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How Athletes Take Risks to Impact Social Change

One topic within sports management education is how sports affect social change. You’ll see sports used oftentimes in political agendas, and where this is most visible is with the Olympics. Now, the Olympics movement will say that it’s not about politics and that it’s about bringing people together to compete at the highest level and support one another in that endeavor.

However, we have seen that this isn’t the case. We’ve seen political posturing, if you will, throughout the Olympic games in many different ways. For example, in the 1960s, our country was going through quite a change socially, and we had a lot of racial injustice happening. It was much like what’s happening today, but in a different way. And the U.S. team had a lot of African American athletes who were treated poorly at home. But on the stage, they’re treated very differently, and so we had two amazing sprinters stand up against that social injustice.

Tommie Smith and John Carlos took the gold and the bronze, and when the American national anthem was played, they raised their fists in the black power salute, and it was extremely powerful at that moment. So, when we talk about sport and the challenges of social change, these two athletes quietly protested on a very big stage to demonstrate what was actually going on at home and the hypocrisy that was happening at that time.

What they did get was a lot of backlash. They were vilified for what they did, and it was seen as a political stunt. The IOC basically shamed them for what they did, and they were even stripped of their medals. This was a very unfortunate outcome for something that was really important to say quietly. Obviously, they hadn’t said anything, but what they did spoke volumes. So, when we talk about social change and how sports can play a role, we see a lot of backlash when athletes quietly do that.

We’re even seeing it right now with athletes who are becoming activists and standing up for what’s happening and what’s going wrong. They’re using their celebrity to have a stronger voice, and there’s a lot of backlash that comes along with that.

That’s where the challenge lies. We’re pushing the borders of what’s uncomfortable, and it’s very difficult to talk about these things. However, we have these athletes who are in the spotlight and who can stand up and say “you know what? Something’s going wrong here, and we need to have a conversation about it.”

But unfortunately, doing so causes backlash, and that’s where the challenge is. Yes, sports can be used as a vehicle for social change, and it can be incredibly powerful, but it can also hit a lot of barriers along the way because people tend to not agree on everything. Because global sports and the sporting world have such extraordinary platforms to communicate messages to the biggest audiences in the world, it becomes an opportunity to get a really important conversation started.

When Colin Kaepernick decided to take a knee during the national anthem in protest of police brutality, he started something that we are still seeing the effects of today—not just for him as a player but also for how our country views and understands things like patriotism.

Questions of things like how our police force should be conducting itself and how people of color are treated by the majority are now being asked. And they’re being asked because this one individual, who had a fair bit of power and popularity, was willing to do something controversial, and I would argue, pretty brave as well.

You might think that the forum he chose wasn’t appropriate or that the way he chose to express himself wasn’t the best way to do it. However, whether you think these things or not, he got the conversation started, and that’s a pretty powerful and important thing.

In addition to learning more about how sports and social change go hand in hand, with online sports management education you can gain a wealth of knowledge about many other concepts and topics related to sports management, and you can do it without leaving the house.

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