Sports diplomacy, the communication, representation, and negotiation that occurs daily in today’s global sports world through formal, informal, or digital exchanges, can be an important tool for any athlete’s toolbox.
The prism of sports diplomacy can provide new ways for players and coaches to positively contribute to a variety of conversations, while also helping us all to better understand their lived experiences in today’s global sports context.
This is especially true when unpacking the intersection of sports, politics, ethics, and the fight for greater social justice. There is a deep history in the United States of athlete activism, particularly the fight for civil rights, one that has helped to inform athletes around the world for how they might use their voices and platforms to advocate for a range of issues, including human rights, democracy, and an end to systemic racism and discrimination.
George Washington University Women’s Basketball Head Coach Jennifer Rizzotti pointed out as much during our recent “Sports, Ethics, and Black Lives Matter” webinar:
“When you talk about international implications of that, you have to remember how the United States is the epicenter of world basketball, the best players in the world come to play here on the men’s and women’s side. So, when they’re standing side by side with black players that are passionate about what they’re doing and are sending the message about how their lives matter, and then they go home to their own countries, there’s an empowerment to fight for those same things in their own countries.”
That transmission of cultural knowledge, the tradition of athlete activism that’s long permeated U.S. sports, is a form of sports diplomacy.
Moreover, as GW Hall of Famer and former Team Great Britain Olympian Pops Mensah-Bonsu emphasized, the informal sports diplomacy cultural exchange amongst teammates can help international players to better understand the different social justice- or human rights-related issues at hand:
“One of the great things about basketball, basketball brings you together. And it gives you this sense of unity that you have with the people that you’re playing this team sport with. They only see teammates, they only see a brother.”
Mensah-Bonsu recalled how he was subjected to racist monkey chants and how teammates were impacted. “They weren’t experiencing it,” he noted,
“but they were being called those racist slurs too. And it created more empathy for them that they finally decided to understand that we’re not just athletes – we really would love to be athletes and not have to worry about some of these other things, but this kind of thing that exists across the board, regardless of what sport it is…that’s why we have to continue to do the right thing.”
With just these snapshots, its clear that enlisting athletes to enrich our understandings of a variety of issues through their lived experiences is not just impactful, but can provide a more comprehensive, more nuanced record.
Its understandable that some international athletes may not feel comfortable speaking up about what’s going on in the host country where they play, for a variety of reasons. Yet, they can still contribute in impactful ways to the conversation—if they so wish—through the prism of sports diplomacy.
My thanks to the GW Elliott School of International Affairs’ Leadership, Ethics and Practice (LEAP) Initiative, GW Athletics, and partners for hosting this powerful discussion.