A recent research project into racial bias in football broadcasting found that commentators were 6.59 times more likely to talk about the power of a player if he had darker skin, and that 63% of all criticism of a player’s intelligence was aimed at players with darker skin. It is embedded in the game.

In this episode, we speak to USMNT legend DaMarcus Beasley and Daryl Dike—part of a new exciting group of young American soccer players—about their experiences of race in football, and how it changes the way you’re treated at work, in sport, on the street, and in your own home.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2011, fresh-faced German sprinter Marcel Kittel exploded onto the world of cycling.

He won a stage on his Grand Tour debut at La Vuelta a España that season, and from there his rapid ascent to the peak of his sport saw him considered a revelation. Marcel was completely adored by fans, thought to enhance his sport as a whole by his peers, and took 14 Tour de France stages and 89 professional wins.

So, when he announced his retirement in 2019, cycling fans were stunned. He was just 31. The all-encompassing psychological pressures had become too much—the time away from family and friends, the remorseless training—and this episode is about the complexities of becoming burnt out by the thing you love the most.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.