10 Famous Sporting Protests

Muhammad Ali was the most famous sportsperson of his generation, and he used his status to protest ‘white power’ and the mistreatment of African-Americans throughout his career.

‘The Greatest’ refused to fight in the Vietnam War in 1966. He enlisted himself in 1961, but had since converted to Islam and insisted that war was “against the teachings of the Qur’an”.

Ali elaborated: "Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville [Kentucky] are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?"

His protest energised the ongoing civil rights movement, but it did cost Ali the best years of his boxing career. He was stripped of his WBA and WBC Heavyweight titles, as well as his passport, and was refused a boxing license in every state from March 1967 to October 1970.

He would return to the ring to fight Joe Frazier and George Foreman among others, but Ali’s legacy is more famous for the impact of his politics, and not the impact of his right hook.