We tend to trust sports, and therefore athletes, to perform well when it counts. It’s a precedent set on the field of play – all those victories against the odds. Beating the Odds is widely celebrated because it offers a narrative larger than the game that serves many purposes—from feel-good stories to geopolitical power and struggling economics. Sometimes, it facilitates meaningful social conversation, if not outright social change.
However, the odds tend to be unforgiving for those who put too much at stake when trying to uncover realities for the world to think about, reflect on, and perhaps make changes to. So what is really at stake for an athlete who stands up for a greater cause, looking beyond their main quest for an Olympic or Commonwealth Games medal? They supposedly pay with their careers. Sometimes with life, and with sanity.
While San Jose University may have immortalized Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ black power salute at the 1968 Olympics, in reality that gesture cost them their careers. Soon after, they were kicked out of the Games Village, criticized, deported and put into limbo in the US. The celebration and accolades have come decades too late (better than never). But they paid a price for it at the peak of their careers.
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Watching athletes kneel during the Black Lives Matter movement for half a century was a reminder that some things stay the same. Colin Kaepernik, one of the first athletes to kneel to protest police brutality in the US, is still without an NFL team and has been since the knee began. Meanwhile, athletes who followed the trajectory of the cultural movement in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests saw it accepted (as far as propaganda) by major sports and faced no such consequences.
What Tom Daley or Dutee Chand did during the opening ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium – despite the blessing of the organizers and a much smarter world – also comes with its own odds. This should be talked about as much as the message they are trying to convey, because it adds context, completing the bleak picture. A photo that badly needs color correction (pun intended).
Olympic diving champion Daley, while carrying the Queen’s baton, was joined by Indian sprint champion Chand and five other LGBTQ+ rights crusaders, who held aloft Pride flags to send a strong message against rampant homophobia in Commonwealth countries. More than half – 35 of the 56 Commonwealth member states – criminalize same-sex relationships. They, in fact, account for almost half of the countries worldwide that have outlawed homosexuality. Seven Commonwealth states have a maximum sentence of life imprisonment under laws introduced during British colonial rule.
The irony of Daley’s symbolic act while carrying the Queen’s baton, a colonial remnant, to rally voice and action against an archaic, inhumane and discriminatory law created by the Crown itself in the past is hard to miss. But we should applaud the course correction or effort. Daley talked about the sense of security that an individual is robbed of, simply because of their sexual preference, in these countries.
“I’ve experienced homophobia my whole life, competing in places where it’s illegal to be me and where I don’t feel safe leaving the place I’m competing in.” Daley is quoted as saying from Guardian. “If I feel this way as a privileged person, I can’t imagine what everyday life is like for LGBTQ+ people around the Commonwealth.”
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However, the issue here, although Daley puts it squarely on the laws and the need to repeal them, is bigger. It also deals with the Victorian sense of morality that is prevalent in most countries despite the end of direct British rule. This outdated idea of morality also cuts across religious and cultural divides, making progressive social change a difficult task.
While the law change will provide a sense of security for same-sex couples, it is only peripheral. The stigma attached to it remains in said societies and community members will continue to be excluded. In 2019, when Chand came out as the first openly gay Indian athlete, admitting to being in a same-sex relationship, the Olympian spoke about the struggles she had faced throughout her life. She faced criticism from all sides, and the rumors made her question the value of her existence, she had repeatedly said.
On September 6, 2018, in a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court of India ruled that Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code is unconstitutional and violates the fundamental rights of autonomy, privacy and identity. Same-sex relationships were legalized in India even though marriages are not yet legally valid. The decision and the subsequent change it has brought about is quite significant. At least in the lifetime of Chand, who said some people began to accept it for what it is after the law was repealed.
Chand has the security of a government job to fall back on, and being an elite athlete, he also has the support of the government. She is “privileged” in her own way – although the privilege that Daley enjoys as a British citizen and a man is a far cry from that of an Indian woman from a remote village in Orissa.
The privilege we are talking about is the social capital to lead a normal life in the chosen country. And, most importantly, being in a society that suits the individual, be it a Chand or a daily wage laborer in Mumbai or Delhi or a farmer in Uttar Pradesh or Punjab, a dignified existence as a normal human being. This never happens.
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Even major sports, as Daley and Chand can attest, are not the unbiased environment we perceive them to be.
In 2016, just before the Rio Olympics, I had the privilege of interacting with Australian swimming legend Ian Thorpe during a promotional event in Mumbai. The year before had come Thorpe, one of the most decorated Olympic athletes of all time. This, after denying that he was a homosexual throughout his sports career. He had strongly denied it even in his biography. The duality of his life, the tug of war between his true self and his persona as a sports legend, almost tore him apart. He suffered from bouts of depression throughout his adult life as he struggled to cope with the voices within, which forced him to question the meaning of everything happening around him.
Thorpe is again a privileged athlete when you think about it. He is a legend in his sport. A multiple Olympic gold medalist. However, he could not fight and break the bonds that bound him. And it wasn’t just society. It was the sports world itself. Sport has its own set of gender stereotypes, which are perhaps more rigid than any social norm. It’s still a hostile place for LGBTQ+ people, despite all the touted and touted ‘progressive change’. The pressure is manifold, from the difficulties they are likely to face from teammates after coming out and expressing their sexual orientation, to the relentless attacks they may be subjected to, from opposing fans, rivals and teammates.
The additional mental battle adds to the pressure on athletes already under tremendous strain from meeting their personal as well as corporate expectations for performance and career goals.
Once they come out, more is distributed. First of all, they are expected to lead the crusade, to be pioneers. Not many would be happy to do so. Not everyone will have the mental bandwidth to handle the added pressure of being a vocal activist for LGBTQ+ rights. Some may choose not to talk about it and keep their personal lives to themselves. I realized Thorpe is one of the latter when he indicated he didn’t want to talk about it. And it’s right. It’s his personal choice, but then again, the sports world, for most of his life, never allowed him a choice. There is a valid reason why athletes retire at the end of their playing days, or after it.
Also, there are unwritten and unspoken pressures from brands that endorse athletes. While the world seems a progressive space two decades into the 21st century, universal acceptance of homosexuality is still lacking. And building a personality is key to brand associations as an athlete. A personality is created, an embodiment of masculine traits in the case of a man and of feminine strength and sensuality in the case of a woman. The pressure to maintain that persona is immense and even the best give in and split between two worlds – real and forced.
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Have you ever wondered why only very few elite footballers have come out despite the sport being progressive in its stance on many social causes. The hypermasculine world of Formula 1, or motorsport in general, where gender stereotypes are very prominent, has zero representation of drivers or riders from the LGBTQ+ community. The number of professional athletes who have appeared in various professional individual sports, including tennis, golf, MMA and boxing is small. At the CWG opening ceremony, Chand was the only competitive athlete in the mix. Activists Bismi Alimi from Nigeria, Glenroy Murray from Jamaica, Maud Goba from Zimbabwe, Jason Jones from Trinidad and Tobago and Prossy Kakooza from Uganda were the other participants.
Games facilitate diversity, and this has been talked about. However, it is not easy for that diversity to be open. And the reason for this is manifold.
So while correction in the nations criminal code is important, a larger and corresponding course correction is required in the world of sports as well. If Daley and the fearless voices within are powerless to bring about that change, then the repeal of laws across the globe, and the larger shift in societal outlook, would be impossible to achieve. The odds are stacked here. Again, beating the odds is always possible in sports. And only in sports. But this time, the ball is not only in the sports star’s court. But also on our individual playing fields. Let the change begin.
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