Heightened Racism in International Competition?

http://www.purdueexponent.org/sports/article_f3357e58-5190-5118-bc88-b16fff219b58.html


I came across this article a few days ago and was interested in the notion of heightened racism in international sports.  While I missed the specific event between Brazil and Colombia in the World Cup a couple of weeks ago, I did read a number of racially-motivated remarks related to this instance on social media, which made me wonder - is racism more prevalent in international competition today than it was, say, one hundred years ago?  Since we started this class, we have read a number of articles detailing the history of racial integration in sports, with some of the earliest (and most monumental) instances - such as Tom Molineaux's fight against Tom Cribb in England, Jack Johnson's fight with Tommy Burns in Australia to claim the world heavyweight title, and Major Taylor's widespread cycling fame in Europe (particularly in France) - occurring outside of the U.S., which seems to suggest that racial integration in sports was progressing much more quickly abroad than domestically.  Given America's tumultuous history with racism at the time, this is not hard to believe.  But since then, has racism in international competition grown - not necessarily to surpass that in domestic competition within the U.S. (unfortunately, total "integration" in American sports may be a visible reality, but socially, I think we are still some distance from it) - across the world in the last century?  For instance, does anyone remember this from Sochi?  While this may have occurred off of the playing "field," I think that it still highlights racial discrimination as a result of international competition.  Perhaps this is somewhat inevitable given the nature of international sporting events that draw athletes and fans of different races together for tense competition, but I still don't think that justifies blatant racism by anyone.