As the November election approaches, athletes and other prominent figures in the sports industry are expressing their political beliefs and actively encouraging the public to engage in the civic responsibility of voting.

While many Americans believe in the importance of leaving political beliefs out of sports, athletes in various professional leagues have challenged this concept and used their popularity to bring attention to the issues they care about.

Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry publicly endorsed presidential candidate Joe Biden in late August after openly expressing his discontent for President Trump’s leadership.

Countless people praised Curry’s choice, and he received no backlash for his statements. Like Curry, other athletes should be using their freedom of speech in order to encourage the change they desire.

After scrolling through a list of numerous athletes who publicly endorsed presidential candidate Joe Biden, I began to wonder how many athletes have supported President Trump and his reelection campaign.

I stumbled upon the story of Quinn Simmons, an American cyclist who was removed from his professional team for his conservative beliefs.

After a Dutch journalist asked for any of her followers who supported Trump to unfollow her, Simmons responded with the word, “Bye!” and a waving hand emoji.

His remarks shocked many people in the cycling community, and Simmons lost hundreds of followers and faced ridicule on social media.

Once Simmons’s former American team, Trek-Segafredo, discovered the Twitter thread, they made a statement regarding his comments.

“Regrettably, team rider Quinn Simmons made statements online that we feel are divisive, incendiary and detrimental to the team, professional cycling, its fans and the positive future we hope to help create for the sport,” Trek-Segafredo said in a statement.” [He] will not be racing for Trek-Segafredo until further notice.”

An American cyclist on an American team coming out in support of the sitting President of the United States and losing his job is wrong and undermines the very democratic principles that this nation is built upon.

No athletes, conservative or liberal, should fear expressing their political views in 2020. Democracy has no place for these types of actions. When more people fear expressing their partisan alignment, less political dialogue occurs, only making our nation even more polarized.