Lets Remember Where Sport has Come From
As a new year starts, sport tends to look forward.
New seasons. New programs. New goals.
But it’s worth pausing for a moment and looking back. Not to dwell, but to understand something important.
Many of the changes we now take for granted in sport happened very recently. Not generations ago. Not in some distant past. In many cases, within our lifetime.
And that matters. Especially if we care about performance, health, and who sport really serves.
Progress in Sport Is Recent. And It Wasn’t Automatic.
We often talk about equality in sport as if it is settled.
The reality is that many athletes were excluded from elite sport not because of ability, but because of race or gender. Those barriers did not quietly disappear. They were challenged.
Here are just a few reminders of how close this history really is.
Golf and Race: Access Came Late
In 1997, Tiger Woods became the first Black golfer to win The Masters.
That moment is often framed as a story of individual talent. It was also a major break in a sport that had long been closed to athletes of colour.
At Augusta National, Black men were allowed to work as caddies for decades. They were not allowed to compete or belong. Tournament caddies were exclusively Black until 1983, yet the course itself remained inaccessible.
Black bodies were present.
Black athletes were not welcomed.
Women and Endurance Sport: When Exclusion Was Called Science
In 1967, women were still told they were not capable of endurance sport.
That year, Kathrine Switzer became the first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon. Race officials attempted to remove her during the event.
The reasoning at the time was not subtle. Women were said to be too fragile. Too emotional. At risk of harming their health.
These ideas were framed as medical fact.
What changed was not new evidence. Women had always been capable. What changed was women refusing to stay out.
Tennis, Race, and Gender: Success Wasn’t Enough
In 2002, Serena Williams and Venus Williams withdrew from the Indian Wells tournament after repeated racist abuse.
That same year, Serena won the US Open.
Despite dominance on the court, equal prize money across all Grand Slam tournaments was still not guaranteed. Full parity was not achieved until 2007.
Ability was never the question.
Achievement was never the question.
Value was.
Football and Gender: Visibility Didn’t Equal Investment
The FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2019 broke global viewership records.
The interest was there. The audience was there.
The investment was not.
Prize money sat at less than 10 percent of the men’s tournament. Pathways, pay, and professional support lagged well behind, despite clear demand.
The issue was never whether people cared about women’s football.
It was whether institutions chose to back it.
Olympic History: Excellence Was Always There
In 1960, Wilma Rudolph became the first American woman to win three gold medals at a single Olympic Games.
She did this after growing up in a racially segregated United States, with limited access to healthcare, training facilities, and sport pathways.
Her story is often described as inspirational. It is also instructional.
Athletes did not suddenly appear when sport opened up. They were already there. Opportunity simply was not.
Why This Still Matters Today
At All Bodies, we don’t see performance as something that exists in isolation.
Training outcomes, injury risk, recovery, nutrition, and mental health are shaped by more than effort and discipline. They are shaped by access, safety, culture, and belonging.
When we ignore that context, we risk blaming individuals for systems that were never built for them.
Health is not just biological.
Performance is not just personal.
Sport is not neutral.
So Where To Next?
Sport did not change simply because time passed.
It changed because people questioned who it was built for and who it left out.
As we head into a new year of training, competition, and movement, the most useful question is not how far sport has come.
It is this:
Who still isn’t fully in the game, and what do we do next?
That conversation is ongoing. And it matters.
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