Calacus Weekly Hit & Miss – Kaur Bains & Ben Sulayem

Every week we look at the best and worst communicators in the sports world from the previous week.

HIT - KARENJEET KAUR BAINS

Diverse representation in sport has never been more important, to reflect society and the fans who watch or aspire to emulate those competing at the top level.

To inspire the next generation of athletes, young people need to watch those who walk and talk like them doing the sport they love. Seeing is believing, and young people watching athletes that truly represent them is a vital way in getting an increasing number of minority communities into sport.

There has been an increase in debate around the issue of diverse representation in elite British sport, and how the country is still not producing sufficient numbers of professional athletes from a wide enough range of communities and minority groups.

British powerlifter Karenjeet Kaur Bains, who is of Sikh origin, has taken this responsibility onto her shoulders.

The first British Sikh to represent Team GB at various international championships, she is an advocate for female empowerment and is a role model for young girls from all minority backgrounds to get involved and participate in the sport they love.

Powerlifting isn’t necessarily a sport that comes to mind when thinking about female sports, rightly or wrongly. Indeed, a lot of women feel uncomfortable in gyms or other facilities using weights, which has certainly hindered female representation in the sport.

Bains’ career hasn’t always been easy, plagued by discrimination and negative stereotypes of what a woman can achieve, and how heavy she could lift weights.

Interestingly, Bains’ sporting journey originally began in sprinting, taking up powerlifting at the age of 17 to help make her faster in athletics.

Her focus soon changed and she discovered her love for powerlifting and strength.

She said: “Being the first British Sikh female to represent Great Britain at the World and European Championships, that was the stepping stone to shatter any glass ceilings about what a female can achieve.”

She was inspired by her father who was a former bodybuilder at a competitive level.

Bains continued: “When I went to my dad’s old school gym when I was 18, an elderly man came across to my Dad and said ‘he wasn’t sure if there were dumbbells small enough for your daughter’, he didn’t know that I was British champion at the time.

“From that moment I realised that I need to turn the tide because their jaws were dropping when they saw what I was deadlifting, I was stronger than the majority of men there. Never judge a book by its cover and never have any preconceptions about what a female’s strength can be.

“I still think there is not enough South Asians or female south Asians coming. When I go and compete at internationals you don’t see it. This is why I come forward, this is what I stand to represent. Every time I go out there I always have my full name, Kaur signifies a Sikh female.

“It’s important to have representation. I wear my Kara as well, I like to keep my hair long. Religion is very important to me as well. I like to encourage that you don’t have to lose your identity, be proud of where you come from. It’s only going to propel you forward.

“I want to be the first female world champion one day but now it’s become much broader than that. If I can encourage girls, especially from diverse and minority backgrounds, to get into strength sports, that they are competing alongside me against the world’s best, I think I will have done a good job.

“Gone are the days where girls are denied these kind of opportunities.”

Bains has a host of other things going on in her life. She is an ambassador for Brawn a community app for strength athletes, and is also a chartered accountant.

She recently took part in the English Bench Press Championships and won the under 69kg Senior Women's class making her English Bench Press champion for 2022.

Her activism is an incredibly positive step, especially since how in 2020, Sporting Equals conducted a report that concluded that no where near enough British Asians are competing for Great Britain in major sporting events.

Indeed, the report stated that: “Only seven British Asians competed for Team GB at the last Olympics and Paralympics in Rio in 2016. Seven athletes out of the 630 athletes present, that translates to just one per cent.

“This lack of representation seemed to drop even more in the most recent games where there appeared to be no South Asians present in Team GB for the 2020 Olympics and one athlete of South Asian descent in the Paralympics, Ayaz Bhuta who incidentally won a gold medal in Wheelchair Rugby.

“When reflecting on the UEFA Euro 2020 tournament it was very clear to see the lack of South Asian talent within the England team and we are all too aware of how other ethnically diverse players were treated at an elite level when the team lost the final.”

Indeed, Bains herself has had to handle discrimination and lazy stereotypes throughout her career.

Racism and a lack of representation is talked about more and more, and thankfully people are finally waking up to the issue and trying to do something to combat it.

There is clearly a wider societal issue at play that still hasn’t been solved, and won’t be cracked overnight. One would hope that the inspiring story of Karenjeet Kaur Bains can empower the next generation of British Asians, and can help solve this participation at elite level issue that has plagued not only Team GB, but national teams of a plethora of sports in this country.

Bains has shown that women are just as capable of achieving their dreams in sport, and this female empowerment will only go a long way into increasing participation from girls, particularly from minority backgrounds, in all forms of sports.

MISS – MOHAMMED BEN SULAYEM

Calacus was founded on the premise that, as Nelson Mandela said at the Laureus World Sports Awards, “Sport has the power to change the world.”

While sport has to excite and entertain in order to thrive, it’s the unscripted nature of the drama that sport regularly inspires that turns its competitors into heroes.

Brands are attracted to align themselves with elite professionals because it helps them to sell more products and creates connections between them and the consumers they seek to target.

Those consumers increasingly care about ethics and human rights and so want to support those brands whose values match their own - and research suggests that more than 80% of Gen Z consumers will support or boycott brands depending on their approach to key issues.

The platform and profile that high level athletes enjoy is therefore a great opportunity to promote and support good causes or highlight injustice and inequality.

We have seen so often in recent years, for instance, that Lewis Hamilton, winner of seven Formula One Drivers’ titles, will speak out and take action to support causes he believes in.

As the only black driver in F1, Hamilton has done much to promote diversity, collaborating with the Royal Academy of Engineering to establish the Hamilton Commission: a project to identify barriers to the recruitment and progress of black people in motorsport.

The Accelerating Change report made recommendations to make motor racing more diverse and inclusive.

Hamilton said: “The benefits of a diverse workplace are well documented and sport is no exception. In fact, it’s even more important, because sport has the power to promote and lead change.

“Through this research, we not only identified the barriers that young black people face in entering the sport, but also within the wider Stem [science, technology engineering, and mathematics] education journey.

“I am hopeful F1 can be a leading example on how working together, committing to action and not just words, leads to positive change.”

Hamilton has also led the charge to take the knee before Grand Prix, despite concerns from the race organisers.

He said: “I plan to continue to take the knee because what's really important is when young children are watching what we are doing in this sport and when they see us take the knee, they will sit and ask their parents or their teachers 'why are they doing that? What are they taking the knee for?' And it sparks an uncomfortable conversation.

"It means parents have to educate themselves and the kids are getting educated. So it's a fight that's not won, it's a fight that will continue on for a long time, I'm sure. But we are in a good time where conversation is healthy."

"I'm really proud of what F1 is doing in terms of acknowledging they have a great platform to work towards a better world," said Hamilton.

Hamilton also wore a rainbow-coloured helmet for the Qatar Grand Prix in 2021 to highlight human rights issues, particularly in regard to the LGBTQ+ community.

At the Hungarian Grand Prix earlier last season, his racing rival Sebastian Vettel wore a Pride shirt, a gesture for which he was reprimanded.

Vettel has also highlighted concerns over climate change and looking after the environment, even helping to clear up rubbish at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in 2021.

“I think it is important that we all respect the environment and don’t rely on other people to clear up after us,” he said.

“We have to start somewhere and each one of us can make a difference now.”

Such care and initiative from drivers who could easily not make an effort underlines the power and influence of F1, so it came as a surprise that FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem criticsed Hamilton and Vettel for using their influence to raise awareness of important issues.

In an interview with GrandPrix247, the FIA president said: "Niki Lauda and Alain Prost only cared about driving. Now, Vettel drives a rainbow bicycle, Lewis is passionate about human rights and [Lando] Norris addresses mental health.

"Everybody has the right to think. To me, it is about deciding whether we should impose our beliefs in something over the sport all the time. I am from an Arabian culture, I am international and Muslim. I do not impose my beliefs on other people, no way, never.

”Do I go and pose my beliefs? No, the rules are there, even now there are issues when it comes to, for example, jewellery, I didn’t write that."

Ben Sulayem also believes that F1 and politics should be kept separate so as to preserve the integrity of the sport and ensure the focus is on the grid.

He added: "I think some people only see neutrality and governance when it suits them. For me, I come from that black or white world and it is very hard to do it.

"When it is governance, it has to be governance, when it is neutrality, it has to be neutrality. We are therefore for one reason and one reason only, and that is sports. Now you have to be political sometimes, but not really be a politician.

"Where do you have the balance? FIA should be careful not to be dragged into politics without forgetting our roots of motorsports."

Needless to say, Hamilton asserted his right to continue to promote important issues.

Hamilton said: "I encourage all of the drivers to be more outspoken in future and speak about things they care about.

"I'm proud to see what Seb (Vettel) does and to be an ally of his." Vettel then said: "It is important to express and mention [these topics], raise awareness, make people aware there are lots of things we can improve on."

As we saw just last week with Amelie Mauresmo, a lack of preparation and thought can create problems which can alienate fans and athletes and create crises that are so easily avoidable.

That’s why we work with a wide range of organisations, preparing key executives for every interview eventuality and helping them to address the issues that may create problems for them in future.

Unsurprisingly, Ben Sulayem was forced into an embarrassing retreat, posting on Twitter: “As a driver, I have always believed in sport as a catalyst of progress in society.

“That is why promoting sustainability, diversity and inclusion is a key priority of my mandate. In the same way, I value the commitment of all drivers and champions for a better future.”

Prevention is better than cure, as many of the responses indicated, and no doubt Ben Sulayem will likely face questions on the topic, which some noted was a “PR disaster” for some time to come.