Welcome to Between Victory & Visibility, a biweekly editorial space where we track not just the wins but the systems, the struggles and the shifting lines of visibility in sport.

As we continue to question the power structures shaping modern sports, this 3rd dispatch focuses on three recurring themes: the ethics of injury, the politics of representation and the psychological cost of performance, exploring what’s really at stake when performance meets visibility.

What we’re witnessing reaches beyond the scoreboard, it reflects a larger shift in how we understand competition, belonging and meaning itself.

🧠 1. What It’s Really Like Being a Top Female Athlete in 2025

On a recent article published by Marie Claire, “It’s Not All Gold Medals and Trophies” Olympic swimmer Amber Keegan shares her recovery from an eating disorder and the founding of her charity to support female athletes’ mental health, citing systemic issues like body image pressures, online abuse and gender pay gaps. The article interviews other Olympians as well, sharing the common story about how the culture of high performance feeds off silence, the expectation that women smile through pain, endure toxic coaching and keep their trauma off the podium. 

Sports psychology isn’t just about motivation or grit anymore. It’s about creating safe environments, rethinking performance pressure and holding coaches accountable for the cultures they create. Until then, many women will keep performing hurt, physically, emotionally and invisibly.

🔗 Marie Claire UK — Realities of Being a Female Athlete

👻 2. Why Do Fans Go Wild? The Puzzle of Sports Fandom

Why do sports fans erupt with intense emotions during games, only to return to normal life shortly after as if nothing happened? If these feelings were truly meaningful, wouldn’t they linger longer?

This article tackles what philosophers call “the puzzle of sports fandom.” While previous thinkers (like Kendall Walton) have suggested that sports emotions are similar to those we feel toward fiction, like crying at a movie, this view is seen as too simplistic.

Instead, the authors argue that sports fandom is a collaboratively created fiction, a living, evolving story built not just by fans but also by players, teams, sponsors, media and entire cultures. It’s not like reading a novel; it’s more like participating in modern folklore, handed down across generations like The Iliad or Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

In this view, the highs and lows of sports aren’t irrational, they’re part of a deeply shared and co-authored narrative. And that’s why they matter.

🔗 Journal of the Philosophy of Sport 

🏀 3. Beyond the Box Score: The Caitlin Clark Controversy

If ACLs and exclusion are where systemic failures become visible, the treatment of Caitlin Clark shows how representation itself can be weaponized. Her meteoric rise in the WNBA has been marked not only by brilliance but by bizarrely harsh officiating and media scrutiny, especially in comparison to rivals like Angel Reese. What appears to be a clash of stars is really a mirror of racialized and gendered expectations in sport.

Her story asks us: Can a woman rise without being penalized for being seen? Is mainstream attention liberating, or does it simply reshuffle the same old scripts?

🔗  talkSPORT — The Cultural Battleground

🚺 4. On the Justification for World Rugby’s Ban on Trans Women

This article critically examines the philosophical arguments behind World Rugby’s ban on trans women athletes in the elite women’s category.

The ban has been defended by philosopher Christopher Pike, who argues from a “lexical priority” standpoint, claiming that safety and fairness for cis women must come before inclusion. However, the author shows that Pike’s argument doesn’t hold up under scrutiny.

Another scholar, Burke, tried to soften Pike’s position but ended up with an incoherent stance. The author suggests a better version of Burke’s argument, one that is both consistent and able to withstand objections raised by critic Imbrišević.

While a stronger philosophical case for the ban is explored, the paper also points out why the debate remains so polarizing and difficult to resolve: at its core are deep tensions between fairness, inclusion and identity.

🔗 Assessing Key Arguments in the Debate

🦵 5. ACL Epidemic or Systemic Neglect?

ACL injuries in women’s football have reached crisis levels and finally people are starting to ask why. What was once chalked up to biological inevitability (“women are just built differently”) is now being re-examined with a sharper ethical lens. A recent report from Reuters challenges the lazy determinism of the past. Experts now say the real culprits are modifiable risk factors: pitch conditions, game scheduling, travel fatigue, poor sleep and underfunded recovery infrastructure.

It turns out injury prevention isn’t just a medical issue, it’s a moral one. When governing bodies ignore gender-specific needs or overload athletes with matches to boost revenue, they don’t just risk physical harm, they institutionalize it. Injury then becomes the cost of being visible.

🔗 Experts call for focus on risk factors to reduce ACL injuries in women’s game

🏳️‍⚧️ 6. Inclusion and the Ethics of Boundaries

Ethics in sport isn’t only about doping or cheating. It’s about design: who are the rules made for and who gets excluded in the name of tradition?

The case of trans darts player Noa-Lynn van Leuven, who continues to compete despite institutional bans and harassment, reopens the debate around trans inclusion in women’s sports. While her courage is undeniable, the policies surrounding her participation remain fragmented and often reactionary. Meanwhile, in the U.S., a sweeping executive order has banned trans women from all women’s Olympic categories, a decision that’s not just political but philosophical: what do we mean by fairness and who gets to define it?

🔗 Facing Protests and Harassment — Noa-Lynn van Leuven Is Still Competing

🩺 7. Injury Prevention & Training Physiology

A July 2025 open-access study in Sports (Vol. 13 No. 7) found that short-term ballistic training significantly improved strength, jump and sprint performance in elite youth female soccer players without negatively affecting speed-related force production. The methodology offers practical guidance on neuromuscular development tailored for female athletes and suggests a path forward for gender-informed programming that doesn’t sacrifice safety for strength. 

🔗 British Journal of Sports Medicine — MDPI 

🎎 8. Toxic Leadership: Its Consequences for Mental Health & Performance

A scoping review by Lundqvist explores toxic leadership in elite sports and it reveals how many environments still operate on fear, control and humiliation. Researchers are calling for athlete-centered coaching and trauma-informed sport policy. 

🔗 Toxic Leadership in High-Performance Sports

🤖 9. Gender & Computational Bias in Sport Contexts

Language matters, too. A recent study on LLM bias shows that AI systems replicate sexist and exclusionary narratives in sports coverage. When even our machines erase women, what hope do we have for objectivity? The algorithms are simply learning from us.

🔗 Run Like a Girl! Sport-Related Gender Bias in Language and Vision

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Sport has always been more than physical performance; it’s a stage where culture, identity and power are rehearsed in real time.

The questions being asked now about fairness, recognition and voice aren’t marginal. They’re foundational.

And perhaps what’s at stake isn’t just the future of sport but the values we’re willing to defend through it.

Stay tuned, stay critical and stay moving ♥

In sport and in thought,

See you next time!