DENVER (AP) — U.S. Olympic leaders are open to changing a longstanding rule restricting protests at the Olympics.

But the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee is also facing backlash from some of its own athletes who feel they've been kept out of the loop. The USOPC is forming an athletes' group to look into racial issues that have been exposed across the country in the aftermath of George Floyd's killing in Minneapolis.

But the committee made the move before consulting with the group that is supposed to represent athletes on the U.S. team. That upset some athletes. But both the athletes and the USOPC are working out their differences.

And both agree that attacking the problem of racism and social injustice is more important than internal squabbling.