6 - Inclusion

Summary

The question of inclusion is among the most urgent of ethical concerns currently in sport and warrants a chapter of its own. There have been campaigns to encourage greater participation in sport, especially among groups that were already under-represented. A Sport for All campaign ran in the seventies and eightiess promoting the idea of sport as potentially a positive influence on anyone’s life, regardless of their level of ability. I shall examine the argument for this claim. I will then go on to consider some of the key groups who historically have been excluded, namely, disabled people and women. In the case of the latter, I will then consider some of the biggest current controversies in sport: the place of women with differences of sex development and sport for trans athletes. Questions of eligibility are raised here and we need to understand what is behind those questions. Concerns regarding trans athletes seem part of a general moral panic around the status of trans people and, while I accept that this is a contentious issue, I will not shy away from coming down firmly on one side of the debate. I try to do so in a reasoned way.