Sport - openDemocracy

Anti-trans campaigners can’t be allowed to ban trans kids from playing sport

Sport has numerous benefits for trans youths – yet 80% feel their gender identity has prevented them from taking part

By Verity Smith

/ 4 May 2023

Anti-trans campaigners can’t be allowed to ban trans kids from playing sport

How 2022 will be remembered for trans people in the UK

Scotland’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill ended the year on a high note – almost. Here’s 2022 in trans history

By Maysa Pritilata

/ 23 Dec 2022

How 2022 will be remembered for trans people in the UK

There will never be another Mo Farah

As terrible as these revelations are, what’s more shocking is that he’d never receive that level of compassion today

By Francesca Humi

/ 16 Jul 2022

Jake Daniels’ bravery will change the lives of other young LGBTIQ athletes

Blackpool’s teenage striker says coming out will allow him to be “free and confident”. I wish I had been able to do the same

By Jack Duncan

/ 17 May 2022

Jake Daniels’ bravery will change the lives of other young LGBTIQ athletes

Football has for too long been in Putin’s pocket. It’s time for reform

Sport had the chance to speak out against Russia in 2014 and 2018. It has only acted now because it has been forced to do so

By David Goldblatt

/ 2 Mar 2022

Football has for too long been in Putin’s pocket. It’s time for reform

Beijing 2022: No snow at the Winter Olympics? You’d better get used to it

Climate change is making winter sports increasingly unviable – but the industry prefers the fig leaf of social responsibility to meaningful change

By David Goldblatt

/ 28 Jan 2022

Beijing 2022: No snow at the Winter Olympics? You’d better get used to it

Too white, too posh: English cricket’s racism problem

Jaw-dropping comments by those in higher echelons of English cricket show a failure to grasp an understanding of the racism that is endemic within the game

By Duncan Stone

/ 26 Jan 2022

Too white, too posh: English cricket’s racism problem

Djokovic’s deportation: We must talk about Australia’s failing refugee policies

For nearly a decade, Australia has held vulnerable asylum seekers in offshore detention centres. Where is their media coverage?

By Shaminda Kanapathi

/ 17 Jan 2022

Djokovic’s deportation: We must talk about Australia’s failing refugee policies

Women’s Tennis Association shows global business how to deal with Beijing

By suspending tournaments in China over treatment of Peng Shuai, the WTA placed rights over profits. How will the International Olympic Committee react?

By Yaqiu Wang

/ 10 Dec 2021

Women’s Tennis Association shows global business how to deal with Beijing

We must realise the threat posed by Saudi Arabia’s Newcastle ‘sportswashing’

Sportswashing launders the reputations of thugs and despots, but it also diminishes our democratic institutions

By Nicholas McGeehan

/ 12 Oct 2021

We must realise the threat posed by Saudi Arabia’s Newcastle ‘sportswashing’

Will new Olympics rules exclude or include transgender athletes?

Backlash against transgender and non-binary competitors in Tokyo has highlighted the problems preventing inclusion in sports at all levels

By Jessie Lau

/ 1 Sep 2021

Will new Olympics rules exclude or include transgender athletes?

Bikinis or shorts – not always an obvious choice

What Norwegian papers dubbed ‘the panty crisis’ finds an odd counterpart in a beach volleyball attire row, where athletes were fighting for, not against, wearing a bikini

By Irene Peroni

/ 19 Aug 2021

Bikinis or shorts – not always an obvious choice