“Building Back Better”: Seeking an Equitable Return to Sport for Development in the Wake of COVID-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic affected sport programming by restricting in-person activities. Concurrently, global outcry for racial justice for Black and racialized communities promoted calls to action to assess equitable practices in sport, including sport for development (SFD). This study critically examined SFD “return to play” programming to include perspectives from racialized persons’ lived experiences. We present findings based on data collected from Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Foundation’s Change the Game campaign, which explored questions of sport inequity to “build back better.” Outcomes further SFD discourses challenging (potentially) harmful structures affecting participants, including underreported effects of racialization. The study used both quantitative and qualitative analyses of survey data on youth experiences, enablers, and barriers in sport and analyzed these results within an antiracist, antioppressive, and decolonial conceptual framework.