April 3 – April 16, 2022
Welcome to issue three hundred and eighty-seven of the Sports Doing Good newsletter. This week’s 10 stories include:

1. The unstoppable drive of Chris Wright, the first NBA player with MS (ESPN)
2. Nou Camp: ‘Magical’ night for women’s football as crowd record broken (BBC)
3. The WNBA’s Documentary Film ‘We Are the W’ Is Filled With Stories Worth Repeating (Ebony)
4. Olympic Medalist Raven ‘Hulk’ Saunders Sees the Future She’s Paving for Black, Queer Athletes (SI)
5. Tracy McGrady: The Power of One (Boardroom)
6. Minnesota, a Mecca of Women’s Basketball, Is Having Its Moment (New York Times)
7. The Gravity-Defying Ups and Downs of Extreme Pogo (MEL)
8. Steph And Ayesha Curry Aim To Create 150 ‘Little Town Libraries’ In Oakland (Essence)
9. Behind Ja Morant’s Sudden Ascent to NBA Superstardom (SI)
10. Exiled by Russian Bombs, a Ukrainian Soccer Team Embraces Its Journey (New York Times)

10+
“The Most Convincing plan I’ve Seen.” (Common Goal)
https://www.common-goal.org/Stories/-The-most-convincing-plan-I-ve-seen-2022-04-08
A Mirror to the World: Why Sports Can’t Hope to Hide From the World (Culture in Sports)
https://cultureinsports.com/a-mirror-to-the-world-why-sports-cant-hope-to-hide-from-the-world/
FIFA Foundation, Generation Amazing & Qatar Foundation announce partnership (Beyond Sport)
https://www.beyondsport.org/articles/fifa-foundation-partners-with-generation-amazing-and-qatar-foundation/
2021 Impact Report (Beyond Sport)
https://www.flipsnack.com/566DE7CC5A8/beyond-sport-2021-impact-report-znfoiimxu3/full-view.html
ASEAN and FIFA promote inclusivity through sport (FIFA)
https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/medical/reachout/news/asean-and-fifa-promote-inclusivity-through-sport
Sport must show leadership amidst climate crisis (United Nations)
https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/04/1115692

We present again our “Featured Video” offering(s). With the explosion of video content out there highlighting the good in sport, we want to showcase such content for your enjoyment and learning. This will be an ongoing effort. And now we add podcasts!

267: Being Bold & The Australian Football League w/ Morgan Randolph (CUSP)
https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/267-being-bold-the-australian-football-league-w/id1073489617?i=1000555789226
SAIS International Insights Panel Discussion (South Asians in Sports)
https://youtu.be/Kea0fQYLBEY
The Role of Sport in Combating Climate Change (UN)
https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1s/k1skfsrcii
Merging climate justice, football culture and distinctive design (The Sustainability Report)
https://sustainabilityreport.com/2022/04/07/merging-climate-justice-football-culture-and-distinctive-design/

Introduction
When looking at history, we often cite “watershed” moments that helped highlight or accelerate a movement, those times when even the casual person could not be unaware that change was occurring. This week we celebrated one of those moments, the integration of Major League Baseball by one Jackie Robinson, 75 years ago. And that wasn’t just a sports moment; it was a societal one.

Recently, there was another watershed moment, this time in women’s sports, which is having its fair share of noteworthy moments, if not of the watershed variety. A record crowd of more than 91,000 came to watch two legendary clubs, Barcelona and Real Madrid, in a Champions League contest in Barcelona at the iconic Nou Camp. Players and coaches used words such as “magical,” “special,” “immense,” “spectacle,” “unstoppable,” and “fiesta” to describe the game and overall experience.

As I said, there are a lot of special moments taking place in women’s sports, at every level. College sports has been especially full of compelling moments, most recently in basketball and gymnastics. Ratings and attendance have been strong and the buzz about the athletes has been even stronger.

I have been asked several times if I have seen trends taking place in and around sports in doing the newsletter for almost 10 years. I have, and women’s sports is one of those areas where activity is growing, as are the moments we find memorable. Considering that this is the 50th anniversary of Title IX, it means a lot to see such change.

Are things perfect? Of course not. But they are definitely better. Not just on the playing field, but in the coach’s box and team and league front offices. To those who say this was just going to happen, much like integration in baseball, ignore the struggles of those who have come before us, and of those who are still fighting for equity and equality. That can’t happen. We must acknowledge these champions of sports and equal rights who have and are laying the foundation for the women’s sports industry. It is because of them that we are witness to a spectacle of 91,000 fans at a soccer game. Let’s keep it going.

If you think others would like to receive the newsletter, please feel free to forward it on or have them contact us directly at sab@sportsdoinggood.com. (If you do not want to receive the newsletter anymore you can use the Unsubscribe button at the end of the email).

So, enjoy. And have a good week.

The unstoppable drive of Chris Wright, the first NBA player with MS (ESPN) https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/33622154/chris-wright-multiple-sclerosis-nba

Nou Camp: ‘Magical’ night for women’s football as crowd record broken (BBC)
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/60935635

The WNBA’s Documentary Film ‘We Are the W’ Is Filled With Stories Worth Repeating (Ebony)
https://www.ebony.com/sports/the-wnba-documentary-film-we-are-the-w-is-filled-with-stories-worth-repeating/

Olympic Medalist Raven ‘Hulk’ Saunders Sees the Future She’s Paving for Black, Queer Athletes (SI)
https://www.si.com/olympics/2022/04/07/raven-saunders-olympics-shot-put-100-influential-black-women

Tracy McGrady: The Power of One (Boardroom)
https://boardroom.tv/mcgrady-ones-basketball-association/

Minnesota, a Mecca of Women’s Basketball, Is Having Its Moment (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/03/sports/ncaabasketball/minnesota-women-final-four-basketball.html

The Gravity-Defying Ups and Downs of Extreme Pogo (MEL)
https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/extreme-pogo-xpogo?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Steph And Ayesha Curry Aim To Create 150 ‘Little Town Libraries’ In Oakland (Essence)
https://www.essence.com/education/steph-ayesha-curry-libraries-across-oakland/?amp=1

Behind Ja Morant’s Sudden Ascent to NBA Superstardom (SI)
https://www.si.com/nba/2022/03/08/ja-morant-memphis-grizzlies-daily-cover

Exiled by Russian Bombs, a Ukrainian Soccer Team Embraces Its Journey (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/11/sports/soccer/ukraine-soccer-shakhtar-donetsk.html

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Our goal is to have Sports Doing Good be a portal housing original content and excerpts from and links to the increasing number of articles, websites, video, and other media that showcase the good in sports and society. We aim to celebrate those concepts, activities, events, and individuals by highlighting them for a wider audience. Much of the news today, whether sports- related or not, is incredibly negative and increasingly polarizing, biased, and quite annoying. We are trying to refocus some of the discussion on the good, with a focus on sports.

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Contact Information
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Sarbjit “Sab” Singh
sab@sportsdoinggood.com
516-287-7141
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