Track and field athletes should be able to protest about social justice without fearing punishment, USA middle-distance runner Bernard Lagat has said.

Lagat, who competed for Kenya before switching nationality after living in the US from 1996, said that he questioned whether competitors in athletics were "doing enough" in comparison to their peers in other sporting fields.

Colin Kaepernick in American football, Naomi Osaka in tennis and LeBron James in basketball all played a key role in a summer in which Black Lives Matter became a dominant story, Lagat argued.

"Sometimes I feel like we [in athletics] are not doing enough," he told BBC Sport Africa.

"But at least if you try even if I do a little bit of my share at least it is hitting somewhere, it is getting somewhere rather than me being quiet. And as a sports figure I think that is what we should be highlighting without fear of retribution.

"We should be free to express ourselves like the way all these amazing athletes have been doing."

'We want a change'

Other notable protests in sport have included footballers in the Premier League taking a knee before every match, and F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton wearing a T-shirt on the podium calling for the arrest of police involved in shooting a black woman.

While Olympic rules would seemingly preclude athletes from doing the same at the Games, World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe said earlier this month that "If an athlete chooses to take a knee on a podium, then I am supportive of that."

"Athletes are a part of the world and they want to reflect the world they live in," he added.

Lagat said he felt that it was important that these words were "put into action."

"We want change from IOC where they will support the athletes rights," he said.

"Think about the fight over Rule 50. Rule 50 states that you cannot do any protesting in the medal ceremony or on the podium - instituted in the first place after Tommie Smith and Dr Carlos at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.

"They protested by putting their fist up, so guess what - they started the rule that bars people from doing that. So why was that instituted? To silence people that are like us, people that really need to talk about justice or injustices."

He said he believed World Athletics were now "listening", but that he wanted to make sure Rule 50 was changed.

"You are highlighting social injustices that are happening, and what are you trying to do when you do that, you are trying to have some change. And I believe we should do that."

However, he added that there was a need to be "careful" and not allow unlimited expression, "because if we open it for everything, what will stop someone from raising a Nazi salute?"

Seen differently

Lagat is still the second fastest man in 1500m history. He is also a five-time Olympian - two of those representing Kenya and three for the USA.

He said that away from his life as an athlete, there are still things that make him question his place as an African in the USA.

"People are not seeing me the same way as a natural-born Caucasian American" he said.

While Lagat has not experienced police brutality, he said he has faced discrimination as he goes about his daily life.

He said that as a black man, he noticed "people clinching onto their purses and locking their cars" because he was passing.

"You know there are some incidents that make you wonder why certain things are directed this way, and is it because of who I am?" he added.

"Mostly the terrible part, as a traveller, is that automatically people just assume you don't belong to this queue.

"They question me - 'hey, so this is only for business class' - but when somebody else who does not look like me just joins, it is assumed he belongs in business class.

"Why can't you just assume that I belong on this line?"
Time for a change

Lagat has enjoyed success for both Kenya and the USA, for whom he has won two World Championship and two World Indoor titles.

He also holds three outdoor and indoor American records, which also double up as North American Area Records.

More recently he has started serving on the Athletes Advisory Committee in America and has actively been discussing how athletes can make a stand against inequality similar to those in football and basketball.

Despite swapping allegiances, he has always felt like he was an American every time he donned their colours - and said he appreciates the diversity in USA athletics.

"It is amazing because at some point I was expecting people to really feel like 'hey man this guy is taking sports from us'." he explained.

"I have been giving 100% and I guess people see that when I transfer that same energy in to a new country.

"And so people have been receptive and I cannot complain. I cannot make up things that were not done just to make a story sound good."