As a gay man and a person of colour, I faced horrible stereotyping but new film is helping pave a different wayDisney has always been at the heart of breaking down barriers in society and swims against the tide in its diverse casting and smashes the patriarchal system out of the water. As Disney celebrates its 100th year, I can’t help but reflect on what Disney has taught me; that anything is possible.Disney might be fiction, but our youth of today look up to the characters as role models so who Disney represent and how they represent them is real. That means the repercussions of racism and abuse towards Disney characters can be damaging and impactful as racism towards people....
Ariarne Titmus’s slow time at the Australian championships adds a degree of mystery to the three-way match-up at this year’s worldsTwo years ago in Tokyo, the duel in the pool between Australian prodigy Ariarne Titmus and American legend Katie Ledecky was the most anticipated rivalry of the Olympics. Titmus narrowly came away with the upper hand: the Australian won the 200m and 400m freestyle gold medals, while Ledecky conquered the 800m freestyle (and the 1500m, which Titmus did not race). It was the rivalry that defined the Tokyo swim meet – and left fans salivating at the prospect of rematches on the road to the Paris 2024 Olympics.Except when the pair meet again at the world championships in July, in...
Australia’s quiet achiever needs one more Commonwealth Games gold to surpass Susie O’Neill, Leisel Jones and Ian ThorpeWith the benefit of hindsight, it may seem that Australian swimmer Emma McKeon was always destined for greatness. The 28-year-old was born into swimming royalty: her father, Ron McKeon, is a former Olympian and four-time Commonwealth Games champion in middle-distance freestyle, while mum Susie McKeon and uncle Rob Woodhouse also swam for Australia. For decades the McKeon family have operated a swimming school in the Illawarra, and McKeon junior was in the water before she could walk.But McKeon’s glittering career – three days into the 2022 Commonwealth Games she is on the brink of all-time greatness – was almost over before it began....
Governing bodies are using weasel words, instead of the plain ones needed: invasion, war, murderEarly last Thursday, overcome by the desire to do something, anything, however petty, to try to fight off that sense of desperate futility, I started sending out emails to the sports federations who had events scheduled in Russia this year asking if they were going to cancel them. There were already reports that Uefa was talking about moving the Champions League final, later that day the FIA announced it was cancelling the Russian GP, and Rugby Europe that it was calling off Russia’s upcoming match against Georgia. A lot of the Olympic sports, though, were moving a little more slowly.Fina, which was due to hold two...
Swimming is the latest sport to become embroiled in discord but there are some signs of courteous, informed discussion tooIt is funny how times change. The Guardian has obtained a letter, written in 2003 by Dr Richard Budgett, in which he discusses the consequences of trans women competing in women’s sport. Responding to a government inquiry, Budgett, then at the British Olympic Association, states: “The effect of allowing male transsexuals to compete as women would be to make competition unfair and potentially dangerous in some sports and would undermine women’s sports.”This would have been an interesting answer at the time. It is even more so now. Society has shifted. Language has changed. Budgett is now medical and scientific director at...