March 9 – March 22, 2025
Welcome to issue four hundred and sixty-one of the Sports Doing Good newsletter. This week’s 10 stories include:

1. IWD 2025: Ten campaigns and initiatives that #AccelerateAction in women’s sport (SportsPro)
2. ‘Volunteer for Life’: The incredible story of Tennessee’s Chris Lofton (ESPN)
3. Paul Skenes is baseball’s next big thing. That’s a blessing and a burden (The Athletic)
4. Influencer Soccer Match Sells Out Wembley Stadium, Draws Over 14M Views (Front Office Sports)
5. Women’s Sports Growth Is A Win For Investors, Brands And The Planet (Forbes)
6. How Baron Davis found his voice as rapper Bart Oatmeal (ESPN)
7. All She Wanted to Do Was Play. Football, That Is. (New York Times)
8. Fastbreak AI and adidas Launch Partnership to Expand Access to Athletic Camps and Tournaments for Youth Athletes (Fastbreak AI)
9. The NBA’s shortest player is a 5-foot-8 rising star from Japan. Meet Yuki Kawamura (CNN)
10. Why astronaut Suni Williams runs in space: a 14-billion-year odyssey (ESPN)


10+
Our Champions for Peace (Peace and Sport)
https://www.peace-sport.org/our-champions-of-peace/
IOC publishes highlights of Olympic Agenda reforms ahead of 144th IOC Session in Greece (IOC)
https://www.olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-publishes-highlights-of-olympic-agenda-reforms-ahead-of-144th-ioc-session-in-greece
World Rugby and Gallagher extend GHPA programme (SIG)
https://www.sportindustry.biz/news-categories/news/world-rugby-and-gallagher-extend-ghpa-programme/
Building a Movement for Healing-Centered Sport (Center for Healing and Justice Through Sport)
https://chjs.org/resources/building-a-movement-for-healing-centered-sport-2/
Grant-making trends in sport for good: learning from Sport Fundraising Summit 2025 (Remedy)
https://www.remedy.sport/blog/grant-making-trends-in-sport-for-good-learning-from-sport-fundraising-summit-2025


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!

Johnny Buckets, a fighter on and off the court (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/44163962
.
Introduction
Highlighting the global footprint of sports has always been a big part of the Sports Doing Good curation of stories. Stories of international players finding their way in the U.S., from young high school and college athletes, to the biggest of the big, e.g. Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers, have found a place in basically every one of the 461 issues of the newsletter.

Maybe because I am a first generation South Asian, I seem to derive special joy when I see others who have not been the “traditional” athlete one associates with various sports. For example, one trend I have seen over the past few years is the increase in the number of Filipino NFL players (7). That definitely makes my Filipino friends happy! And it makes the non-Filipino fans happy to have such a great player on their favorite team. Add those players to the dozens of players of Samoan descent who have made their mark in the NFL and it is pretty common to have an Asian/Oceanian player on your favorite team. It is not about any sort of quota. It is all about excellence.

This week we feature a story about Yuki Kawamura, an NBA player from Japan, who has wowed the fans with his electric play on the court, all the while standing a full 5’8”. Is it him being Japanese or him being 5’8” that caught my attention? It’s both, actually. But ultimately, he is being featured because he excels as a basketball player. (As people like to say, “Google him,” and you’ll see what I mean.)

There is a lot of noise about diversity, equity and inclusion right now. And I would call it negative noise. The idea that we don’t celebrate someone like Yuki or Shohei or Juan Soto is absurd. To scrub out the achievements of athletes, whether they were role players or the star of the team, erases that which is core to sports, and that is excellence and teamwork. For too long, athletes of different races, ethnicities, religions, gender or from particular countries were ignored, or maybe even worse, underestimated. Today, the best leagues around the world include athletes from other places, e.g., the United States! More than a dozen elite footballers from the U.S. find themselves playing on the biggest and best pitches around the world. And they deserve to be there. It is not a DEI concession. It is because they are f***ing good. (Also, don’t forget the USWNT and NWSL)

I hope athletes of every ilk will continue to be judged for their excellence on and off the field of play. They are what drives fandom, which drives this now multi-billion industry and touches every country in the world. It is also what drives me and this newsletter.

Please continue to send along your stories. You are both our audience and the best source of stories. Our Twitter handle is @sportsdoinggood, and you can find us at www.facebook.com/sportsdoinggood and on Instagram.

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.x

IWD 2025: Ten campaigns and initiatives that #AccelerateAction in women’s sport (SportsPro)
https://www.sportspro.com/insights/analysis/iwd-2025-sports-campaigns-accelerate-action-arsenal-persil-dove-nike-togethxr/

‘Volunteer for Life’: The incredible story of Tennessee’s Chris Lofton (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/44181236/volunteer-life-tennessee-legend-chris-lofton-incredible-story

Paul Skenes is baseball’s next big thing. That’s a blessing and a burden (The Athletic)
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6192259/2025/03/11/paul-skenes-baseball-celebrity-pirates/

Influencer Soccer Match Sells Out Wembley Stadium, Draws Over 14M Views (Front Office Sports)
https://frontofficesports.com/influencer-soccer-match-sells-out-wembley-stadium-draws-over-14m-views/

Women’s Sports Growth Is A Win For Investors, Brands And The Planet (Forbes)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/clairepoolesp/2025/03/08/womens-sports-growth-is-a-win-for-investors-brands-and-the-planet/

How Baron Davis found his voice as rapper Bart Oatmeal (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/44136671/baron-davis-bart-oatmeal-nba

All She Wanted to Do Was Play. Football, That Is. (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/business/women-power-football-odessa-jenkins.html

Fastbreak AI and adidas Launch Partnership to Expand Access to Athletic Camps and Tournaments for Youth Athletes (Fastbreak AI)
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fastbreak-ai-and-adidas-launch-partnership-to-expand-access-to-athletic-camps-and-tournaments-for-youth-athletes-302391229.html

The NBA’s shortest player is a 5-foot-8 rising star from Japan. Meet Yuki Kawamura (CNN)
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/10/sport/japan-yuki-kawamura-nba-grizzlies-intl-hnk-spt/index.html

Why astronaut Suni Williams runs in space: a 14-billion-year odyssey (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/44192592/astronaut-suni-williams-starliner-runs-international-space-station-return-earth


Quick Links…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Our Website

More About Us
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.

Our mission is to have Sport Doing Good be a consistent, and significant, contributor to the areas of sports, social responsibility, and development. We look forward to partnering with other stakeholders in producing content, in creating and/or sponsoring athletic and service events, knowledge sharing, and conferences/seminars, and even having a commercial arm that could be the source of innovative social businesses.

We invite you to send in news, press releases, and guest pieces for possible publication, and email us with suggestions about the content and format of the newsletter and Sports Doing Good website.

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

Forward this email