Via BBC Sport, a report on the Afghanistan women's soccer team which is no longer recognised by their country or FIFA:
Some players are doing last-minute boot checks, others putting on their shin guards. One is adjusting her [...]
July
23,
2023
Courtesy of The Financial Times, a report on challenge faced by women in football to join the executive level of clubs:
Andreea Koenig, a director of French football club Racing Club de Lens, says often in her job she walks [...]
Via The Washington Post, a look back at Jim Brown - one of the 10 most important athletes ever to put on a jersey - who was an athletic collage of speed, power, agility and fearlessness on the field. Off the field, he leaned hard [...]
Via Global Sport Matters, an article on how the past decade has seen unprecedented institutional gains for pregnant and parenting women athletes, yet a persistent maternal health crisis, the fight for bodily autonomy, and the [...]
July
22,
2023
Courtesy of The Washington Post, a look at how Megan Rapinoe’s incandescent career changed more than women’s soccer:
The tattoo, petite and scripted in cursive, reads: “Nature ran her course.” Megan Rapinoe had the [...]
July
22,
2023
Via The Economist, a report that football is at last accepting that players can have both children and careers:
The current generation of American women footballers have already struck one significant blow for equality. In [...]
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MORE THAN A GAME
Refusing to “just shut up and play,” more and more athletes are stepping off the court, the field, the pitch, or the ice to leverage their voices and platforms to push for social change. This blog - More Than A Game - is a forum dedicated to the inspirational convergence of athletics, politics, leadership, and social change.
Muhammad Ali. Billie Jean King. John Carlos and Tommie Smith. Maya Moore. Colin Kaepernick. Megan Rapinoe and the United States National Women’s Soccer Team. Francois Pienaar. LeBron James. These are but a few of the accomplished athletes who have also demonstrated leadership in sports and social change, contributing to movements such as Black Lives Matter, the Civil Rights movement, anti-war protests, gender equality, LGBTQ rights and other critical issues.
But the role of athletes in leadership and social change is not limited to the pages of history books, nor is the connection between sports and social change only driven by individual athletes and teams. Inspirational organizations like Athlete Ally, Peace Players, Grassroots Soccer, and others are using sports as a way to pull people together behind a common cause, to bridge divides or to promote public health today.
Whether you are an athlete yourself or have never picked up a ball, More Than A Game will provide a forum to learn about brave athletes, teams, and sports-related organizations which exercised their leadership to foster a better understanding of social causes, advocacy, and changemaking for important causes throughout history.