King, who is among the gay athletes President Barack Obamanamed to the U.S. Olympic delegation, said Sunday that she supported athletes' decisions to stay clear of public demonstrations that could get them booted from competition, but disagrees that the Olympics is not a place for politics.

"It is an unbelievable opportunity to exchange ideas and hear each other," she said, standing on a hotel balcony just outside Olympic Park. "Hopefully, out of all these athletes we will have some teachers."

To believe the Olympics can remain entirely separate from politics, she says, amounts to "keeping your head in the sand."

Gay Olympians didn't face the backlash that hit Johnny Weir, gay figure-skater-turned-commentator, when he said he planned to work the Games for NBC but not address gay rights while there. Gay-rights groups criticized his decision; one organization protested outside Columbia University where Weir was speaking.

"There has never been such a coordinated and global presence and view from athletes…speaking out so strongly against discrimination in sport," said Andre Banks, cofounder and executive director of gay-rights group All Out. "It's hard to look at where we're at and where we were a year ago for these games and feel like we didn't have an iconic moment."

Banks said the International Olympic Committee should be more selective in selecting future host cities. "There should be a bar," he said.

IOC Spokesman Mark Adams said it's impractical to weed out potentially controversial countries, otherwise the Olympics would be held "in only two places," he said.

The lack of demonstrations at the Games was a success for organizers eager to keep the spotlight off Russia's antigay laws. Russian officials have denied allegations they've tried to suppress protests.

"Our job at the IOC is to see that Principle 6 is upheld and we believe it has been," Adams said, referring to a section of the Olympic charter that prohibits discrimination -- though not explicitly against gays -- at the Olympics. "We believe that has been fully upheld."

He said the dustup with Luxuria, the Italian activist, is "a good case of why we need to keep the games separate from issues that are not game related."

The biggest statements came from outside Olympic Park.

In an unusually explicit stand, AT&T Inc. came out against the Russia law before the Games, calling it "harmful to a diverse society." A Canadian human-rights group released a witty Olympic-themed commercial supporting gay rights, with the tagline, "The games have always been a little gay. Let's fight to keep them that way." Obama's decision to send King and other gay athletes to the Games and skip the event himself was widely seen as a poke at Putin. White House officials have said Obama's schedule did not permit him to attend the Games.

The highest-profile dissent was focused on broader human rights issues.

A group of uniformed Cossacks attacked members of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot with horse whips in the center of Sochi on Wednesday as the group began an anti-Kremlin protest near the Olympic Games in a widely-broadcast scene. Adams, the IOC spokesman, said the following day that the committee was distressed by the event and understood Russian authorities were looking into it.

In a brief appearance before reporters on Sunday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns said of the Pussy Riot situation, "there is no excuse for using violence against peaceful protesters."

Gay high-schooler and activist Vladislav Slavsky attended the gathering with King and Burns. Slavsky, of Sochi, said he has been beaten at school and is regularly harassed. He said the Olympics brought much-needed attention to gay rights in Russia and he fears the attention will fade when the Games leave town.

"Journalists will go away from here," he said. "And Putin can do whatever he wants."

—Betsy McKay and Paul Sonne contributed to this article.

Write to Sharon Terlep at sharon.terlep@wsj.com