July 30 – Aug. 12, 2023
Welcome to issue four hundred and twenty of the Sports Doing Good newsletter. This week’s 10 stories include:

1. She didn’t have a women’s soccer idol to look up to. So, she became one for young girls world over. (Upworthy)
2. The American Behind the Women’s Tour de France (Sports History Weekly)
3. Dwayne Johnson Surprises UFC Fighter Themba Gorimbo with a New House: ‘No More Couch Sleeping’ (People)
4. Former Olympic swimmer Shikha Tandon on her work at Silicon Valley Exercise Analytics (SBJ)
5. Opinion: Decolonizing football will take more than better representation (CNN)
6. From the Women’s World Cup to Wimbledon, a Victory Everyone Can Share (New York Times)
7. Mike Vrabel has something better than the Rooney Rule: allowing Black assistants to coach preseason games (Deadspin)
8. Simone Biles Returns to Competition With a Smile, Style—and Her Trademark Unrivaled Skill (SI)
9. Lionel Messi’s MLS arrival can herald seismic changes on and off the pitch (The Guardian)
10. Meet Team USA’s FIBA Basketball World Cup roster, featuring one of its youngest groups ever (SB Nation)


10+
Disability Pride Month: Up2Us VISTA Amelia Volunteers with Adaptive Sports Foundation (Up2Us Sports)
https://www.up2us.org/blog/2023/7/7/disability-pride-month-up2us-vista-amelia-volunteers-with-adaptive-sports-foundation
New playbook by Green Sports Alliance looks into building sustainable venues (Sport and Dev)
https://www.sportanddev.org/latest/news/new-playbook-green-sports-alliance-looks-building-sustainable-venues
Transforming Young Lives Through Sport (Beyond Sport)
https://www.beyondsport.org/articles/beyond-sport-x-under-armour
Project Play Champions (Aspen Institute)
https://projectplay.org/champions
Everyone in the Game: Uniting good practices from international federations and NGOs in support of displaced people, through sport (Sport and Dev)
https://www.sportanddev.org/latest/news/everyone-game-uniting-good-practices-international-federations-ngos-support-displaced


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!

Borussia Dortmund hosts soccer clinic for migrant, homeless youth in Chicago (NBC Chicago)
https://www.nbcchicago.com/top-videos-home/borussia-dortmund-hosts-soccer-clinic-for-migrant-homeless-youth-in-chicago/3199824/
Trinity Rodman forges her own path ?? | SC Featured (ESPN)
https://youtu.be/NXje7WbxMs4


Introduction
One of the most used words in society, definitely in business, right now is “ecosystem.” An ecosystem is also relevant when we talk about sports as an overall industry and individual sports, leagues, and events. The more evolved the ecosystem, the better it is for the parties involved.

One area of sports where we are seeing this ecosystem evolving in earnest is women’s sports. We have been witness to an incredible Women’s World Cup, a growing NWSL, WNBA and Athletes Unlimited, and female athletes thriving in the NIL space. This “overnight success” has been 50 years in the making.

One of the non-tangible but necessary parts of a sports/business ecosystem is history, that is, history of individual successes, history of rivalries, and history of league advancement. We are very much in a society defined by a lack of patience, judging early growing pains as failures rather than the necessary formation of that “ecosystem.”

Our first story this week involves superstar footballer Marta, from Brazil, and her emergence as that role model/sports “hero” that we have had in abundance on that men’s side, but not so much on the women’s side. Why? Well, leaders in sports have not always been kind to women’s sports, both in terms of investment and development of that ecosystem, nor attention to those female stars who were out there but until recently, overlooked, e.g., Marta.

The idea of a lack of female sports stars is obviously no longer valid. I saw it in person as I attended my first WNBA game this week and the New York Liberty’s Sabrina Ionescu, the league’s 3-point shooting champ from All-Star weekend, launched six 3-pointers en route to 31 points against league leader the Las Vegas Aces. The crowd, women and men, girls and boys, got increasingly loud with each bucket. (Shout out to global soccer star Thierry Henry and Ted Lasso himself, Jason Sudekis, for being part of the crowd.)

We are just now really putting effort into the women’s sports ecosystem. The future is very bright for athletes and fans, and potentially lucrative for those in the business of sports. But it is the beauty and power of sport that we should always hold most dear. As Marta said in the included article, “Sport changed my life completely. [It] gave me the opportunity to help my family, meet other people, see other countries and experience other cultures. Sport is a tool for empowering girls because it gives you the opportunity to do what you want and learn to respect the differences between people.”

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.

She didn’t have a women’s soccer idol to look up to. So, she became one for young girls world over. (Upworthy)
https://scoop.upworthy.com/marta-vieira-da-silva-promises-to-be-a-role-model-to-young-girls-as-un-ambassador

The American Behind the Women’s Tour de France (Sports History Weekly)
http://www.sportshistoryweekly.com/stories/kathryn-bertine-women-tour-de-france-feminin-bicylce-race,1160

Dwayne Johnson Surprises UFC Fighter Themba Gorimbo with a New House: ‘No More Couch Sleeping’ (People)
https://people.com/dwayne-johnson-surprises-ufc-fighter-themba-gorimbo-new-house-7569339

Former Olympic swimmer Shikha Tandon on her work at Silicon Valley Exercise Analytics (SBJ)
https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2023/08/07/shikha-tandon.aspx

Opinion: Decolonizing football will take more than better representation (CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/07/opinions/womens-world-cup-morocco-nigeria-south-africa-jamaica-aziz/index.html

From the Women’s World Cup to Wimbledon, a Victory Everyone Can Share (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/08/style/womens-sports-uniforms-change.html

Mike Vrabel has something better than the Rooney Rule: allowing Black assistants to coach preseason games (Deadspin)
https://deadspin.com/mike-vrabel-terrell-williams-titans-assistant-coach-pre-1850717616

Simone Biles Returns to Competition With a Smile, Style—and Her Trademark Unrivaled Skill (SI)
https://www.si.com/olympics/2023/08/06/simone-biles-returns-to-competition-smile-style-skill

Lionel Messi’s MLS arrival can herald seismic changes on and off the pitch (The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/jul/20/lionel-messis-biggest-impact-in-mls-wont-be-on-the-pitch

Meet Team USA’s FIBA Basketball World Cup roster, featuring one of its youngest groups ever (SB Nation)
https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2023/8/7/23822496/usa-basketball-roster-fiba-world-cup-projected-starts-steve-kerr

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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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