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Equality and Diversity

July 30th, 2012

The week that was: Olympics special

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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Equality and Diversity

July 30th, 2012

The week that was: Olympics special

0 comments

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

The Olympic fever is in full swing and we are taking this opportunity to initiate a discussion on ‘Diversity in Sport’. Today, we bring to you a round-up of Olympics news stories to keep you up-to-date with the diversity highlights in the world of sports.

Diversity in Sport

The opening ceremony of London 2012 on Friday night received favourable reviews from most for captivatingly showcasing and celebrating the vibrance of London and Britain. However, not everybody was happy. The Tory MP Aidan Burley tweeted that the ceremony was ‘leftie multicultural crap’ – his comment has caused outrage and controversy.

Besides a unique opening ceremony, there are other ‘firsts’ for Olympics 2012. Though London is the only city to have hosted the modern Olympics three times (1908, 1948 and 2012), this is the first official Paralympic Games for London. This year the issue of accessibility and inclusion in sports has been quite prominent, thanks to Oscar Pistorius who is set to become the first amputee to compete in the Olympics.

This is also the first year that every team participating in Olympics has female athletes. It’s the first time that Saudi Arabian women are, after much deliberation, participating in the event.

The sidelining of female athletes in the still very masculine arena of sports has been a long standing issue. Lizzie Armistead, the cyclist who recently won Britain a silver, has said there is sexism in the sport and cyclings ruling body – “It’s the obvious things: the salary, media coverage, the general things you have to cope with. If you focus on it too much you get very disheartened.” We posted a TED talk from an LSE alumnus, Caitlin Fisher, who is a professional football player in Brazil, on the body image of female athletes, in which she talks about similar issues.

So, while all is not well, progress has surely been made. Another remarkable story that came to our attention is that of the Malaysian shooter, Nur Suryani, who will compete in Olympics while 33 weeks pregnant. She hopes that her participation in London will help boost the profile of the sport among Malaysian women.

Finally, we have more interesting posts coming up on the blog. So, don’t forget to follow our Diversity in Sport series and send us your feedback. If you come across interesting news on diversity in sports, please do let us know – Equality.and.Diversity@lse.ac.uk.

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Equality and Diversity

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