Women’s sport is entering uncharted waters – can it remain true to its roots? | Emma John

A new documentary about women’s sport charts its painful climb from niche-sporting-subculture to the mainstream and prompts questions about the future

On Tuesday, a new documentary about women’s sport, Game On, received its premiere, and the London screening was followed by a Q&A with some of its participants. When the former rugby union international Ugo Monye was asked what he felt on seeing it, he couldn’t speak for tears – it took a few attempts, and a hug from a fellow panel member, before he could fashion a response.

Here was a fitting reminder of how emotive the subject of women’s sport can be. The provoking of a tear or two has always been the sign of a truly memorable moment in sport’s ultra-masculine history but for women, excluded so long from its halls of fame, even the smallest win resonates with emotion.