The Olympics banned photos of players taking the knee being posted on its social media channels, then rapidly u-turned

• The IOC banned pictures of players taking the knee being shared on its social platforms.
• However, the decision was reversed less than two days after being made, the Guardian reported.
• On Thursday morning, the official Olympic Twitter account posted a photo of a GB soccer player kneeling.

Social media teams for the Olympics will now be able to post pictures of players taking the knee after the International Olympics Committee and Tokyo Olympics organizers u-turned on a previous decision to ban sharing images of athletes taking the knee.

The Guardian first reported on Wednesday that the International Olympic Committee and Tokyo Olympics organizers had banned posting of such photos ahead of the first events of the games, including the Team GB women's soccer match against Chile.

The team had made clear it intended to kneel before its games.

But according to the same outlet, that decision has now been reversed.

On Thursday morning Tokyo time, the official Olympics Twitter account posted a picture of Team GB's Lucy Bronze kneeling.

Kneeling before soccer matches has become commonplace in both the men's and women's games and players knelt before the start of each Premier League and Women's Super League match last season.

The gesture in soccer first started following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 and is now used to promote equality.

Speaking after her team's 2-0 victory over Chile, one of the Team GB captains Steph Houghton said they would kneel to "fight all forms of discrimination."

"Taking the knee was something we spoke about as a group. We feel so strongly and we want to show we're united.

"We want to fight all forms of discrimination and as a group of women we wanted to kneel against it," the Manchester City player said.