‘Everyone needed’ to help drive racism out of sport

Everyone involved in sport and physical activity will need to play their part, if racism is to successfully be driven out of the sector. That is the message from Sport England CEO, Tim Hollingsworth, who has admitted that there is still “much to do” to tackle the deep-rooted issues that impact many people’s experiences of playing sport and being physically active.

Speaking as part of a panel at the Time for action: Tackling racism in sport conference on 1 March, Hollingsworth said: “As leaders we need to be more vocal on this topic. It’s easy to say that we’ve launched an ED&I (equality, diversity and inclusion) strategy, hired the right people and funded the right programmes and think ‘that’s my job done’. But that’s the approach of a boss. A leader cannot stay silent on this issue.”

The event gave delegates the chance to explore in detail three themes that had been identified for discussion: being bold; gaining buy in from leaders and diversifying talent.

Attendees also had the opportunity to take part in a number of workshops.