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1936 - Jesse Owens Disproves Hitler's Ideas of Racial Superiority

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1936 - Jesse Owens Disproves Hitler's Ideas of Racial Superiority

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In the 1936 Olympic Games hosted by Nazi Germany, Jesse Owens broke the common belief of Aryan superiority, winning four gold medals in the presence of Adolf Hitler and bringing in ideas of racial equality.

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Jackie Robinson's First Game in the Majors 

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Jackie Robinson's First Game in the Majors 

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On April 15,1947, Jackie Robinson was called up by the Brooklyn Dodgers to play in his debut MLB game. As the first African American  to play in the MLB, he broke the unspoken colour barrier and opened the door for other African American athletes. This was a momentum moment both in sport and culture.

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Mohawk Nation of Kahnawake, Quebec - First Indigenous Canadian Summer Olympic athlete to win gold

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Francois Pienaar: 'When the whistle blew, South Africa changed forever'

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Francois Pienaar: 'When the whistle blew, South Africa changed forever'

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Francois Pienaar, captain of the 1995 Rugby World Cup winners, recalls how Nelson Mandela used sport to heal a nation.

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Women's participation in the Olympics has been growing steadily since 1900. Now 33% of IOC Members are women. Let's aim for 50% or 51% to achieve full equality!
Amber

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2018

February: The IOC took a historic step forward to advance gender equality and approve the Gender Equality Review Project with its 25 bold and action-orientated recommendations, covering areas such as participation, funding, governance and portrayal. For more information click here.

October: The Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina, marked a new milestone as the first fully gender balanced Olympic event ever - both on the field of play, and within the Organising Committee.

November: The IOC was presented the first "Power, Together" Award by Women Political Leaders (WPL), the Government of Iceland and the Parliament of Iceland for "driving global change" through its commitment to gender equality.

Female representation on IOC Commissions rose to 42.7 per cent, a historic high. This equates to a 98 per cent increase since 2013. Four women chaired an IOC Commission. The IOC Executive Board saw an increase in female members from 21.4 per cent in 2017 to 30.8 per cent.

2017

The IOC renewed its partnership with UN Women on sport for gender equality.

A major review project regarding the current state of gender equality in the Olympic Movement was launched.

2016

At the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a new record of participation for women was reached with 45 per cent female participation (5,176 women out of 11'444 athletes).

In Rio, gender equality was also for the first time part of the Olympic social legacies, through the 'One Win Leads to Another' project, a community-based sports programme born from the partnership with UN Women. Read the story here.

The IOC's first annual IF Gender Equality Forum took place in partnership with ASOIF.

2014
April: The IOC and the UN signed an MoU to strengthen their collaboration. This partnership includes the promotion of "girl's and women's empowerment".

Women represented 40 per cent of the participants in the Olympic Winter Games.

Female participation in the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China, set a new record, with 49 per cent of the total.

The adoption of Olympic Agenda 2020 showed the IOC's ongoing commitment to gender equality in sport. For more information click here.

2012
The 5th World Conference on Women and Sport took place in Los Angeles, USA, with the following two main recommendations: "The IOC should revisit and review the minimum number of women to be included in leadership roles which it set for its constituents, and set up a mechanism to monitor and ensure that this minimum number is being respected" and "the IOC should establish closer working partnerships with the UN and its agencies, especially UN Women, and share in the work of the UN Committee on the Status of Women in order to foster its own gender equality agenda." For more information click here.

Ms Nawal El Moutawakel was elected IOC Vice-President and was the first woman to chair an IOC Evaluation Commission.

Ms Claudia Bokel was elected Chair of the IOC Athletes' Commission (and as a Member of the IOC Executive Board).

Ms Angela Ruggiero was appointed to chair the IOC Coordination Commission for the Winter Youth Olympic Games in Lillehammer in 2016.

The IOC signed an MoU with UN Women to advance gender equality and promote women's empowerment through sport.

Boxing became open to women's participation.

2010
Former IOC President, Jacques Rogge appointed Ms Nawal El Moutawakel as Chair of the Coordination Commission for Olympic Games Rio 2016. For more information click here.

2009
The XIII Olympic Congress held in Copenhagen, Denmark, issued a recommendation aimed at strengthening the women and sport policy. For more information click here.

2008
The 4th IOC World Conference on Women and Sport took place by the Dead Sea, in Jordan, and adopted an Action Plan, which underlined the need for well-researched data upon which a strategy could be developed and promoted; and also emphasised that key performance indicators (KPI) should be set, and a mechanism developed to monitor progress. For more information click here.

Ms Nawal El Moutawakel was elected as a Member of the IOC Executive Board.

2004
Wrestling became open to women's participation.

The 3rd IOC World Conference on Women and Sport, which was held in Marrakech, Morocco, reaffirmed the targets established in 1996 by the IOC, IFs and NOCs to have at least 20 per cent women on their executive boards and legislative bodies by 2005 and to consider the period beyond. For more information click here.

Ms Gunilla Lindberg was elected IOC Vice-President.

The IOC Women and Sport Working Group became a fully-fledged Commission.

2000
During the 2nd IOC World Conference on Women in Sport, the following resolution was adopted: "The Olympic Movement must reserve at least 20 per cent of decision-making positions for women within their structures by the end of 2005." For more information click here.

Introduction of the IOC Women and Sport Awards to promote the advancement of women in sport. To see the full list of the winners, click here.

Weightlifting, modern pentathlon, taekwondo and triathlon became open to women's participation.

1996
The 1st IOC World Conference on Women and Sport took place in Lausanne, Switzerland. Several recommendations were made including "t hat the IFs and the NOCs create special committees or working groups composed of at least 10 per cent women to design and implement a plan of action with a view to promoting women in sport". For more information click here.

The Olympic Charter was amended to include, for the first time in history, an explicit reference to the need for work in this area.

Football and softball became open to women's participation.

1928
Athletics and gymnastics became open to women's participation. Women's participation in the Olympic Games went up to nearly 10 per cent. For more information click here.

* Sports which were re-introduced to the Olympic Programme.

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Key dates in the history of women in the Olympic Movement

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The goal of gender equality is enshrined in the Olympic Charter, which compels the IOC to "encourage and support the promotion of women in sport at all levels". The Women in Sport pages display the IOC's commitment to gender equality in sport.

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Nike got a lot of credit for a piece of athletic clothing that had been around for years...

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Athletic Powerhouse Nike won major cool points for inclusion in February, with their Nike "Equality" ad (for Black History Month) which featured a Hijabi (Nurah Regan) running alongside Muslim Olympic Gold athlete (400 hurdles), Dalilah Muhammad.

During the same month overseas, Nike launched an ad geared toward Middle Eastern female athletes, challenging cultural norms, called "What will they say about you?" - displaying the stories of five Middle Eastern Athletes, including Zahra Lari, a figure skater currently training to qualify in the 2018 Winter Games.

Although the inclusion and diversity displayed by Nike is appreciated, they are about 13 years late to the Sport Hijab rights.

Nike confirmed (3.6.17) their next move. Yes, it is true, the Nike Pro Hijab has landed. (Available Spring 2018 as seen on figure skater, Zahra Lari). Nike has created a breathable fabric, stretch fit, performance hijab for Hijabi athletes (complete with huge Nike swoosh, for your side profile selfies), and being hailed as the first of it's kind.
Umm, Nike, I'ma let you finish but...
Although the inclusion and diversity displayed by Nike is appreciated, they are about 13 years late to the Sport Hijab rights. Muslimah designers worldwide have already tackled this problem for the hijabi athlete.
1. Ahida
Pioneer, Australian designer, Aheda Zanetti was inspired to create the "Hijood" a mix of hijab and hood, creating a breathable, easy-to-slip-on garment to cover the head and allow modest Muslim women to play sports easily. The design was inspired by seeing her hijabi niece wear traditional Islamic clothing under her ball uniform. Zanetti launched Ahiida, in 2004, a full sportswear brand, and eventually moved into swimwear, being the originator of the popular, trademarked, controversial "Burkini" design, a modest swimwear solution.
2. Raqtive
Muslimahs are encouraged to "Be Raqtive", Raqtive, is a Malaysian active brand founded in 2010, that advertises the "Sports Hijab Pro" hijab line (hmm, where Nike may of gotten it's inspiration perhaps?!), utilizing high-quality microfiber sports fabric, which allows better perspiration, absorbency, high breathability without compromising comfort."

If you are seeking hijab made in the USA, here are 3 just for you:
3. LiaWear
In 2009, LiaWear Action, was launched by Muslimah American Designer, Latifa Ihsan Ali of Delaware. Ali, is a University of Delaware graduate in Apparel Design. Her passion lies in helping women, get active or remain active, while keeping modest. LiaWear Action offers modest swimsuits, sportswear, and headwear so that you can enjoy a healthy, active, lifestyle. The website will launch soon, but you can buy directly from their FB Shop!
4. Asiya Sport
Asiya Sport, named their brand after "highly revered Asiya bint Muzahim, known for being courageous and standing up against injustice. We thought she was the ideal role model and champion for our mission." The Founder of Asiya Sport is , Fatimah Hussein, of non-profit program - G.I.R.L.S. (Girls Initiative in Recreation and Leisurely Sports), which created girls-only gym time several nights a week catering to Muslim girls.

The Asiya Sport website showcases 3 hijabi styles: Lite, Fit, and Sport in a variety of colors.

In a collaboration with the Cedar-Riverside community and the University of Minnesota, prototype basketball uniforms were developed in 2015. The uniforms gave Muslim girls freedom of movement to play. Asiya Sport launched an indie-gogo campaign, being fully funded in November 2016. The Asiya Sport website showcases 3 hijabi styles: Lite, Fit, and Sport in a variety of colors. The Ultra-lightweight and soft ASIYA™Cool Technology Fabric, features their sweat-wicking performance & breath-ability, keeping you cool and dry, starting at $40 USD per style.
5. Sukoon Active
A new line has emerged out of New York, and founded in 2015. Designer, Arshiya Kherani, of Sukoon Active, a line of active wear that caters to "the modest, Muslim woman who wants to look good while exercising, without compromising her values." Sukoon Active offers breathable, dry wicking, comfortable, fabric and currently have prototypes for four pieces in the collection - the classic hijab, the up-do hijab, the classic tee and a signature bag. Look for Sukoon Active out soon. Ig: @sukoonactive
6. Capsters
Muslim Girl Ally Honorable Mention goes to Capsters, designed by Capsters designer, Cindy van den Bremen. Cindy, who isn't Muslim, is married to a Muslim man. She was touched by the story of a Dutch hijabi, and ultimately launched the first sports hijab in 2001. The Capster story starts when, as she put it, "a Dutch girl gets expelled in 1999 for her supposedly unsafe hijab." The case went to court. The court's solution? A swim cap. A swim cap! Cindy's solution: the invention of a sport hijab.

Capsters boasts itself as being the world's brand in sport hijabs, with an aim to empower women through sports. Capsters has also been active in the fight to lift hijab bans in sports. They have ambassadors that are hijabi Muslimah athletes from all over the world., including, Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir, who is the all-time leading scorer in Massachusetts high school basketball, and hasn't turned pro yet because the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) doesn't allow religious head coverings in official competitions. Bilqis has campaigned with #FIBAAllowHijab for two years, and hopes for a change to the rules.
capsters.com

It just makes sense to buy from Muslimah brands.

So while the Muslim world awaits the Nike Pro Hijab, why not actually get familiar with Muslim brands worldwide, that have done their homework to bring quality sport fit solutions? Brands that have already been working with hijabi athletes, hiring them in their advertising, being role models to the next generation of Muslim girl athletes, and catering exclusively to the fit Muslimah lifestyle!

These brands know you, because they ARE YOU!

These women know what it feels like to want to be active and not compromise your modesty as a hijabi. It just makes sense to buy from Muslimah brands. The best thing you can do this women's history month is to support other Muslimah brands catering to Muslim women. These brands aren't as big as Nike. But do you know why? It's because Muslim buyers are exercising their $170 billion dollar buying power (as reported by the Huffington Post) to buy from brands like...Nike. What would happen if we collectively supported the Muslim designers above? That's more Muslim dollars supporting a Muslim woman or family, that hire other Muslims in our communities.

Yes, you, the Muslimah consumer can do that, without even breaking a sweat in your hijab.
Nicole Najmah Abraham (Najmah53) is a national spoken word artist, activist, public speaker, radio personality, teaching artist mentor and entrepreneur.
Taken from

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6 Muslim Companies That Created Sports Hijabs Way Before Nike

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Athletic Powerhouse Nike won major cool points for inclusion in February, with their Nike "Equality" ad (for Black History Month) which featured a Hijabi (Nurah Regan) running alongside Muslim Olympic Gold athlete (400 hurdles), Dalilah Muhammad. During the same month overseas, Nike launched an ad geared toward Middle Eastern female athletes, challenging cultural norms, called "What will they say about you?"

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Equal Pay for Australia's Women Footballers

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Equal Pay for Australia's Women Footballers

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A landmark deal closed the gender pay gap for the Australian Women's Football team. Here's hoping more pro sports organizations follow suit!

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matildas: australia's women footballers get equal pay - cnn

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Australia's women footballers get equal pay in landmark deal

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Australia's top women soccer players will now earn the same as their male counterparts after a landmark deal Wednesday that aimed to close the gender pay gap between the country's national teams.

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2020 Is The 20th Anniversary of Female Inclusion in Olympic Weightlifting in the Olympics

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2020 Is The 20th Anniversary of Female Inclusion in Olympic Weightlifting in the Olympics

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In 2000, the first women were allowed to compete in olympic weightlifting in the 2000 Sydney, Australia Olympic Games.

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The 2000 Sydney Olympic Games held great significance, not only in terms of weightlifting history, but also in terms of universal sports history. For the first time female weightlifters were able to compete at an Olympic Games.

In the millennium year, the Olympics were held at the second half of September, where in addition to the men categories, women categories were added to the weightlifting program. Previously female weightlifters could only compete at continental and world championships.

On the Olympic program weightlifters competed in 8 male and 7 female weight classes. Altogether 162 male athletes from 63 countries and 85 female athletes from 47 countries participated in the weightlifting competitions.

The medal ceremony of the first female weightlifter was one of the greatest moments in weightlifting history, where Tara Nott (USA) was awarded the gold medal in the 48 kilograms on September 17, 2000.After the win of Tara Nott, overall Chinese weightlifters dominated the female categories, but Mexico and Colombia also won gold medals. On the last day of the women's competition on the 22 of September, China won the gold medal in the +75kg category. With this win China recorded a total of four female category wins.

The distribution of gold medals was greater for men: six countries won gold medals, with Iran and Greece winning 2-2 gold medals in the male weight classes. In the male categories a total of 13 nations, in the women categories 14 countries won Olympic medals in Sydney.

Female weightlifters broke 17 senior world record, while male weightlifters broke 9 senior world records during the Sydney Olympic Games.

Medal Table of the Sydney Olympic Games:

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20 years anniversary of female inclusion in weightlifting at the Olympic Games - International Weightlifting Federation

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The 2000 Sydney Olympic Games held great significance, not only in terms of weightlifting history, but also in terms of universal sports history. For the first time female weightlifters were able to compete at an Olympic Games. In the millennium year, the Olympics were held at the second half of September, where in addition to ...

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Jaylen Brown using his voice to advocate for human rights and encourage people to vote

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Jaylen Brown using his voice to advocate for human rights and encourage people to vote

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Once hesitant about the prospects of the NBA's bubble, Boston Celtics forward Jaylen Brown has embraced the stage the restart has provided, both on the court but especially off, and has emerged as a powerful voice in the quest for change.

After the Celtics completed a lengthy offday workout on Wednesday night, a mask-clad Brown engaged in a thoughtful 12-minute Zoom session with reporters that only briefly touched on basketball subjects. Brown spent most of the session imploring people to vote and continuing his quest for social justice.
Download the MyTeams app for the latest Celtics news and analysis
"I'm only one person but I want to continue to use my platform and hopefully inspire others to make the right decisions and to treat each other equally," said Brown. Later he punctuated one of his answers with the declaration, "I'm not going to be quiet."

Make no mistake, basketball is a priority for Brown and he's proven it by being maybe Boston's best player during scrimmage play. Unlike many of his teammates, Brown displayed little rust and all the hard work he put in while the season was paused has positioned him to thrive when Boston plays the first of eight seeding games on Friday night against the East-leading Milwaukee Bucks.

But the more impressive part of Brown's evolution has been off the court. The 23-year-old has confidently fielded tough questions about hot-button issues and offered thoughtful, detailed responses.

In late May, Brown drove 15 hours from Boston to Atlanta to lead a peaceful protest in the aftermath of George Floyd's death. Earlier this month, as the Celtics prepared to travel to Orlando, Brown admitted he had hesitations about the NBA's bubble plan but ultimately decided to embrace it because of the potential to be part of history, with players able to use the restart stage to promote real societal change.

Celtics coach Brad Stevens, who has often noted that Brown will accomplish far more off the court than on it during his lifetime, continues to marvel at the way Brown has used his platform.

"[Brown is] such a thoughtful, smart leader," said Stevens. "And I'm glad he's with us."

Brown has even used fashion to promote awareness, wearing a Martin Luther King Jr. T-shirt on the bench during Boston's scrimmage finale on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, he was asked initially about what he had decided to wear on the back of his jersey for the restart, but first delivered a thoughtful two-minute statement.

"Before I get started, I want to continue to demand justice for Breonna Taylor," said Brown. "I want that to continue to be reiterated while I'm down here. Also, I want to encourage people in my community to get out and vote, not just for the presidential election but state representatives, elected officials, et cetera. I think there's a lot of power in coming together and voting, especially in the Black community. Politicians have made empty promises to the Black community year after year after year. They think that's OK and acceptable, and it's not.

"I want to emphasize that we have to continue to vote, we have to come together and use our power, utilize it in the right manner. I want to inspire people from Georgia, where I'm from, Marietta, Gwinnett County, DeKalb County, Boston, Massachusetts, Dorchester, Roxbury, Oakland, East Oakland, West Oakland - wherever my influence reaches, I want people to continue to vote. There's a lot of power in exercising that, and we gotta use it. I want to continue to exercise that.

"For sure, we have to get some of these guys out of office who don't care, who don't think it's appropriate that we're trying to end systemic racism. I want to make voting a trend, I want to use my platform, I want athletes to come together and continue to talk about it. I understand the apprehension from the African-American community. Politicians have made empty promises, as well people feeling like, 'Why would I participate in a political system that hasn't necessarily participated with me?' I believe in small victories, getting the right people in office, a big part of that is voting. Let's continue to express that, let's continue to lead in that direction.

"I want to use my platform to inspire people, using their influence, whatever color, whatever race, that voting is important but especially in the Black community, let's exercise that power and get out and vote."

Brown then said he is considering, "Liberation," to wear on the back of his jersey during the bubble games while noting that, "The definition of liberation is free yourself from oppression, slavery, or marginalization. I wanted to represent that. This is the season to break free of some of those cycles."

During Wednesday's media session, Brown followed with long responses to questions about the importance of voting and the pursuit of justice for Taylor, who was fatally shot by police in Louisville after they raided her home.

"We all come from our moms, we all have sisters, aunts, nieces, et cetera, so not just with African-Americans not feeling comfortable in this American society, it's a lot of women who don't feel comfortable as well," said Brown. "We want to continue to show our support for them for sure.

"I had a call with Tamika Palmer, which is Breonna Taylor's mother, not too long ago, and it was - it was emotional for me. The fact that she can get on a call with a bunch of NBA guys and utilize her strength in front of us. We know she was hurting. That was her baby girl that's gone. Her daughter was killed. And for her to be able to get on a phone call and exhibit that strength in front of us and rally us up and let us know that we don't want this to happen to the next girl or the next person or color, or woman of color, I stand with her."

Teammates like Marcus Smart have also used their media time to promote change, with Smart simply repeating, "Justice for Breonna Taylor," as his answer to every question during one session.

Brown is embracing this stage. He's making people think, including those who might not otherwise ponder such topics. He's ignoring those that scream for NBA players to, "Shut up and dribble," and showing that NBA players can create change with their voices.
Don't miss NBC Sports Boston's coverage of Celtics-Bucks, which begins Friday at 5:30 p.m. with Celtics Pregame Live followed by tip-off at 6:30 p.m. You can also stream on the MyTeams App. Celtics Talk Podcast: Is Jaylen Brown going to dominate the bubble? | Listen & subscribe | Watch on YouTube

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Forsberg: Jaylen's voice much more impactful than his improved game

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Once hesitant about the prospects of the NBA's bubble, Boston Celtics forward Jaylen Brown has embraced the stage the restart has provided, both on the court but especially off, and has emerged as a powerful voice in the quest for change.

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Athlete Activists Who Changed the World....

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Athlete Activists Who Changed the World....

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https://www.stadiumtalk.com/s/most-influential-athlete-activists-changed-society-cfd0aedd8cf9428f

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Olympics Open With Koreas Marching Together, Offering Hope for Peace - NY Times

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Olympics Open With Koreas Marching Together, Offering Hope for Peace - NY Times

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The unifying power of sports can create opportunities for peace and progress to happen. - Marlette

Year: 2018

Location: PyeongChang, South Korea (and North Korea)

What happened: The Olympic delegations from both North and South Korea participated in the opening and closing ceremonies together and played in unity under the Korean Unification Flag.

Why it’s significant: North and South Korea first marched as one team at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia. The 2018 Winter Olympics saw additional unification as host country South Korea partnered with the North to compete under team name "Korea" in ice hockey.

This action is especially significant because there was never a formal treaty to end the Korean War, only a ceasefire agreed to in 1953.

https://www.stadiumtalk.com/s/sports-diplomacy-power-history-cf0ff4f603e44085

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Tracking North Korea's Oil

The unified Korean team marching in the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics at Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium. Credit... James Hill for The New York Times

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea - The opening ceremony of the 23rd Winter Olympics unfurled in frigid temperatures and high spirits on Friday, as athletes from the two Koreas marched into the stadium together less than 50 miles from the heavily fortified border between their nations, offering hope of a breakthrough in a tense, geopolitical standoff that has stirred fears of nuclear conflict.

The festivities started what organizers say is the largest Winter Olympics yet, with 92 countries participating. The North and South Korean delegations, marching under one flag, embodied the hopes of a peninsula divided by history and ideology.

Whereas recent Olympic Games have sought to set politics aside, the strategic subtext of the event in Pyeongchang has been unavoidable.

Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of Kim Jong-un, North Korea's leader, was sitting at the opening ceremony closely behind Vice President Mike Pence, who led the American delegation. Also present was the father of Otto Warmbier, the American student who was jailed in North Korea last year, returned home in a coma and died shortly afterward.

Performers inside of animal costumes during the opening ceremony. Credit... Hilary Swift for The New York Times

This week, the United States warned against a North Korean charm offensive and announced plans to impose its toughest sanctions yet against Pyongyang, which staged a military parade featuring ICBMs just a day before the Games opened.

The mounting political drama loomed over other Olympic story lines, including the participation of Russian athletes despite a ban after a doping scandal, and the appearance of the first Nigerian contingent in the Winter Games with a women's bobsled team. And then there are the gold medal hopefuls, like Nathan Chen, the American ice skating prodigy who may seek to land five quad jumps in competition, and Chloe Kim, the teenage Korean-American snowboarding phenom.

And as if there were not enough distractions already, a worsening outbreak of the highly contagious norovirus has been spreading from security personnel to other Olympic workers.

In the prelude to the opening ceremony, North Korea dominated the news cycle. For the month since North Korea agreed to send 22 athletes and an entourage of artistic performers and dignitaries to the Games, the news media has been riveted by an advance visit by one of North Korea's most celebrated pop stars, the arrival of North Korean cheerleaders in matching red wool coats, and controversies over whether the North's participation in the Olympics would violate international sanctions punishing North Korea for its nuclear weapons development.

And Mr. Pence's visit - which included a meeting Friday with North Korean defectors - exposed deepening strains in ties between the longtime allies, as he suggested that South Korea curtail ties to the North after the Olympics end. Mr. Pence also did not attend a state dinner near the Olympics site, which meant he avoided spending time with the North Korean delegation.

Video

North and South Korea marched under one flag at the Olympics' opening ceremony. Some South Koreans hope it is a symbol of a peaceful unification. Others fear it is an omen of larger political ambitions of the North. Credit Credit... Photo Illustration by Drew Jordan; Photographs by Drew Gaillard/Reuters, Margaret Cheatham Williams/The New York Times

But South Korea's president, Moon Jae-in, seems to see the Games as central to his effort to proactively engage North Korea and persuade the reclusive country to enter into negotiations to scale back its nuclear and ballistic missile program.

"Many considered it an impossible dream to have an Olympics of peace, in which North Korea would participate and the two Koreas would form a joint team," Mr. Moon said in an address to the International Olympic Committee this week.

Friday's opening ceremony, directed by Song Seung-whan, a South Korean actor and popular theatrical creator, sought to project a vision of unification and peace on the long-divided peninsula.

"As a starting point, Korea is the only divided country in the world," Mr. Song said in an interview hours before the ceremony began. He said that even though North Korea was not expected to attend when he began planning the ceremony's themes, "we started with peace in mind."

"Of course it was a surprise," he said of the North's decision to join the Games. "It will be an opportunity for the peace we were thinking of to be shown to the world in a more deep way."

Kim Yo-jong, sister of Kim Jong-un, greeting the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, and his wife, Kim Jung-sook, at the opening ceremony. Credit... Doug Mills/The New York Times

Although athletes from the two Koreas marched under a unified flag, a group of traditionally dressed dancers and drummers formed the shape of the Taegeuk, the pattern that appears on the South Korean flag. And a paean to technological developments in artificial intelligence highlighted South Korean achievements.

A backlash against the last-minute participation of North Korea, particularly the addition of a dozen North Korean women's ice hockey players onto the roster of the South Korean team, cast a shadow over a moment that was meant to exemplify unity.

"Instead of paying attention to all of the excellent athletes who are coming from all over the world, we are paying all our attention to the inter-Korean women's hockey team," Elisa Lee, a former table tennis champion and coach for South Korea and a former member of the National Assembly, said in an interview this week in Seoul. "I think it's a little bit unfortunate."

Critics also feared that in seeking better ties with North Korea, Mr. Moon had compromised too much.

"Bending to a dictator like Kim Jong-un is in conflict with the dignity" of South Koreans, wrote Yoon Pyung-joong, a professor of political philosophy at Hanshin University, in an editorial this month in Chosun Ilbo, a South Korean daily. "The crisis on the Korean Peninsula does not get resolved with a one-off event like sports games or an inter-Korean summit meeting."

Drummers performing during the opening ceremony. South Korea's president, Moon Jae-in, sees the Games as central to his effort to proactively engage North Korea. Credit... Doug Mills/The New York Times

But the emotion of watching the Koreas march under the same flag moved some spectators. More than 100 South Koreans watching on a live stream on a screen in central Seoul applauded and cheered while watching that moment.

Kim Tae-yoon, 21, a media studies student from Cheonan, said that he had been dubious about the North Koreans participating in the Games.

"I wondered whether any of our efforts would be a step towards unification when we could very well just be used for North Korean propaganda," Mr. Kim said. "But the two Koreas marching together looked good. I hope that the Pyeongchang Olympics will be remembered as one where we showed the world that we communicated well with North Korea."

Perhaps the most stirring moment of the evening came when the penultimate torch bearers were revealed as Chung Su-hyon, a North Korean player for the unified Korean hockey team, and Park Jong-ah, a South Korean player. The pair carried the torch up the final flight of steps and handed it off to Yuna Kim, the profoundly popular South Korean figure skater who won the gold medal in 2010 and the silver in 2014.

This event was not the first time that athletes from North and South Korea have marched together under one flag. They did so in 2000 at the Sydney Olympics in Australia, in 2004 in Athens, and in 2006 in Torino, Italy.

But by doing so in South Korea - and in Gangwon Province, where North Korea is visible from the peaks of the ski slopes - the symbolism this time was particularly striking. It also provided a stark contrast to the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, where the North Koreans did not compete after organizing a terrorist attack in which spies blew up a South Korean airliner 10 months before the Games, killing everyone on board.

The Seoul Olympics ended up being a turning point for South Korea as it pulled away from North Korea economically, politically and culturally.

It was also, as it turned out, a turning point for the world. After two previous summer games roiled by political boycotts in Moscow and Los Angeles, the countries that had sat out those games all sent athletes to Seoul, making it the host of the largest number of participating nations during the Cold War era.

A year later, the Berlin Wall fell. The Soviet Union collapsed not long after that.

"In a sense, the Cold War symbolically ended with the Seoul Olympics," said Lee O. Young, creative director of the 1988 opening ceremony, in an interview in his library in Seoul this week.

Mr. Lee, whose slogan for those ceremonies was "beyond the wall," said that he believed in the power of imagination to drive change.

"The Pyeongchang Olympics, in very surprising ways, could be another turning point in the way the Seoul Olympics was," Mr. Lee said. "After the Seoul Olympics, we have been experiencing a new Cold War, and the Pyeongchang Olympics might set another milestone."

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Olympics Open With Koreas Marching Together, Offering Hope for Peace (Published 2018)

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Tracking North Korea's Oil PYEONGCHANG, South Korea - The opening ceremony of the 23rd Winter Olympics unfurled in frigid temperatures and high spirits on Friday, as athletes from the two Koreas marched into the stadium together less than 50 miles from the heavily fortified border between their nations, offering hope of a breakthrough in a tense, geopolitical standoff that has stirred fears of nuclear conflict.

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Colin Kaepernick's kneeling for combating racial justice and inequality in 2016.

Kumudu Weerakkodige

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These men and women used sports to address serious issues in society.

Most Influential Social Activists in Sports History

Colin Kaepernick, center, kneels for the national anthem with San Francisco 49ers teammates in 2016 to protest racial inequality and police brutality in the American justice system.

Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick's decision in 2016 to not stand for the national anthem as a protest against the oppression of people of color lit a political fuse that continues to burn through the sports world and society.

His bold stand by sitting (and then kneeling) earned him widespread praise and scorn. In 2017, he was honored by Sports Illustrated with the Muhammad Ali Legacy Award. In 2018, he was given the prestigious W.E.B Du Bois Medal from Harvard University for his work combatting racial injustice and inequality.

"I feel like it's not only my responsibility, but all our responsibilities as people that are in positions of privilege, in positions of power, to continue to fight for them and uplift them, empower them," Kaepernick said in a speech at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard. "Because if we don't, we become complicit in the problem."

Time will tell whether Kaepernick's legacy mirrors that of Ali, the most influential social activist in the history of sports. But there's little doubt that Kaepernick has joined a long list of athletes from various sports circles who have used their positions and prestige as a platform to change society - whether as pioneers, social activists or both.

These men and women are the most influential athletes who struck a blow for social change, equality and justice through sports.

Ann Meyers Drysdale: The Trailblazer for Women's Basketball

Phoenix Mercury general manager Ann Meyers Drysdale, left, talks with forward Cappie Pondexter at a practice for the 2009 WNBA Finals against the Indiana Fever in Indianapolis.

Long before Cheryl Miller and Lisa Leslie brought women's basketball out of the shadows and paved the way for the creation of the WNBA, there was Meyers Drysdale, the woman who truly broke the sport's gender barrier.

Drysdale was the first woman to sign a four-year athletic scholarship at UCLA and became the first - and still only - woman to sign an NBA contract, doing so with the Indiana Pacers in 1979.

Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell once referred to her as " one of the best players ever (man or woman)."

She also was a trailblazer in sports broadcasting, becoming the first woman to broadcast an NBA game, also for the Pacers.

Career Highlights: Ann Meyers Drysdale

Ann Meyers Drysdale signed an NBA contract with the Indiana Pacers in 1979.

WBL Co-MVP (1989)

Honda Sports Award Basketball (1978)

Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame

FIBA Hall of Fame

Olympic silver medalist (1976)

World Championships gold medalist (1979)

Pan American Games gold medalist (1975)

World University Games gold medalist (1977)

Jim Brown: Making a Difference Off the Field

Former football great Jim Brown, left, president of the Black Economic Union, confers with a woman in her neighborhood in Holly Springs, Miss., in 1970. Brown led about 25 black athletes for a firsthand look at conditions his BEU hoped to improve. In the background is Leroy Kelly of the Cleveland Browns.

Arguably the greatest running back in NFL history, Jim Brown was a different kind of activist than Colin Kaepernick and focused his efforts off the field.

In the 1960s, Brown founded what later became known as the Black Economic Union to help African-Americans advance economically.

Long after his career ended, he continued to fight for social change, founding Amer-I-Can in 1988 to combat gang violence.

However, Brown's legacy as an instrument for social change has been tarnished by a number of run-ins with the law over the years, including assault and rape allegations. He also has said that he wouldn't have followed Kaepernick's example in kneeling for "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: A Lifetime of Social Activism

Lew Alcindor after leading UCLA to the NCAA championship in 1968. After winning his first NBA championship in 1971, he took the Muslim name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a Presidential Medal of Honor recipient, was among a number of prominent black athletes in the 1960s and '70s to embrace social activism and take a stand for civil rights.

Like Muhammad Ali before him, Abdul-Jabbar made the decision to convert to Islam and changed his name from Lew Alcindor. This was a powerful statement of independence that threatened both his popularity and career.

He also joined other prominent athletes at the time in supporting Ali's refusal to be inducted into the Army during the Vietnam War, protested after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and skipped an opportunity to play in the 1968 Olympics because of the racial strife roiling the United States.

To this day, Abdul-Jabbar continues to speak out about social injustice.

Brittney Griner and Layshia Clarendon: Taking on the Politics of Transgender Rights

Phoenix Mercury's Brittney Griner was happy the league embraced the LGBTQ community.

Brittney Griner was the No. 1 overall pick of the 2013 WNBA draft out of Baylor University and supported the league's campaign to market to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community -the first league to design such a campaign.

In 2017, Griner, one of a handful of WNBA athletes who have publicly identified themselves as lesbian, took a bold stand with another WNBA player, Layshia Clarendon, co-writing an op-ed article against a bill in Texas that would have limited the rights of members of the LGBTQ community to use restrooms and other public facilities of their choice.

The two basketball stars saw the bill as a particular threat to LGBTQ athletes who could have been forced to use a locker room inconsistent with their gender identity.

"While we do not identify as transgender, we know what it feels like to be singled out for not fitting neatly into social norms," they wrote.

The bill eventually died in the Texas legislature.

Career Highlights: Brittney Griner and Layshia Clarendon

Layshia Clarendon was an NCAA All-American in 2012.

Brittney Griner

WNBA champion (2014)

Six-time WNBA All-Star (2013-15, 2017-19)

Five-time All-WNBA (2014, 2015, 2017-19)

Two-time WNBA Defensive Player of the Year (2014, 2015)

Six-time All-WNBA Defensive Team (2014-19)

WNBA All-Rookie Team (2013)

Layshia Clarendon

WNBA All-Star (2017)

NCAA All-American (2012)

All-Pac-12 (2012)

The Syracuse Eight: Fighting to Level the Playing Field of College Athletics

The Syracuse Eight challenged Syracuse University to demand changes and promote racial equality within the school's football program.

In recent years, college athletes have challenged universities and the NCAA over issues of social justice or fair treatment. Two examples are the University of Missouri football team's threatened boycott in 2015 that forced out the college president and a class-action lawsuit by athletes over the value of scholarships that resulted in a $209 million settlement in 2017.

The pioneers in the area of college athlete activism were the "Syracuse Eight," a group of Syracuse University football players (as it turned out, there were actually nine) who walked out of a spring football practice in 1970 to protest racial discrimination on campus and within the football program.

They paid a high price for their stand. They were kicked off the team and their athletic careers ended. Despite sitting out the following the season, they were allowed to keep their scholarships and graduate.

Career Highlights: The Syracuse Eight

The Syracuse 8 helped level the playing field of college athletics.

Syracuse Chancellor's Medal (2006)

Venus Williams: Continuing the Fight for Equal Pay

Venus, left, and Serena Williams at the 2017 Australian Open.

Time will tell whether Serena Williams' stand on tennis' "double standard" will change the sport, but no one can dispute the impact her sister has had in the area of equal pay for women's players.

After failing to convince the All-England Club to pay the men's and women's Wimbledon champions the same amount in 2005, Venus Williams penned an op-ed in 2006 for The Times of London that caught the attention of Parliament.

When she won her fourth Wimbledon trophy in 2007, Venus also became the first woman to earn the same amount as the men's champion: $1.4 million.

Her fight also was featured in a documentary titled "Venus Vs."

Michael Sam: The First Openly Gay Pro Football Player

Michael Sam, right, with his boyfriend Vito Cammisano was an honoree at the 2014 GQ Men of the Year Party in Los Angeles.

Michael Sam became the first openly gay player drafted by an NFL team in 2014 after the St. Louis Rams selected the defensive end from Missouri in the seventh round. Though he no longer plays, his impact endures.

After being cut by the Rams and Cowboys, he played in the Canadian Football League for a brief stint.

Sam's pro football career lasted only one season - he cited mental health issues for his retirement in 2015 - but his courage in publicly proclaiming his sexual orientation in perhaps the most virile of sports sent a powerful message.

Some have suggested that Sam's unsuccessful career (he never played in an NFL regular-season game) may have deterred other gay football players from coming out in the years since. Still, like the Syracuse Eight, the long-term legacy of Sam's example may eclipse its immediate effects.

Martina Navratilova: Bringing Gay Athletes Out of the Shadows

Martina Navratilova after winning the 1983 U.S. Open singles title in New York.

One of the greatest women's tennis players ever, Martina Navratilova also has been a trailblazer in the area of gay rights and other social justice causes.

She disclosed her sexual orientation at the height of her career, jeopardizing endorsements and popularity, and proved that being gay didn't have to cast a shadow over one's athletic success.

Navratilova became an advocate for a wide range of causes, including AIDS research and equal rights, and she continues to make her voice heard, sometimes in unexpected ways, such as a recent New York Times op-ed piece in which she found fault with Serena Williams for the U.S. Open controversy.

Bill Russell: Speaking Up and Standing Out During Civil Rights Era

Boston Celtics star Bill Russell in 1963 talks with reporters about the boycott of Boston public schools by African-Americans. Children were asked to stay away from regular classes by their parents in protest against what they said was actual, if not legal, segregation.

Like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell put his stardom on the line to speak out during the height of the civil rights movement, and it likely cost him the full adoration that came to athletes who remained politically silent during the era.

Russell also was a pioneer, becoming the first African-American coach of a major pro team in the United States when he took over the Boston Celtics in 1966 while still playing.

Also like Abdul-Jabbar, Russell was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and has remained politically active in his later years. In early 2018, Russell tweeted a photo of himself kneeling with his presidential medal in response to President Donald Trump's decision to cancel the visit of the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles over the issue of players kneeling during the national anthem.

Rudy Galindo: U.S. Figure Skating's First Openly Gay Champion

United States Men's 1996 Figure Skating Champion Rudy Galindo, of San Jose, Calif., acknowledges the applause of his hometown fans following his performance in an exhibition.

Rudy Galindo stunned the figure skating world in 1996 with his upset victory at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in San Jose, Calif., in the process becoming the first openly gay and Latino skater to rise to the top of the sport.

In the years since, he has continued to be a vocal advocate for LGBTQ rights. Like Martina Navratilova, Galindo was among the first athletes to come out while still active in sports, thereby helping to remove the stigma for stars who worried that their sexual identity might jeopardize their career.

Not surprisingly, Galindo is credited for paving the way for new generations of male figure skaters to open up about their sexual orientation.

Career Highlights: Rudy Galindo

Rudy Galindo is a vocal advocate for LGBTQ rights.

World Championships bronze medalist - singles (1996)

Babe Didrikson Zaharias: Breaking the Gender Barrier in Professional Sports

Babe Didrikson Zaharias after winning the 1954 Women's U.S. Open Golf Championship at Salem Country Club in Peabody, Mass.

The New York Times described Babe Didrikson Zaharia as the all-but-forgotten sports superstar, and a strong argument can be made that Didrickson Zaharias was the greatest athlete in American history, male or female.

Her accomplishments in a range of sports, from golf to basketball to track and field, showed that sports was not just the dominion of men, and that women could reach for the same athletic heights.

In golf, she was the first woman to compete head-to-head against men, and was one of the founding members of the LPGA.

In addition to opening the doors of sports to women, she also raised public awareness around cancer, which cost Didrickson Zaharias her life at age 45, by speaking openly about her battle against the disease at a time when it was largely a silent killer.

LeBron James: Turning Stardom Into Social Activism

LeBron James warming up with the Cleveland Cavaliers before a 2014 basketball game against the Brooklyn Nets at the Barclays Center in New York. Professional athletes wore "I Can't Breathe" messages in protest of a grand jury ruling not to indict a New York police officer in the death of Eric Garner.

Colin Kaepernick became the sports world's lightning rod for social issues involving black lives with his national anthem protests in 2016, but LeBron James has been a consistent force in this area for years, even if his actions have not typically been as provocative as Kaepernick's.

James' activism began in a big way in 2012, when he and his Miami Heat teammates donned hoodies in tribute to Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, who was wearing one when he was shot and killed the previous month.

In 2014, James and other NBA stars wore T-shirts with the words "I Can't Breathe" to protest the death of Eric Garner, a New York man who had been put in a chokehold by a police officer.

In 2015, James called for greater regulation of firearms after a Cleveland infant was killed by gunfire.

Today, James continues to stay in the advocacy spotlight by routinely trading jabs with President Donald Trump on political and social justice matters.

Colin Kaepernick: Taking a Knee and a Stand Against Police Brutality

Colin Kaepernick sacrificed his NFL career to protest the oppression of people of color in the United States.

Colin Kaepernick may be the most polarizing athlete of his generation.

His decision to take a seat - and then a knee - during the national anthem of NFL games during the 2016 season created a political firestorm and cost him his football career.

Whether you agree with Kaepernick or not, no one can deny that his provocative act, which scores of players emulated, placed the sports world front and center in the heated Black Lives Matter debate.

Generations from now, Kaepernick's example will be remembered and analyzed for its social impact in the same way that Muhammad Ali's stand against the Vietnam War and Tommie Smith and John Carlos' black power salute at the 1968 Olympics are today.

Career Highlights: Colin Kaepernick

Colin Kaepernick started 58 games in the NFL.

Two-time WAC Offensive Player of the Year (2008, 2010)

NFC champion (2012)

Althea Gibson: The Female Jackie Robinson in Two Sports

Althea Gibson in her East Orange, N.J., apartment during a 1968 interview.

Perhaps no athlete, man or woman, broke more racial barriers during an athletic career than Althea Gibson.

She was the first African-American tennis player to compete at the U.S. National Championships in 1950 and the first African-American to play at Wimbledon the following year.

Before Arthur Ashe and the Williams sisters, Gibson proved that African-Americans could play at the highest levels of the sport, winning 56 singles and doubles championships before turning pro in 1959.

She later took up golf, another sport that had been closed to minorities, and was the first African-American member of the LPGA.

Arthur Ashe: The Soft-Spoken Social Activist

Arthur Ashe in 1975 admires the Dewar Cup presented to him in New York for his "outstanding contribution to tennis."

Arthur Ashe was considered the Jackie Robinson of tennis and a far cry from the firebrand political activists of the 1960s, preferring civility and reason to vocal protests.

Some people at the time labeled Ashe an Uncle Tom for his restraint, but he steadily built a legacy as one of the greatest activists in the history of sports.

Ashe became a leader in the fight against apartheid in South Africa and, after contracting HIV through a blood-transfusion that ultimately cost him his life, dedicated himself to the fight against AIDS.

It's little surprise that Barack Obama listed Ashe along with Muhammad Ali as the sports figures he most admired.

Jesse Owens: Shattering the Myth of White Supremacy

Jesse Owens, center, salutes during the presentation of his gold medal for the long jump at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, after defeating Nazi Germany's Lutz Long, right. Naoto Tajima of Japan, left, placed third.

Jesse Owens triumphed over the stain of racism on both the national and world stages, and his example inspired generations of African-American athletes who saw that race didn't have to stand in the way of sports success.

Even after shattering Adolf Hitler's myth of white supremacy with his four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics, Owens continued to suffer mistreatment at home and endured economic hardships in a country that was still largely defined by racial inequality.

Though he wasn't active in the civil rights movement like others, his stature as the nation's first great black athlete helped open countless doors.

Career Highlights: Jesse Owens

Jesse Owens was a four-time Olympic gold medalist.

Four-time Olympic gold medalist (1936)

Eight-time NCAA national champion (1935, 1936)

Tommie Smith and John Carlos: An Act of Defiance That Has Stood the Test of Time

U.S. athletes Tommie Smith, center, and John Carlos at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City protest racial inequality during the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" after Smith received the gold and Carlos the bronze for the 200 meter run. Australian silver medalist Peter Norman is at left.

In terms of a singularly bold and polarizing act that called attention to the issue of race relations, the black power salute of Tommie Smith and John Carlos during the national anthem at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City echoes Colin Kaepernick's NFL protest.

Like Kaepernick today, the track and field medalists were widely vilified for thrusting politics into the world of sports when they thrust their black-gloved fists skyward with heads bowed.

But 50 years later, their act of defiance continues to stand as a crystalizing moment of the civil rights era.

It will be interesting to see if the Kaepernick-inspired protests stand the test of time in a similar way.

Career Highlights: Tommie Smith and John Carlos

Tommie Smith and John Carlos was a powerful moment of the civil rights era.

Olympic gold medal 200-meter dash (1968, Smith)

Olympic bronze medal 200-meter dash (1968, Carlos)

Jackie Robinson: Breaking the Biggest of Color Barriers

Jackie Robinson returns an autograph book to a fan in the stands, during spring training for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1948 in Ciudad Trujillo, now Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic.

Jackie Robinson is the greatest African-American pioneer in sports history for his role in breaking the color barrier in the biggest sport of his era, baseball (otherwise known as the national pastime).

Like the African-American pioneers who were responsible for desegregating the schools of the South during the civil rights era, Robinson endured no shortage of scorn and mistreatment, despite his exploits on the field that made him one of the greatest players in the history of the game.

But his impact in the fight for equal rights wasn't limited to his actions on the field. He continued to speak out eloquently on issues of racial justice long after his playing days ended.

Career Highlights: Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson was a four-letter student-athlete at UCLA in football, baseball, basketball, and track and field.

World Series champion (1955)

National League MVP (1949)

Six-time MLB All-Star (1949-54)

MLB Rookie of the Year (1947)

MLB All-Century Team, Negro League All-Star (1945)

NCAA long jump champion (1940)

Billie Jean King: Leading the Battle for Equality Among the Sexes

Billie Jean King waves to crowds at the Astrodome in Houston on Sept. 20, 1973, while being carried on a throne by four men before her match with Bobby Riggs.

Billie Jean King clearly stands alone as the greatest women's athlete in the fight for social justice and equal rights, both through her actions and words.

Her 1973 victory over self-proclaimed male chauvinist Bobby Riggs in the so-called " Battle of the Sexes" was a defining moment in the feminist movement of the era. She also led the battle for equal treatment of women's tennis players in the area of prize money, both as president of the Women's Tennis Association and the driving force behind the first women's professional tour.

After her career ended, King continued her activism, this time in the area of gay rights, after she became one of the first prominent American athletes in the 1980s to admit to having a same-sex relationship.

Muhammad Ali: The Undisputed Champion of Social Justice in Sports

World heavyweight boxing champion, Muhammad Ali, right, with black Muslim leader, Malcolm X, outside the Trans-Lux Newsreel Theater in New York City in 1964, after watching a screening of films on Ali's title fight with Sonny Liston. Malcolm X became Ali's mentor and close friend. Their relationship ruptured when Malcolm X split from the Nation of Islam.

If Jackie Robinson was the greatest African-American pioneer in sports history, Muhammad Ali was the greatest advocate for social justice.

The first great sports star to speak unabashedly about social issues and challenge the status quo, Ali nearly sacrificed his storied boxing career for his beliefs, when he was stripped of the heavyweight title for refusing to be drafted into the Army during the Vietnam War.

Sidelined for more than three years during his prime, Ali stayed busy by speaking out on issues of civil rights, even as he faced additional scorn and skepticism for his conversion to Islam, and his silver tongue was as devastating on the political stage as his footwork and punches were in the ring.

Perhaps his most impressive feat, in or out of the ring, was his remarkable transformation from reviled radical to beloved champion for justice and equality.

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athletes who stood up for social justice

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men and women athletes who fought for justice through sports

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athletes who were social justice warriors

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most influential social activists in sports history

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Most Influential Social Activists in Sports History

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These men and women used sports to address serious issues in society.

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https://tcf.org/content/commentary/u-s-womens-soccer-latest-goal-ending-gender-discrimination/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwqfz6BRD8ARIsAIXQCf3hNtVY5g_iYdO8Cw0NUyI9BE93MG7DvSUPsUqkfBvpVAwZAOJbXK4aAoQdEALw_wcB&session=1
Kumudu W.

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This March, just months before racking up a record-setting number of goals in their World Cup debut, the 2019 U.S. Women's National Soccer Team (USWNT) filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF), charging " institutionalized gender discrimination. " Regardless of what happens on the field as the tournament progresses, the members of the U.S. women's team have already carved their names in the history books-by demanding that they be treated equally, and by bringing the justice system to bear on their demand. Their courage is shining a light on a truly maddening and ever-present problem, and will surely inspire countless other American women and girls to action.

Gender Discrimination: Pervasive in Every Sector

Institutionalized gender discrimination is everywhere in the United States, from the most public and glamorous lives to the most private and invisible ones. Considerable fame, as the U.S. women's soccer team arguably enjoys, is no protection from its ills. For the team's members, gender discrimination looks like paychecks as low as 38 cents for every dollar paid to members of the men's team; fewer resources used to promote their games; less development support; and inferior playing, training, and travel conditions. Nor do famous women performers experience any exceptions: for the women in Hollywood, it's the notoriously horrific "casting couch," being blacklisted for refusing to sleep with a director, and finding out that you are being paid less than a male lead through a Sony hack (Charlize Theron) or a article (Michelle Williams). For the women at NASA, it looks like canceling an all-women space walk because the suits were designed for men.

And if women who are in the limelight experience no exceptions to gender discrimination, then those the farthest from the limelight often experience its most brutal effects. Consider, for instance, women who work on farms, who break their backs to put food on our tables, doing so with few if any health and safety protections, all the while fending off harassment and assaults from supervisors (and, if they aren't citizens, facing dangers of deportation if they report the harassment). In female-dominated sectors, the problem of gender discrimination is often worse than in sectors with a stronger balance, and even more pervasive. Consider home health aides and other domestic workers, who take home utterly meager pay, working around the clock, with no breaks or time off, with no health insurance or retirement security. For teachers, it looks like having to strike to make enough money to feed their families and pay the rent. For women in the restaurant and hospitality industry, it means tolerating flirting, and often much worse, for the sake of tips, taking the lower-paying daytime shifts because you can't find child care for your kids overnight, and relying on subminimum wages, as low as $2.13 an hour.

Gender Discrimination's Longstanding Structural Roots

Institutionalized discrimination is so baked into America's systems precisely because our country was built on it. And not just gender discrimination: all along, discrimination has been structurally hardwired into our nation along every point of identity difference. It follows, then, that gender discrimination's effects are intensified whenever women's identities include other oppressed identities and experiences. These intensifications manifest themselves today in, for instance, black women having to work " twice as hard to get half as much." It means they face higher rates of preventable diseases, are " over-policed and under-protected," and are vastly underrepresented in the halls of political and economic power. For Latinas, it looks like 53 cents for every dollar paid to white men, discrimination when visiting a doctor or health clinic, an ever-growing wealth gap, and high high school drop out rates.

Gender discrimination's effects are intensified whenever women's identities include other oppressed identities and experiences.

For Native American women, it means being paid 58 cents for every dollar paid to a white man, while also suffering some of the highest rates of sexual assault and domestic violence in the United States, while working to keep your family together and stop the suicides and substance abuse epidemic in your community. For Asian-American women, it looks like fighting against the myth of the " model minority," while addressing the ways nationality and immigration status produce inequities in pay. For women with disabilities, it includes employment discrimination connected to overcoming both stereotypes and inaccessible workplaces. For trans women, it means facing employment discrimination, struggling for the very right to exist in public, serve in the military, or use the restroom that matches who you are. Of course this list is not exhaustive, in terms of who is impacted by discrimination, and doesn't begin to scratch the surface of its effects on economic stability, safety, and well-being.

Fighting to Care, Fighting for Change

For most women in America, institutionalized gender discrimination also looks like this: No paid family leave to care for yourself or your loved ones; no affordable child care options that give you peace of mind that your children are well-cared for; no accountability for the person who harassed or raped you; and no access to reproductive freedom. It means lower pay than your male counterparts, with barriers to even learn that you're being paid unequally, and mountains to climb to remedy it if you do. It looks like moms demanding action on gun control, only to have NRA-bought legislators vote to arm teachers rather than protect students. It looks like reporting to male CEOs, who in turn report to mostly male boards of directors. It looks like hiding your tears and suppressing your anger. And now, apparently, it looks like having to "keep quiet" when you score a goal -and not scoring too many of them, at that.

The USWNT is fighting hard on the field as they score goal after goal (which, by the way, they deserve to celebrate and be celebrated for). But even more impressive than their remarkable talent is how they've used the World Cup-and their platforms on the world stage more broadly-to stand up and say "no more." No more not just to unequal pay: no more to institutionalized gender discrimination.

Winning a soccer game requires teamwork, strategy, patience, determination, perseverance, and knowing when to strike. It's not so different from creating policy and culture change.

Winning a soccer game requires teamwork, strategy, patience, determination, perseverance, and knowing when to strike. It's not so different from creating policy and culture change. With an assist from the women's team, women across the country are well prepared to work together-on defense and offense; on the turf, from the bench, and in the stands-toward the goal of true equality and justice for women. That's a victory that we shouldn't take for granted.

Cover photo: Alex Morgan of the USA celebrates with teammates after scoring her team's eighth goal during the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup France group F match between USA and Thailand at Stade Auguste Delaune. Source: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

Tags: gender pay gap, gender wage gap, women's rights, equal pay, gender discrimination, u.s. women's soccer, 2019 world cup

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U.S. Women's Soccer's Latest Goal? Ending Gender Discrimination

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This March, just months before racking up a record-setting number of goals in their World Cup debut, the 2019 U.S. Women's National Soccer Team (USWNT) filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF), charging " institutionalized gender discrimination. " Regardless of what happens on the field as the tournament progresses, the members of the U.S.

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NBA postpones wednesdays playoff games after player boycott 

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NBA postpones wednesdays playoff games after player boycott 

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Posted by Harjinder

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The NBA is suspending all three of Wednesday's playoff games, following a league-wide boycott by players that was sparked by the Milwaukee Bucks.

Moments before the Bucks were scheduled to take the court for Game 5 against the Milwaukee Bucks, they remained in the locker room. A few minutes later, word broke that they were boycotting Wednesday's game following the shooting of Jacob Blake by police officers in Wisconsin.

Following speculation earlier in the day that players may boycott, the NBA took action with other teams expected to follow.

NBA playoff games postponed after player boycott

With the Bucks-Magic game off the schedule, the next game on the schedule for Wednesday night was Game 5 between the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder. As it became clear that the boycott was league-wide, the NBA responded with a statement.

In a historic moment, the NBA is postponing all three of its playoff games due to players refusing to take the court. At a time when many of its biggest stars are outraged with their demands for social justice growing louder, the Association once again sided with its players.

While ordinarily a team who refuses to take the court would be given a loss as a forfeit, this is unprecedented territory. The Magic refused to accept a forfeit for Game 5, despite being down 3-1 in the series, which likely influenced the NBA postponing all three games.

Currently, the NBA is scheduled to have three playoff games on the schedule tomorrow. The Utah Jazz and Denver Nuggets were set to face off for Game 6 at 4 p.m. EST, while the Boston Celtics and Toronto Raptors would have begun Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. The night would have concluded with Game 6 between the Los Angeles Clippers and Dallas Mavericks.

However, based off the actions from players today, it seems unlikely there will be any playoff action on Thursday. If all three games are postponed, the NBA will likely wait for the players to decide the next step before making another announcement.

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NBA postpones Wednesday's playoff games after player boycott

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The NBA is suspending all three of Wednesday's playoff games, following a league-wide boycott by players that was sparked by the Milwaukee Bucks. Moments before the Bucks were scheduled to take the court for Game 5 against the Milwaukee Bucks, they remained in the locker room.

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When Crankworx began the World Tour they also started giving men and women equal prize money and having men and women on the podium together.

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Liv + Crankworx

Mountain bikes have come a long way in the past 40 years. With every new generation of off-road bicycle, riders and trails have adapted. But the industry surrounding the sport was created - and for a long time run - by men.

Slowly but surely, that has all changed. It started with the women who stepped up and challenged the status quo; whose drive overshadowed the stares and the whispers, "She's going to ride... that trail? She's going to compete in... that race?" It took women who pushed themselves harder than what was expected of them to open the door for more women and girls to rush in. They didn't settle for mediocre finishes and took themselves seriously, even if no one else did.

Over the past five years, female participation in mountain bike races and events has exploded; there are more women and girls on the trails, and more women breaking into leadership positions within the industry that some once called, "a boy's club."

So, what has changed?

Now there are badass bikes made for women. Now race organizers are giving women equal prize money and equal coverage to their male counterparts. Increasingly there are more events actively seeking to engage with and promote the women's cycling community. One of the best examples of this explosion in women's mountain biking can be seen at the world's biggest mountain bike festival: Crankworx.

Crankworx Creates a Platform for Female Athletes

Crankworx began in Whistler in 2004 out of a vision of what mountain biking could become. In 2008, Crankworx launched "WomensWorx" female freeride competitions. In 2010, Anne Caroline Chausson won the Garbanzo DH, Enduro DH, and Air DH established her as the most consistent cross-discipline mountain bike athlete at Crankworx - male or female. 2015 was the first year Crankworx launched a full World Tour and with it, they began offering equal prize money for women and men. At the same time, the event began featuring men and women on the podium at the same time, a visual expression of equality.

In January 2019, Crankworx released the "Shifting Perceptions" web series in collaboration with TELUS Local Programming. The series highlighted the rise of women in mountain biking and set the stage for the explosion in women's riding and racing that is on the cusp of taking place internationally. Check out the series below:

Whistler Women's Only A-Line Event

By giving female mountain bike athletes an equal stage, Crankworx race organizers have set the scene for exponential growth in women's competition. But, there is a whole world of mountain bikers out there who aren't competing on the gnarliest trails at the highest level. What does Crankworx offer for the rest of us?

In 2014, Liv Cycling jumped onto the scene. Formerly Liv/giant, the company broke free from her big brother's shadow to become the first cycling company to offer a comprehensive collection of bikes and gear for women. At the same time, Crankworx was looking to support the growth of women's mountain biking from an angle other than racing and the Liv Women's Only A-Line Session was born. Liv Cycling's Amalie Gunn was there from the beginning, we caught up with her to find out more about how the event has bolstered the women's MTB scene at Crankworx:
Liv Cycling Canada's Amalie Gunn poses with last year's winner of a brand new Liv Intrigue Advanced after the Women's A-Line Event at Crankworx Whistler. How did the Women's A-Line Event at Crankworx get its start?
AMALIE: After many years of the successful Liv Women's Nights in the bike park, Crankworx approached Liv with the idea to create an event for the ever-growing female mountain biking community in Whistler. I had lived in Whistler for over 10 years; the Bike Park was my second home. Back in the day, there were only a small amount of women that frequented the lineup of the Bike Park. But every year interest grew and grew and now it is just as common to see female riders as men. It was time to offer a way to celebrate that and what better time than during the world's largest mountain bike festival?
What is the event like?
AMALIE: The Liv A-Line Event is a chance to give women an exclusive morning on one of Whistler's best trails (A-Line) in a safe and fun environment and bring together the growing community of female mountain bikers in one place. Although it is solely a freeride session, Bike Park coaches and Liv athletes and ambassadors are on hand during the event, giving everyone a chance to take their skills to the next level or just have fun with friends with the comfort of a closed trail. A photographer is on hand to capture the high fives and big smiles. The fun continues with an Après session at the GLC where a new Liv Mountain bike is given away to one lucky rider.
2019 will be the sixth year of the Liv Women's A-Line event! What are some of the highlights of hosting this event each year?
AMALIE: In the first year of the Liv A-Line there was only 45 women that attended back in 2014. Since then we have grown to the max of 150 spots. Last year registration for the event filled up in 12 hours! It is the largest women's only DH event in North America or maybe even the world. It's great to see some faces return each and every year plus all the smiling new faces, eager to shred. We have women join us from all over North America and even Europe and Australia; Crankworx is a great place to unite women from around the world.

Rotorua Women's Only Trail Session Event

With the success of the Whistler event and the start of the World Tour in 2015, Crankworx Rotorua and Liv Cycling New Zealand's marketing manager Gayle Brownlee were eager to see if the same type of event could work at another venue. The Women's-Only Trail Session launched at Crankworx Rotorua in 2017. Gayle explains how the event has progressed over the past three years:
Liv Cycling New Zealand's Gayle Brownlee joins the fun during the Women's Social Ride at Crankworx Rotorua, a new event for 2019. What was your inspiration behind starting the Women's Only Trail Session?
GAYLE: I began working at Giant in 2012 so I'd really just settled in when I heard about the first Women's only A-Line event in Whistler at Crankworx 2014. It was so far away, on completely the other side of the world, so it didn't even cross my mind that we would be able to do something similar here. Then we found out that Crankworx was coming to Rotorua in 2015!
How did you go about getting the event off the ground?
GAYLE: In early 2016 Giant had sponsored the building of a new mountain bike trail at Skyline Rotorua (the Crankworx Rotorua site) called Mr Black. Being a black diamond trail, we figured it was pretty much the same difficulty as A-Line in Whistler. Giant is a major sponsor of Crankworx so our relationship with the teams at Skyline and Crankworx Rotorua was really strong and with their help, we ran the first Liv Women's Only Trail Session on the Mr Black trail at Crankworx Rotorua in 2017.
What was that first event like?
GAYLE: It was great! It felt like a completely new platform for women at Crankworx; you don't have to be a superstar athlete, if you've got a mountain bike you can be a part of it - come ride with us. Using Amalie's information from A-line as base we made a plan, refined it for New Zealand conditions and brought our Liv Ambassadors onboard to help run the show. The Crankworx team was great; they organised Pinkbike to shoot and host a video for us helped us work out all the last minute details.
How has the event grown over the past three years?
GAYLE: Since that first session of 50 riders in 2017, we grew the event to 100 riders in 2018 and now for 2019 we've decided to trim the number back to 80 so as to create the best experience possible. It's been great to have women coming back to the ride event again. We've seen women go from riding hardtail mountain bikes tentatively to riding full suspension bikes and sending the jump lines in just a year. They've also helped us to develop the event; their feedback has been invaluable. It will be interesting to see how many come back this time around, see who's changed and how, and find out what people have been up to.

More Women on Mountain Bikes

Without a doubt, progress doesn't happen without pushback. Gayle explains that the event has seen its of negative attention.

"Some of the comments after the 2018 Pinkbike video were disturbing; discriminatory, and in a few cases outright offensive," she said, describing the hostility that some people expressed due to the trails being closed for the women's ride one morning of Crankworx. "But there were more supportive comments, that beautifully explained to the detractors what the event was actually about: encouragement, learning, and fun."

Not conceding to the negativity, the 2019 Trail Session invited 80 women to shred at Skyline Rotorua. Beginners were welcomed, intermediates progressed, and expert riders showed off their skills. In addition to the women's-only session, Liv New Zealand expanded their women's events to include rides and a contest where three lucky ladies received a private shuttle session with pro enduro racer Rae Morrison. There's one thing that's for sure: the stoke level in women's mountain biking has never been higher.

"I'd love to see similar women's events at all the Crankworx destinations," said Gayle. "I don't think it would be difficult to do and going by the popularity of the events at Whistler and Rotorua they are sure to be popular and a lot of fun!"

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Crankworx and Liv Get More Women on Mountain Bikes | Liv Cycling Official site

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Crankworx is the biggest mountain bike festival in the world and Liv is the only cycling brand offering a comprehensive product offering for women, together they are teaming up to get more women on mountain bikes. Find out how at Liv-Cycling.com

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How Emily Davison and the suffragettes targeted sport to bring attention to their cause

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How Emily Davison and the suffragettes targeted sport to bring attention to their cause

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Posted by James Norris

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The impression given by so much that has been written about Emily Davison's famous intrusion at the Derby a century ago is that it was an isolated incident. Nothing could be further from the truth. It was part of a campaign waged by suffragettes against sport in 1913-14, and was not even the only sabotaging of a famous horse race that year.

Sports facilities - left unattended for long periods, and emblematic of male clannishness - presented an inviting target for suffragettes wanting to do more than a little light window-breaking. And, after yet another Parliamentary rejection of their case in early 1913, the militants were increasingly keen to show their outrage.

Golf, especially, was a temptation. It was probably played by more members of the ruling class than any other game, and its courses were conveniently sited well away from patrolling policemen and passers-by. So, at night, suffragettes armed with spades and trowels could spend many uninterrupted hours carving "Votes for Women" or impromptu holes into greens. Courses in the Midlands, South-east, Scotland, Wales and Yorkshire were hit in 1913; clubs as far apart as Braid Hills near Edinburgh and Surbiton in Surrey were still being attacked well into 1914.

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Plus-foured politicians were waylaid on the links, Prime Minister Herbert Asquith being among those put off their stroke by the sudden appearance of chanting women. For a time in 1913, setting fire to clubhouses in the name of the suffragette cause seemed an almost daily occupation. Many of the perpetrators were never caught, an exception being Olive Hockin, who set fire to Roehampton Golf Club, but left behind a copy of The Suffragette newspaper with her name and address written on it. According to Dr Joyce Kay's excellent article in the International Journal of the History of Sport, the subsequent raid on Olive's home uncovered an impressive saboteur's kit: acid, paraffin, false car number-plate, and wirecutters. She got four months.

Cricket pavilions at Tunbridge Wells and Perth went up in flames; boathouses at Oxford, Nottingham, and Hampton Court met the same end; bowls clubs in Newcastle, Fulham and Glasgow were attacked, football stands at Crystal Palace and Blackburn targeted. And at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club grounds at Wimbledon one suffragette clambered over a hedge into the grounds equipped with paraffin and wood shavings. Only a sharp-eyed groundskeeper stopped her setting the place ablaze.

But horse-racing bore the brunt of the more spectacular attacks. In April 1913, grandstands or courses at Ayr, Kelso and Cardiff were attacked and in June, nine days after Emily Davison's death, two suffragettes set fire to Hurst Park, at West Molesey, Surrey. The stewards' quarters, press box, two grandstands and much else besides went up in flames.

A short while after Davison's funeral, according to a new biography of her by Lucy Fisher (and - declaration of interest - published by my family's venture, Black Toad Books), there was a bizarre copycat incident. During the running of the Gold Cup at Ascot, a young man waving a suffragette flag and brandishing a loaded revolver ran onto the course, tried to block the path of the leading horse - Tracery, the second favourite - and called on the jockey to stop. There was a collision, jockey and horse were unhurt, but the man - an Old Harrovian called Harold Hewitt - was taken to hospital, operated upon, and duly recovered.

He was the son of wealthy parents, an unsettled individual who, after graduating from Cambridge, led a nomadic existence in the colonies. Deemed what was then called a lunatic, he was carted off to an asylum, where it was hoped he could be coaxed into sufficient sanity to be prosecuted. But he escaped, made his way to Canada, and ran a farm for several years. In January 1921, he returned to England, gave himself up, and was sentenced to two days in prison.

And sport's reaction to all this? Much tut-tutting and smoking-room discontent but, elsewhere, surprising tolerance. Cricketer Jack Hobbs joined marches in support of women's suffrage and, most touchingly, Herbert Jones, the king's jockey up-ended by Davison, took a wreath to Emmeline Pankhurst's funeral 15 years later. Its inscription read: "To do honour to the memory of Mrs Pankhurst and Miss Davison".
"Emily Wilding Davison: The Suffragette Who Died For Women's Rights", by Lucy Fisher, is published as an ebook by Black Toad Books at £2.99 (www.blacktoadpromotes.com). The best league in the world is back. Join The Independent for an online event, as our panel discusses the most uncertain start to a season in Premier League history. Click here to find out more and book your free ticket today.

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How Emily Davison and the suffragettes targeted sport to bring

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The impression given by so much that has been written about Emily Davison's famous intrusion at the Derby a century ago is that it was an isolated incident. Nothing could be further from the truth. It was part of a campaign waged by suffragettes against sport in 1913-14, and was not even the only sabotaging of a famous horse race that year.

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Katherine Switzer became the first woman to run the Boston Marathon by signing up as a man

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Katherine Switzer became the first woman to run the Boston Marathon by signing up as a man

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Remy Garrison

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The Real Story of Kathrine Switzer's 1967 Boston Marathon

A note from Kathrine Switzer, especially to journalists and students:

The following is an excerpt from my memoir, Marathon Woman. It first appeared in Runner's World Magazine, in April 2007. While Marathon Woman tells the fuller story of my life before, during and after the momentous 1967 Boston Marathon, this excerpt deals mostly with that race itself. By the way, the drawings in this article are taken from the famous series of photos which are displayed on the home page slider; they are courtesy of the Boston Herald newspaper.

My entry and run in the 1967 Boston Marathon is usually the first thing people ask me about, and it is important to have the facts presented accurately. Over the years, many sources of information-the internet and poorly researched books especially-present distortions and inaccuracies.

I encourage writers, historians, journalists and students to read and quote from this story first rather than attempt to piece together misinformation handed down from source to source.

Another accurate source is the "Life is for Participating" chapter in the book Spirit of the Marathon by Gail Waesche Kislevitz (2003).

Please also understand that it is not practical for me to do repeated personal interviews when the facts and quotes are here at hand. Thank you!

The Girl Who Started it All

Excerpted from Marathon Woman, Kathrine Switzer's memoir.

On a dark six-mile run in a wild snowstorm in mid-December 1966, I had a terrible argument with my otherwise kindly old coach, Arnie Briggs. It was in Syracuse, New York, where God first invented snow and never let up. I was a 19-year-old journalism student at Syracuse University, and since there was no women's running team there or anywhere else for that matter, I began training unofficially with the men's cross-country team. That's where I met 50-year-old Arnie, who had trained for years with the team. Arnie was actually the university mailman and a veteran of 15 Boston Marathons. He was excited to see a woman-the first-come out to run, and took slowpoke me under his training wing. To cajole me through tough evening sessions like this, Arnie told and retold stories of famous Bostons. I loved listening to them-until this night when I snapped and said, "Oh, let's quit talking about the Boston Marathon and run the damn thing!"

"No woman can run the Boston Marathon," Arnie fired back.

"Why not? I'm running 10 miles a night!"

Arnie insisted the distance was too long for fragile women to run and exploded when I said that Roberta Gibb had jumped into the race and finished it the previous April.

"No dame ever ran the Boston Marathon!" he shouted, as skidding motorists nearly killed us. Then he added, "If any woman could do it, you could, but you would have to prove it to me. If you ran the distance in practice, I'd be the first to take you to Boston." I grinned through the gloom and flakes. Hot damn, I thought, I have a coach, a training partner, a plan, and a goal: the biggest race in the world-Boston.

Three weeks before the marathon, Arnie and I ran our 26-mile trial. As we came down our home stretch, it felt too easy, so I suggested that we run another five-mile loop just to feel extra confident about Boston. Arnie agreed, reluctantly. Toward the end of our 31-mile run, he began turning grey. When we finished, I hugged him ecstatically-and he passed out cold. The next day Arnie came to my dorm and insisted that I sign up for the race. He said it was wrong to run without registering and, besides, I could get in serious trouble with the Amateur Athletic Union, our sport's strict governing body. We checked the rule book and entry form; there was nothing about gender in the marathon. I filled in my AAU number, plunked down $3 cash as entry fee, signed as I always sign my name, "K.V. Switzer," and went to the university infirmary to get a fitness certificate. (Unlike today, the marathon did not require qualifying times then.) Arnie got the travel permits and mailed our entries. Two weeks later, my boyfriend, a 235-pound ex-All American football player and nationally ranked hammer thrower known as Big Tom Miller, announced that he was going to run Boston, too, and didn't need to train because "if a girl can run a marathon, I can run a marathon." Tom was an authority on all things athletic and would not be dissuaded. Then John Leonard, from the university cross-country team, decided to come, too. In all, we had a pretty formidable crew ready to take on the marathon.

In 1967, the Boston Marathon was Wednesday, April 19, Patriots' Day in the state of Massachusetts. I thought it was neat that folks in Massachusetts got a special holiday commemorating the young American patriots who fought the British in the first battles of the American Revolution. The marathon was made part of Patriots' Day in 1897, the year after the revival of the Olympic Games in Athens, when athletes came back from Greece telling of a romantic new event called the marathon. Part of what made the Boston Marathon special to me was its historical importance. I had no idea I was going to become part of that history. I wasn't running Boston to prove anything; I was just a kid who wanted to run her first marathon.

Tuesday afternoon Arnie picked up John, Tom, and me, and by 3 o'clock we hit the road for the five-hour drive to Boston. We found a motel in Natick, and after dinner Arnie insisted on showing us the course even though it was nearly 10 p.m. and freezing cold and rainy outside. He was excited at every land¬mark, saying things like "Here's Wellesley College!" when we couldn't see a thing out the steamy windows. The drive seemed an eternity, and I had this impending feeling of doom-here we were driving at 40 miles an hour and it was taking forever. Ever since that night I've never driven over a marathon course before the event. It is totally demoralizing to see how far 26 miles actually is.

I called my parents in Virginia when I got back to my room. I had to explain first what a marathon was, and then why I was in Boston, ending with, "It is important for me to finish the race." My dad was acutely aware when it came to any anxiety on my part; I never reached out with a lack of confidence unless it was serious. And he delivered perfectly. "Aw hell, kid, you can do it. You're tough, you've trained, you'll do great!"

It was just what I needed to hear. My dad knew I didn't jump into things untrained; although this marathon thing was a surprise, he had no doubt. What I couldn't explain to him, what nobody knows unless they've done one, is that the marathon is unpredictable, anything weird could happen, and anything could happen to me! I could get diarrhea. I could get hit by a dolt opening his car door-Arnie told me about that happening once. Eventually, I got too tired to worry about things I could not control. The thing I worried about most was courage. Would I have the courage to keep running if it re¬ally hurt, if it got harder than I was used to, if Heartbreak Hill broke me? I was worried about maybe not having the courage if it got awful.

The Boston Marathon started at noon, a great gift, as we slept in and didn't eat breakfast until 9. Arnie said to chow down; we needed a lot of fuel because it was a long day and cold outside. He wasn't kidding-it was freezing rain, with sleet and wind. So we ate everything: bacon, eggs, pancakes, juice, coffee, milk, extra toast.

Oddly, the weather didn't concern me; we'd trained five months in weather like this. What was annoying was that I had wanted to look nice and feminine at the start in my just-ironed burgundy shorts and top. We went back to our rooms, packed our stuff, and I carefully put on makeup and gold earbobs. Tom banged on my door holding out a sanitary napkin bag from the back of the toilet and a big safety pin. "Here, we're pinning these on the back of our gloves. They're perfect for holding dextrose tablets. See, you put four tablets in the bottom of the sack, rip off the top, fold it over, and pin it to your glove. When you need the dextrose, you rip it open."

"Why do you need dextrose?" I asked.

"It's sugar, for energy, get it?" he said in that tone that made me feel stupid. I had no idea sugar would give you energy any¬more than, say, a piece of bread. Plenty of times I'd been hungry and tired on a run, but I never craved sugar or equated it to ener¬gy. I told him, "I don't need sugar; we never needed it before." It was just another complication; we had enough to worry about.

"How do you know? Just pin it, already." I shrugged. It was easier not to argue. Still, I felt idiotic, but when I got to the car, Arnie and John had sanitary napkin bags pinned to their gloves, too. What a team!

When we got to Hopkinton High School, the snow was really coming down. Since we'd pre-entered as a team, the race organizers had our stuff together for the team captain. A few minutes later, Arnie came out with the envelope and two number bibs each, to pin on our fronts and backs; they looked like cardboard license plates. We looked up our names in the printed start list and smiled at each other nervously. Seeing "K. Switzer" in print beside "261" gave me a little frisson. There were 741 people listed on the program, a huge race.

I pinned my numbers on my sweatshirt and not my burgundy top. It was the final commitment to wearing that warm sweat¬shirt for the whole race. I was pleased; the sweatshirt had been a buddy in Syracuse for several hundred miles and would live on another day, rather than dying at the roadside on the way to Boston. We started warming up. Everyone was darting about in different directions, all in grey sweat suits, some with hoods up, some with nylon windbreakers over them, some bare-legged, and some with shorts over the pants, a method of wearing sweats I never could understand. We all looked alike, like ragtags.

As runners jogged past, most kept their nervous eyes ahead, lost in prerace concentration, but plenty did double takes, and when they did I'd smile back or wave a little wave. Yep, I'm a girl, my look back said. Many of these guys turned right around and jogged over, all excited. "Hey! You gonna go the whole way?" "Gosh, it's great to see a girl here!" "Can you give me some tips to get my wife to run? She'd love it if I can just get her started." Arnie was kind of holding court with his "This girl ran me into the ground!" routine. He was shining. "See? I told you you'd be welcome at Boston," he said. Indeed, I felt very welcome. I felt special and proud of myself. I knew something other women didn't know, and I felt downright smug.

As we jogged over to the start, Tom said, "God, you're wear¬ing lipstick!"

"I always wear lipstick. What's wrong with that?"

"Somebody might see you are a girl and not let you run. Take it off."

"I will not take off my lipstick."

And that's how we arrived at the start. There was a mob of runners in every getup imaginable funneling into a penlike area. At the gate of the funnel were clipboard-holding Boston Athletic Association officials wearing long overcoats with blue ribbons on the lapels and felt dress hats. Everyone was sodden; hats were gathering snow, as were the shoulders of the runners standing in the pen. It was pretty disorganized, and the officials were agitated. They were checking off bib numbers as runners came through the gate; I held up the big outer sweatshirt so they could check my number and the official put his hand on my shoulder and gently shoved me forward, saying, "C'mon runners, let's move on in, just keep it moving here!" We worked our way into the back of the field, and Arnie said, "See? No problem!"

All around us the men were pleased to have a woman in their presence. I tried to stay low-key; I sure didn't want any attention at this moment, but I tried to be accommodating, even when one runner insisted on having his wife, on the other side of the fence, take our photo together. Then the crowd quieted; someone up front must have been making announcements. We moved close together, and the smell of liniment was so strong that my eyes stung. The gun went off, and we were away at last.

Boston was always Mecca for runners. Now I, too, was one of the anointed pilgrims. After months of training with Arnie and dreaming about this, here we were, streaming alongside the village common and onto the downhill of Route 135 with hundreds of our most intimate companions, all unknown, but all of whom understood what this meant and had worked hard to get here. More than ever before at a running event, I felt at home.

The first few miles of every marathon are fun. The running is easy, the crowd noise is exciting, and your companions are conversational and affable. You know it's going to hurt later, so you just enjoy this time. So it was as we ran in our little group, four abreast, joking and saying thanks to the many well-wishers who passed us with encouragement. Arnie and Tom were in their element, running with me-a girl! All the positive encouragement gave them attention they had never had before. Tom ran with his chest stuck out, and even Arnie pranced; it was nice to see.

Then, at just about mile four, came a honking of horns and someone shouting, "Get over, runners move to your right!" There was a lot of shuffling and some cursing as a big flatbed truck forced us all to the side of the narrow road. Following close behind the truck was a city bus. It was the photo press truck; on the back were risers so the cameramen could each get a clean shot as the vehicle pushed up to the front of the field. Suddenly, though, the truck slowed to be right in front of us, and the photographers were taking our pictures. In fact, they were getting pretty excited to see a woman in the race, a woman wearing numbers! I could see them fumbling to look up my number and name, and then shoot again. We all started to laugh and wave, it was our "Hi-Mom-on-the-nightly-news" moment, and it was fun.

A man with an overcoat and felt hat was then in the middle of the road shaking his finger at me; he said something to me as I passed and reached out for my hand, catching my glove in¬stead and pulling it off. I did a kind of stutter step, we all had to jostle around him. I thought he was a nutty spectator, but when I passed I caught a glimpse of a blue and gold BAA ribbon on his lapel. Where had he come from?

Moments later, I heard the scraping noise of leather shoes coming up fast behind me, an alien and alarming sound amid the muted thump thumping of rubber-soled running shoes. When a runner hears that kind of noise, it's usually danger-like hearing a dog's paws on the pavement. Instinctively I jerked my head around quickly and looked square into the most vicious face I'd ever seen. A big man, a huge man, with bared teeth was set to pounce, and before I could react he grabbed my shoulder and flung me back, screaming, "Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers!" Then he swiped down my front, trying to rip off my bib number, just as I leapt backward from him. He missed the numbers, but I was so surprised and frightened that I slightly wet my pants and turned to run. But now the man had the back of my shirt and was swiping at the bib num¬ber on my back. I was making little cries of aa-uh, aa-uh, not thinking at all, just trying to get away, when I saw tiny brave Arnie bat at him and try to push him away, shouting, "Leave her alone, Jock. I've trained her, she's okay, leave her alone!" And the man screamed, "Stay out of this, Arnie!" and swatted him away like a gnat.

Arnie knows this maniac, I thought wildly, as I tried to pull away. The air was filled only with the clicking whirr of motor-drive cameras, scuffling sounds, and faintly, one cameraman screeching something I couldn't under¬stand. The bottom was dropping out of my stomach; I had never felt such embarrassment and fear. I'd never been manhandled, never even spanked as a child, and the physical power and swiftness of the attack stunned me. I felt unable to flee, like I was rooted there, and indeed I was, because the man, this Jock guy, had me by the shirt. Then a flash of orange flew past and hit Jock with a cross-body block. It was Big Tom, in the orange Syracuse sweatshirt. There was a thud-whoomph!-and Jock was air¬borne. He landed on the roadside like a pile of wrinkled clothes. Now I felt terror. We've killed this guy Jock. It's my fault, even though hothead Tom did it. My God, we're all going to jail. Then I saw Arnie's face-it was full of fear, too; his eyes were goggled and he shouted, "Run like hell!" All the adrenaline kicked in and down the street we ran, flying past the press truck, running like kids out of a haunted house.

I was dazed and confused. I'd never been up close to physical violence; the power was terrifying and I was shocked at how helpless I, as a strong woman, felt against it. Tom's precise execution, the way he took out Jock and only Jock, was sublime athleticism, but I was not grateful for the "save." I felt sick at heart, it was awful; it had gone too far, I wished Tom was not there, I wished I was not there.

Everyone was shouting. I could hear the journalists on the truck behind us yelling, "Go after her, go after her!" to the driver. The driver accelerated, popped the clutch, and I heard the truck buck and what unfortunately sounded like photographers, tripods, and crank cameras crashing down in a cursing melee.

Everyone was cursing, most loudly Arnie, the mild-mannered sweetheart, who proclaimed he was going to Kill That Jock Semple Who Should Know Better Being a Runner Himself! Tom really looked as if steam was coming out of his ears; he was still in full bombastic mode, and each curse of his was accompanied by another jab or a challenging look over his shoulder. John looked bewildered. I felt puke-ish, afraid that we'd seriously hurt this guy Jock Semple, and maybe we should stop and get it sorted out. But it was clear Jock was some kind of official-in fact, he turned out to be the race manager-and he was out of control. Now he's hurt, we're in trouble, and we're going to get arrested. That was how scared I felt, as well as deeply humiliated, and for just a tiny moment, I wondered if I should step off the course. I did not want to mess up this prestigious race. But the thought was only a flicker. I knew if I quit, nobody would ever believe that women had the capability to run 26-plus miles. If I quit, everybody would say it was a publicity stunt. If I quit, it would set women's sports back, way back, instead of forward. If I quit, I'd never run Boston. If I quit, Jock Semple and all those like him would win. My fear and humiliation turned to anger.

The press truck caught up to us and hovered with its droning engine alongside, three feet away. Off the back and side the journalists began firing aggressive questions, and the photographers hung out close to get face shots. How quickly their tone had changed. Now it was "What are you trying to prove?" and "When are you going to quit?" Consequently, my tone changed, too. I was polite but no longer friendly. I made it clear that I was not trying to "prove" anything except that I wanted to run, I'd trained seriously for the distance, and I was not going to drop out. They wrote down what they wanted to write down. Clearly, they didn't believe me, as they stayed alongside. They thought it was a prank and didn't want to miss the moment when I'd give up. This made me even more resolved. In fact, it infuriated me.

Then, that bus came by. Standing on the floorboards and holding onto the outside door rail was Jock Semple! My God, he's alive! I thought. I was so relieved. But as the bus came by us, it slowed, and Jock, teeth bared again and shaking his fist, screamed in a Scottish brogue, "You all ere in beeeeeggg trooouble!" and all around us, men gave him the finger and shouted obscenities, and Arnie shouted, "Get out of here, Jock! Leave us alone!" I put my head down. I was not going to say a word. And with that, the bus accelerated with a huge cloud of stinking exhaust in our faces and sped away, blaring its horn for the runners to get out of its way.

Eventually, the press truck gave up when they saw I was not talking any more and drifted up toward the front of the race. It started to snow again. We were all deep in thought, and my thoughts were moving all over the place. I said quietly to Arnie, "You know that guy Jock has gone up ahead and is probably arranging for one of those big Irish cops to arrest us when nobody is looking. If it happens, I am resisting arrest, okay? And something else." I turned to Ar¬nie and looked him in the eye. "Arnie, I'm not sure where you stand in this now. But no matter what, I have to finish this race. Even if you can't, I have to-even on my hands and knees. If I don't finish, people will say women can't do it, and they will say I was just doing this for the publicity or something. So you need to do whatever you want to do, but I'm finishing."

"Well, the first thing is to slow down! Forget about time, just finish!" Arnie now was the army sergeant. Tom, John, and I dropped the pace, dropped our arms, shook our hands. My left hand was wet and freezing; losing that glove was bad because if your hands are cold, you are miserable all over. I pulled at the sleeve of my sweatshirt to cover my hand, but the sleeve wasn't long enough.

We were just falling into the rhythm of Arnie's stride and beginning to relax when Tom, still fuming, turned to me and blurted out, "You're getting me into all kinds of trouble!"

It was out of the blue.

"What are you talking about, Tom?"

"I've hit an official, and now I'll get kicked out of the AAU." Tom had aspirations of competing in the Olympics in the ham¬mer throw.

I felt really sad, but I was angry, too. "I didn't hit the official, you hit the official, Tom." I said it quietly. I thought it totally crass of him to pick a fight in public with me, his steady girl¬friend. Everybody looked embarrassed.

"Oh great, yeah, thanks a lot for nothing. I should never have come to Boston," he answered loudly.

"It was your idea to come to Boston!" I shot back.

But with that Tom ripped the numbers off the front and back of his sweatshirt, tore them up and threw them to the pavement, and shouted, "I am never going to make the Olympic team and it's all your fault!" Then he lowered his voice and hissed, "Besides that, you run too slow anyway." And with that, he took off and disappeared among the runners in front.

I couldn't help it. I felt so ashamed, I was crying. Again Tom had convinced me I was just a girl, a jogger, and a no-talent like me now had bumbled the Olympic Dream out of his life. I thought I was a serious girlfriend to him, and so I guessed that was over, too. It was a helluva race so far, that's for sure, and we still had over 20 miles to run.

"Let him go. Just let him go. Forget it, shake it off!" scolded Arnie. Dutifully I dropped my arms like I'd done a million times in practice and shook my hands. I kept my head down, I didn't want to see anyone, as this was the only way I could lick my wounds in public. I felt myself go into a deep trough of fatigue. Actually, Arnie, John and I began to go under together; I could feel the downward pull. I knew the adrenaline had gone. God, what I'd give to just go to sleep for awhile, I thought. We had such a long way to go, but I didn't care anymore, not about Tom, not about anything but finishing. I didn't care how much it hurt or how long it was going to take or if I got put in jail or even if I died. I was going to finish no matter what. We were all quiet for a long time.

A couple of miles later, we slowly began to notice things, like when you first come out of anesthesia. The energy was coming back. First we heard some feeble cheers; this was really nice, and we waved back. I felt I was going so slowly, that my soggy long pants must be dragging me down, so I went to the roadside, pulled them off, and tossed them away. A young boy, about 8, ran and grabbed the pants, swung them around his head and screamed in glee at his souvenir. The three of us made a face at each other as if to say, "Oh God, can you imagine what his mother is going to say when he brings that home?"

Now we were halfway and in the famous Wellesley Hills, where in one of Arnie's theories, "the race began." Suddenly ahead in the grey mist I could see an orange sweatshirt. It was Big Tom, and he was walking. We caught him quickly, of course, surprising him. "Walk with me a while," he pleaded. "I'll get it back."

"I can't, Tom," I answered. "As slow as I'm going, I've got some momentum here," thinking if he had to walk at 13 he should call a taxi. Then I drifted ahead. He screamed after me, "I'd never leave you!"

The distance, as it always does, gave me time to think and dissipated my anger. Jock Semple didn't take me seriously, and that's why he attacked me. I wondered why other women didn't run, thinking that they just didn't get it. Wait a minute, maybe they believed all those old myths like running ruins your reproductive organs, and it scared them away because they didn't know better and nobody gave them opportunities to disprove this nonsense. My folks and Arnie had given me this chance, and it dawned on me that I was not special after all; just lucky. My thinking rolled on: The reason there are no intercollegiate sports for women at big universities, no scholarships, prize money, or any races longer than 800 meters is because women don't have the opportunities to prove they want those things. If they could just take part, they'd feel the power and accomplishment and the situation would change. After what happened today, I felt responsible to create those opportunities. I felt elated, like I'd made a great discovery. In fact, I had.

My mind was whirling, but that couldn't distract me from feeling the very big blisters in my arches that soon would burst. I could handle that; pain was nothing. It was part of what made you a hero, doing this, overcoming it, relegating pain to the incidental for a higher purpose. Arnie said Emil Zatopek would run until he passed out. Now that's something, but I'm not sure what. Crap! How much longer? I didn't want to ask-it sounded sissy-so I said, "Arnie, when do we get to Heartbreak Hill?" Arnie looked startled. "Why, you passed over Heartbreak a long time ago!"

"We did? Gosh, I missed it. Why didn't you tell us?" I actually felt disappointed; I thought there would be a trumpet herald or something at the top. In fact, nowadays there is a guy who is a self-appointed archangel on a megaphone calling, "You've done it! You're at the top of Heartbreak Hill!" but that day it was so unremarkable, I didn't know it from any of the other hills.

Arnie was smiling and shaking his head. "You've got to be the only person not to know they ran over Heartbreak Hill!"

We turned from Commonwealth Avenue onto Beacon Street, and now it really did seem endless. There were all these row houses that looked alike, block after block. There must have been 100 sets of trolley tracks; I was afraid I'd catch my foot and break my ankle, and every time I broke stride to mince over them, my blisters squished and stung. Someone from the sidelines shouted, "One mile to go!" And Arnie snapped, "Don't listen to them. We have at least three miles to go." John groaned. A nice cop directed us up Hereford Street, and Arnie began to protest. The finish was always up Exeter Street in his day. I think he and I were both worried that we were getting misdirected at the last minute on purpose. But up at the top of Hereford, we rounded the corner onto Boylston, and there it was: the long slope down to the front of the Prudential building, to a line painted on the street, FINISH. Nobody had misdirected us, nobody had arrested us, and we were going to do it.

John said, "Let's let Arnie finish first." Arnie said, "No, we'll all finish together." John winked at me and at the last moment we slowed and pushed Arnie in front. We three had run every step together, we never walked, and we never doubted. Then we hugged, but only briefly, as we didn't want to get all gooey.

The finish line crowd consisted of about a dozen waterlogged people, none of whom clapped for us. Half this group converged on us, a few kindhearted souls throwing army blankets over us and the rest peppering us with questions and writing down stuff in their reporter's notebooks. They were very crabby, which is what I would have been if I had to stand out in this freezing wet for four hours and 20 minutes, which is what one of them said our time was. And they were crab¬by at me; they were forced to wait because of me. Plus, I could tell, they felt indignant at having to cover a girl. Being a journalism student, this amused me most. Here you are a big-shot sports reporter and your editor tells you to wait for the girl.

"What made you do it?" (I like to run, the longer the better.) "Oh come on, why Boston, why wear numbers?" (Women deserve to run, too. Equal rights and all that, you know.) "Will you come back to run again?" (Yes.) "They will ban your club." (Then we'll change the name of our club.) "Are you a suffragette?" (Huh? I thought we got the right to vote in 1920!) The questions were asked in such an aggressive way that it put me off to be suddenly challenged again. After all the miles, I'd worked out the anger and was quite mellow. Plus, I felt so great. Really, except for the blisters, I felt like I could have run all the way back to Hopkinton. A BAA official came over, insisting that I have the podiatrist check my feet. When I took off my shoes, the doctor nearly fainted. My socks were blood-soaked. He lanced and bandaged and lanced and taped. When he was done, I could not get my shoes back on. So I pulled the socks over the bandages and hobbled back upstairs to the finish-line area where Arnie and John waited, keeping an eye out for Tom. An hour had past, and we couldn't find him. We assumed he had caught the sag wagon. As we were about to give up, Big Tom came staggering around the corner, lurching to the finish. By golly, he did it, too!

A friend of Arnie's drove us back to Hopkinton to get our car and then had us over to his house for hot showers and a superb steak dinner. We laughed ourselves silly, drinking beer and telling and retelling stories of the day's adventures, and then it was past 10 p.m. and time to begin the long drive back to Syracuse. With our spirits at an all-time high, it didn't even occur to me to phone my parents to tell them how I did.

Albany was halfway home, and around 1 a.m. we stopped sleepily along the New York State Thruway for gas and coffee. We were so stiff we could barely unfold ourselves from the car. In the restaurant, there was only one man, sitting at the U-shaped counter, reading a newspaper. We sat across, yattering away, when my eyes became fixed on the man's newspaper. "My God!" I shouted and ran over to him, babbling, "Excuse me, sir, please let me look at your newspaper!" I was so frantic that he thrust it at me like it was on fire.

All over the front and back covers were our photos. We gathered around gasping as we went from page to page. Everywhere it was girl running, girl being attacked, girl being saved by boyfriend, happy bedraggled girl in bloody socks at finish. When had they taken so many pictures? I handed the man his paper. "Keep it!" he said. "Oh, please, I insist, keep it!"

There sure was no danger of anyone falling asleep at the wheel after that. The guys were in heaven; they sounded like roosters in a barnyard all the way back to Syracuse. I laughed at their jokes, but my revelry had turned into quiet musing. I've stepped into a different life, I thought. To the guys it was a one-off event. But I knew it was a lot more than that. A lot more.

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The Real Story - Kathrine Switzer - Marathon Woman

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The following is an excerpt from my memoir, Marathon Woman. It first appeared in Runner's World Magazine, in April 2007. While Marathon Woman tells the fuller story of my life before, during and after the momentous 1967 Boston Marathon, this excerpt deals mostly with that race itself.

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Women will be receiving equal pay at the Rugby League World Cup (2021) 

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Women will be receiving equal pay at the Rugby League World Cup (2021) 

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Macy Wiebe

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Australia and New Zealand participated in the ground-breaking World Cup Nines (PA Images)

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The Rugby League World Cup has announced that it will be paying women and wheelchair athletes for the first time.

The participation fee the players will be receiving is equal to what the men will be paid.

Women will also be receiving prize money for the first time but it hasn't been confirmed if this will be the same as the men's prize pot.

The tournament, which takes place in 2021, sees an increase in the men's money of 125% from the last competition.

Chief executive of the RLWC Jon Dutton said: "Our board have worked hard with colleagues at the IRL and the Rugby League Players Association (RLPA) to secure this positive and ground-breaking decision and we're delighted with the outcome.

"One of our core values as a tournament is inclusivity and we believe that our revised agreements showcase our determination to ensure we celebrate this in 2021."

This comes just after the World Cup Nines tournament ended, the ground-breaking competition paying female rugby league players for the first time in the sports history.

The chief executive of International Rugby League Nigel Wood said: "Once again international rugby league has shown itself to be progressive and relentless in its aspiration to embrace true inclusivity.

"These announcements are a tribute to the journey the women's and wheelchair games have made over the past decade."

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CBAD8A00-D2B9-4E0E-ADDF-D0366C357A34 Created with sketchtool. E9A4AA46-7DC3-48B8-9CE2-D75274FB8967 Created with sketchtool. 65CCAE04-4748-4D0F-8696-A91D8EB3E7DC Created with sketchtool. The Rugby League World Cup has announced that it will be paying women and wheelchair athletes for the first time. The participation fee the players will be receiving is equal to what the men will be paid.

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NBA allows players to write meaningful messages to the world on the back of their jerseys. (2020)

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NBA allows players to write meaningful messages to the world on the back of their jerseys. (2020)

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Kieran Robertson

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From NBA media reports

The NBA and its players association have reportedly agreed on social justice messages that can be displayed on the back of jerseys.

ESPN's Marc Spears revealed the news.

The list of the approved suggested social messages, per the source, for the back of the NBA jerseys: Black Lives Matter; Say Their Names; Vote; I Can't Breathe; Justice; Peace; Equality; Freedom; Enough; Power to the People; Justice Now; Say Her Name; Sí Se Puede (Yes We Can); Liberation; See Us; Hear Us; Respect Us; Love Us; Listen; Listen to Us; Stand Up; Ally; Anti-Racist; I Am A Man; Speak Up; How Many More; Group Economics; Education Reform; and Mentor.

The 29 different messages are intended to help keep the focus on topics such as police brutality and systemic racism. Last week, the NBA and NBPA agreed that shedding light on these issues will be a shared goal of the 2019-20 season restart in Orlando.

"The league and the players are uniquely positioned to have a direct impact on combating systemic racism in our country, and we are committed to collective action to build a more equal and just society," NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said. "A shared goal of our season restart will be to use our platform in Orlando to bring attention to these important issues of social justice."

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NBA, NBPA reportedly approve social justice messages on jerseys | NBA.com

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From NBA media reports The NBA and its players association have reportedly agreed on social justice messages that can be displayed on the back of jerseys. ESPN's Marc Spears revealed the news.

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NBA players refuse to play in protest for BLM

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NBA players refuse to play in protest for BLM

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North American pro athletes tried to shift the spotlight from the sporting arena to social justice reform Thursday as several games were postponed in an attempt to provide time for reflection on recent developments and continue the fight against racial injustice and inequality.

The moves come after the recent police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in Kenosha, about 65 kilometres south of Milwaukee.

The NBA got things started Thursday by postponing its slate of playoff games for a second day, including the second-round opener between the Toronto Raptors and Boston Celtics.

Other men's leagues followed suit in the late afternoon.

The NHL postponed two playoff games on Thursday and another pair on Friday in Toronto and Edmonton after the Hockey Diversity Alliance submitted a formal request to the league to postpone Thursday's games.

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The Vancouver Canucks, the lone Canadian team left in the post-season, were scheduled to play the Vegas Golden Knights in Edmonton on Thursday.

NHL players requested the postponements and the NHL supported the decision, the league and the NHL Players' Association said in a joint statement.

Jacob Blake protests: Bucks, Thunder among NBA teams to boycott games

Minutes after the NHL's announcement, the Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox announced in a joint statement that their Thursday game in Buffalo, N.Y., was postponed.

"The continued police brutality and social inequity demand immediate attention and focus from all of us - not only Black Americans and Canadians," the teams said in a statement.

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"We fully respect the decision of our players to bring further awareness to the systemic racism that contributes to police violence against Black, Indigenous, and people of colour in our communities. We look forward to getting back on the field, and using our strongest platform, our game, to amplify our message demanding meaningful change."

Major League Soccer had the day off but media availabilities with Toronto FC and the Montreal Impact ahead of their Friday night game at Saputo Stadium were indefinitely postponed.

The tennis schedule was postponed for the day at the Western & Southern Open in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., where Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., has reached the semifinals at the ATP Tour event.

Jacob Blake protests: Wisconsin AG calls incident leaving 2 dead, 1 injured 'despicable'

"There (are) many people that are not being treated fairly, are being disrespected, having to live in fear, a lot of things that I have never had to experience," Raonic said late Wednesday night. "It's very unfortunate, very sad. I'm hoping that there is a change, and I'm hoping that the actions that do take course over the next days, weeks, months, years - this isn't going to change in a day - do create a change, a systematic change that creates an equal opportunity for everybody."

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The Milwaukee Bucks were the first team to decline to play Wednesday afternoon, one of three NBA games that were postponed that day.

Some games were postponed in MLB, MLS and the WNBA while one NHL game was preceded by a 'moment of reflection.' All three NHL games went ahead as scheduled.

Executive vice president Mike Bass said the NBA hoped to resume play Friday or Saturday.

The WNBA also postponed all its games on Thursday for the second day in a row.

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NBA games cancelled for 2nd night in protest over racism, other leagues follow suit

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North American pro athletes tried to shift the spotlight from the sporting arena to social justice reform Thursday as several games were postponed in an attempt to provide time for reflection on recent developments and continue the fight against racial injustice and inequality.

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The introduction and evolution of sport for disabled athletes.

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Sport for athletes with an impairment has existed for more than 100 years, and the first sport clubs for the deaf were already in existence in 1888 in Berlin.

It was not until after World War II however, that it was widely introduced. The purpose of it at that time was to assist the large number of war veterans and civilians who had been injured during wartime.

In 1944, at the request of the British Government, Dr. Ludwig Guttmann opened a spinal injuries centre at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Great Britain, and in time, rehabilitation sport evolved to recreational sport and then to competitive sport.

STOKE MANDEVILLE GAMES

On 29 July 1948, the day of the Opening Ceremony of the London 1948 Olympic Games, Dr. Guttmann organised the first competition for wheelchair athletes which he named the Stoke Mandeville Games, a milestone in Paralympic history. They involved 16 injured servicemen and women who took part in archery.

In 1952, Dutch ex-servicemen joined the Movement and the International Stoke Mandeville Games were founded.

FIRST PARALYMPIC GAMES

The Stoke Mandeville Games later became the Paralympic Games which first took place in Rome, Italy, in 1960 featuring 400 athletes from 23 countries. Since then they have taken place every four years.

In 1976 the first Winter Games in Paralympics history were held in Sweden, and as with the Summer Games, have taken place every four years, and include a Paralympics Opening Ceremony and Paralympics Closing Ceremony.

Since the Summer Games of Seoul, Korea in 1988 and the Winter Games in Albertville, France in 1992 the Games have also taken part in the same cities and venues as the Olympics due to an agreement between the IPC and IOC.

GROWTH OF THE PARALYMPIC FAMILY

Also in 1960, under the aegis of the World Federation of ex-servicemen, an International Working Group on Sport for the Disabled was set up to study the problems of sport for persons with an impairment. It resulted in the creation, in 1964, of the International Sport Organisation for the Disabled (ISOD) who offered opportunities for those athletes who could not affiliate to the International Stoke Mandeville Games: vision impaired, amputees, persons with cerebral palsy and paraplegics.

At the start, 16 countries were affiliated to ISOD and the organisation pushed very hard to include blind and amputee athletes into the Toronto 1976 Paralympics and athletes with cerebral palsy in 1980 in Arnhem. Its aim was to embrace all impairments in the future and to act as a Co-coordinating Committee. Nevertheless, other disability-orientated international organisations such as the Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association (CPISRA) and International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) were founded in 1978 and 1980.

The four international organisations experienced the need of co-ordinating the Games so they created the "International Co-coordinating Committee Sports for the Disabled in the World" (ICC) in 1982.

The ICC was originally composed of the four presidents of CPISRA, IBSA, ISMGF and ISOD, the general secretaries and one additional member (in the beginning it was the Vice-President, and later on the Technical Officer).

The International Committee of Sport for the Deaf (CISS) and International Sports Federations for Persons with an Intellectual Disability (INAS-FID) joined in 1986, but the deaf still maintained their own organisation. However, the member nations demanded more national and regional representation in the organisation.

INTERNATIONAL PARALYMPIC COMMITTEE IS BORN

Finally, on 22 September 1989, the International Paralympic Committee was founded as an international non-profit organisation in Dusseldorf, Germany, to act as the global governing body of the Paralympic Movement.

The word "Paralympic" derives from the Greek preposition "para" (beside or alongside) and the word "Olympic".

Its meaning is that Paralympics are the parallel Games to the Olympics and illustrates how the two movements exist side-by-side.

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Paralympics History - Evolution of the Paralympic Movement

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The first Paralympic Games in Rome in 1960 featured 400 athletes from 23 countries. The Games are now the 2nd biggest sporting event in the world.

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Manon Rheaume broke the ice for women playing hockey at the NHL level.

In 1992, Rheaume became the first woman to play in an NHL game when she played in goal for the Tampa Bay Lightning against the St. Louis Blues in an exhibition contest. She allowed two goals on nine shots. She played one more exhibition game, against the Boston Bruins in 1993.

Since then, no woman has played in an NHL game of any kind.

Hayley Wickenheiser, the first woman to score a goal while playing for a men's professional hockey team, in Finland in 2003, doesn't think it will happen again.

"No, I don't think it's realistic," Wickenheiser said. "To play an 82-game season at the NHL level, with the size of the players and the speed, it would be very, very tough. Being on the European ice, the bigger ice surface, made it a little easier. It was less physical. It would be pretty tough to play at the NHL level."

As in other men's sports, NHL players have gotten bigger, faster and stronger. Plenty of men are getting hurt after taking hits from some of the behemoths on the ice these days.

"The way the game is now, there's less hooking and holding," Wickenheiser said. "There's more head shots. You take a female body getting hit like that, by somebody 60 to 70 pounds heavier, it's a pretty dangerous situation. From the skill and speed perspective, you can compete at a certain level, but to realistically play at that level would be difficult."

Red Wings assistant general manager Jim Nill, who has helped draft smaller, skilled players, agreed with Wickenheiser that a woman probably could not play long term among men.

"I could see somebody coming and playing [briefly]," Nill said. "But to do it over a career, it would be awful hard. Just I guess because of size. I think skill-wise, they're getting up there. Speed, they're getting up there. But you're talking men that are 220 pounds, that's all I worry about."

Wings forward Kris Draper, who is a smaller NHL player at 5-foot-10, 190 pounds, said he would not rule out the idea that a special woman could come along and try to play in the NHL.

"I think that would be challenging just because of the fact that there are big, strong, fast guys that play this game, so I think that might kind of be against them," Draper said. "But I still think you're going to get someone that is a very determined individual, and she'll want to be the first player to lace them up and play in the NHL. So we'll have to see what happens."

Most agree that goaltender is the most likely position a woman could compete in, but goalies are also bigger nowadays. Rheaume, who played at 5-foot-7, 130 pounds, would be small even for a small goaltender today.

For example, the Nashville Predators have Pekka Rinne, who is 6-foot-5, 207 pounds, and Anders Lindback, who is 6-foot-6, 212.

"It's nothing against women, it's just you're dealing with human nature, there's only so much you can do," Nill said. "That's why a goaltender would have a better chance."

Nill said you can never say never.

"Women's hockey has grown so much over the years," Nill said. "Who knows down the road?"

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Manon Rheaume broke the ice for women playing hockey at the NHL level. In 1992, Rheaume became the first woman to play in an NHL game when she played in goal for the Tampa Bay Lightning against the St. Louis Blues in an exhibition contest. She allowed two goals on nine shots.