LOS ANGELES (AFP) – A wave of activism swept across the sporting world in 2020 as a new generation of increasingly confident athletes found their voices to champion social justice initiatives on an unprecedented scale.
From LeBron James spearheading an effort to boost voter turnout in US elections to Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford successfully pressuring the British government to provide free meals for schoolchildren, athletes immersed themselves in causes and campaigns as never before.
The killing of unarmed Black man George Floyd during his arrest by police in Minneapolis in May proved to be a catalyst for change, prompting athletes from multiple sports to speak out against systemic racism and police brutality.
Los Angeles Lakers superstar James was among the first to condemn Floyd’s killing as protests erupted in all 50 American states. ”Why Doesn’t America Love US!!!!!????TOO,” James asked in one of several posts on social media.
James, a longtime civil rights and social justice activist, said Floyd’s death reinforced the validity of protests launched by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick in 2016, who was vilified for kneeling during pre-game renditions of the US national anthem as a way of protesting racial injustice.
In June, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell stated bluntly that the league had been wrong not to listen to players who had protested systemic racism, but did not mention Kaepernick by name.
Kaepernick’s ”take the knee” protest was adopted as a gesture of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement by athlete activists and demonstrators around the world.
When a global sporting calendar upended by the coronavirus pandemic gradually resumed, ”taking a knee” and other displays of support of Black Lives Matter had become part of the established pre-game ritual, from European soccer leagues to North American sports.
In the United States, athlete activism looks to be here to stay.
The NBA wholeheartedly embraced social justice campaigns when the pandemic-interrupted 2019-2020 season resumed in Orlando in July, with players kneeling before each game during the US national anthem and ”Black Lives Matter” emblazoned on each court. NBA Players, many of whom had taken part in street protests after Floyd’s killing, wore jerseys with social justice messages when play resumed.
Similar initiatives were adopted by Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball while dozens of National Hockey League players also spoke out in support of Black Lives Matter.
In the conservative world of NASCAR, Black driver Bubba Wallace raced in a Black Lives Matter-themed car in June, and led ultimately successful calls for the sport to ban the Confederate flag – viewed by many as a racist symbol – from its venues.
While the first wave of protests crested in June following Floyd’s death, athlete activism surged again in August following the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
The Milwaukee Bucks boycotted their NBA game three days after Blake’s shooting, a move that triggered similar walkouts in sports including soccer, women’s basketball and baseball.
The WTA and ATP tennis tours suspended play for a day as the boycott spread. Japan’s Naomi Osaka wore different facemasks bearing the names of victims of racial injustice during her victorious US Open campaign.
The upsurge in athlete activism forced sporting bodies across the globe to rethink their attitudes towards protests in ways that could have a lasting impact.
