By Mitchell Fox
I have played, watched and written about sports all my life. I grew up idolizing players, teams and eventually, journalists and broadcasters. Yet, over the past few years, I’ve found my love for sports tested on many occasions.
When the Kyle Beach case came to light in 2021 and the world learned about the Chicago Blackhawks hiding a sexual assault, I was insulted that my favourite sport lacked such integrity.
In 2022, when news broke about the alleged sexual assault of a woman by five members of the 2018 Canadian World Junior hockey team, I was stabbed with a distaste for the worst parts of hockey—a toxic culture that I always struggled with when I played.
When I heard the story of Ted Nolan—an Indigenous coach shunned from the NHL—or of Akim Aliu—a Black player who experienced racist offences throughout his career—I picked up more reasons to despise hockey.
I had to reconcile with the fact that the sport I love has caused so much harm. There is lots of work to be done in sports to break down discriminatory traditions of racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia and more.
But not everything is doom and gloom. Many athletes, fans, advocates and journalists alike recognize these issues and, more importantly, have put their experiences, passion and care towards improving sports’ social impact.
Players, teams and media organizations alike have stood for change. WNBA players led athletes in a definite stance during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. Travis Dermott used Pride Tape despite the NHL’s ban in 2022. Sportsnet and TSN have featured all-women broadcasts for NBA and NHL games. Celtic FC and their fans have stood in solidarity with Palestine.
Incredible journalists such as TSN’s Rick Westhead and The Athletic’s Katie Strang and Dan Robson have reported on some of sports’ most serious transgressions, informing on the hardest cases to report and the ones many at the heart of sports media wouldn’t touch.
Blurring the Boundaries highlights athletes who take the path less travelled, Toronto-based organizations who are making sport more inclusive and TMU athletes and teams pushing for equity and compassion.
That is what this special issue is about for me: myself, Daniel and all of our contributors putting our love of the game and of sports reporting into creating a better world.
My sports journalism journey started when I was five years old, reading the sports section of the Toronto Star in the hospital after brain surgery. From there, I wrote game stories while in the stands as a reserve for my minor hockey team, became editor-in-chief (EIC) of my high school’s newspaper, the Woodlands Woodstock, and in university, co-EIC at Intermission Sports. I have dedicated much of my life to being a curious writer.
Now, as I look ahead to the rest of my career, I still see myself as that curious, passionate writer—but I don’t know if that’s necessarily connected to sports.
Holding sports accountable can be tough, but those who do it best—like many of the writers, athletes and advocates in this issue—do it with a passionate desire to change them for the better. That is what I hope to do in my career and this edition is one step of that journey.
In the end, as much as I love sports and everything they have offered me, I hate many things about them. I want them to be better—accessible, inclusive, fun, meaningful and reflective of the best parts of society, all at once.
If I want readers to take one thing away from this issue, it’s that there is a place for everyone and every cause in sports.
This year, our intention was to push the boundary of sports reporting by writing about much more than games or U Sports—to tell people’s stories and portray sports’ role in our world.
There are so many people putting their heart and soul into making sports better for everyone.
I want to join them.
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