sports

Stadio Olimpico: Can Sports Heal the World?

Amid chaotic politics and anti-immigrant and refugee sentiments, Stadio Olimpico in Rome seemed like an oasis of social and cultural harmony. AS Roma and Raja Casablanca fans gathered in their thousands on a hot Saturday evening to cheer for their teams in a friendly match, the first in the Olimpico for nearly a year and […]
The post Stadio Olimpico: Can Sports Heal the World? first appeared on Dissident Voice.

Stadio Olimpico: Can Sports Heal the World?

Amid chaotic politics and anti-immigrant and refugee sentiments, Stadio Olimpico in Rome seemed like an oasis of social and cultural harmony. AS Roma and Raja Casablanca fans gathered in their thousands on a hot Saturday evening to cheer for their teams in a friendly match, the first in the Olimpico for nearly a year and a half. The guest team is a[Read More...]

Challenges Of Swimming The English Channel Is Akin To The Spirit Of A Marxist Revolutionary

In 1988 on August 22nd, I became the 16th Indian to swim the English Channel and in this work I am summing up the challenge involved and how its experience or training for it has so many similarities with that of a the life of a Marxist or social revolutionary. Few challenges are as daunting as swimming the English Channel.[Read More...]

Olympics, Sexism and Patriarchy

Bikinis are a mandatory part of female handball players’ dress code. In contrast, male players wear shorts. Similar sexist discrimination prevails almost in all events. Helen Jefferson Lenskyj, a retired professor from the University of Toronto specializing in critiques of the Olympic industry and gender issues in sport, said: “There are sports where the overt sexualization of female bodies is[Read More...]

Sports Policy Should Aim to Promote Health, Joy and Team-Spirit

Some of the most hearwarming memories of the recent Olympic Games for India will remain of sportspersons from humble backgrounds overcoming very heavy odds to perform very well at the biggest international sports event. Whether their hard work and perseverence resulted  in medals or not, the great effort they put in won widespread admiration. The most obvious example is that[Read More...]

Sports strategy- Mere lip service will not suffice

 To Narendra D Modi Prime Minister Dear Shri Modi, Sports strategy- Mere lip service will not suffice- Some suggestions on a sports strategy It is an extraordinary effort put in by the Indian athletes and sportspersons at the ongoing Tokyo Olympics which has brought laurels to India and united the entire nation with a collective sense of pride. It is[Read More...]

Why is the Top Chinese Swimmer not at the Tokyo Olympics?

Primary players and acronyms: FINA – Fédération Internationale de Natation (International Swimming Federation). Established 1908. WADA – World Anti-Doping Agency. Established in 1999. Based in Montreal, Canada. CAS – Court of Arbitration for Sport. Highest court for adjudicating international sport. Established in 1984. Based in Lausanne, Switzerland. IDTM – International Doping and Test Management. Swedish […]

The Politics of Cheering and Booing: On Palestine, Solidarity and the Tokyo Olympics

When the Palestinian Olympic delegation of five athletes – adorned in traditional Palestinian attire and carrying the Palestinian flag – crossed into the Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium during the inauguration ceremony on July 23, I was overcome with pride and nostalgia. I grew up watching the Olympics. All of us did. Throughout the month-long international sports […]

When Football Did Not Come Home

They were in with a shot.  The English team, deliriously floating on chants of Football’s Coming Home, had made it to their first major tournament final since 1966.  The UEFA European Football Championship would be decided at Wembley against an Italian side unblemished by defeat since September 2018.  But the English, coached by the much admired Gareth Southgate, succumbed in[Read More...]