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Athlete endorsements are a critical marketing strategy that leverage the credibility and popularity of athletes to drive product sales. However, the effectiveness of athlete endorsements depends on how well the endorsed brand aligns with the athlete’s public image and ethos. When a celebrity endorses a product that contradicts their ethos, the public perception of both the athlete and the brand is harmed. This is why the selection of athletes for endorsements requires a thorough understanding of their audience engagement, social media presence, and overall public image.

Endorsements can take on a variety of forms, from simple sponsorship deals to long-term ambassadorships that create deeper integration with the brand identity. Long-term partnerships also allow brands to evolve the narrative, allowing the athlete to participate in ongoing campaigns and product development. Examples of these types of partnerships include Cristiano Ronaldo’s global partnership with Nike, which has yielded multiple successful products and marketing campaigns.

To maximize the impact of athlete endorsements, brands need to ensure that they are selecting the right celebrities for the job and developing impactful marketing campaigns. The most effective endorsements deliver genuine value to the consumer and align with an athlete’s ethos and personality. This creates authenticity that boosts the credibility and attractiveness of the brand, resulting in increased sales and brand loyalty. To achieve this, brands must track key metrics including conversion rates, sales uplift, and customer lifetime value. They must also utilize sentiment analysis and other qualitative data to evaluate the long-term impact of an endorsement campaign.

If you’re a track and field fan, the World Athletics Championship is like the Olympics in a more compressed format. The event is hosted biennially and covers all the disciplines — from sprints to middle distance events to the lung-busting 400m, it’s a showcase of the best athletes in the sport. The competition also doubles as a preview of the next Summer Olympics and is a key step for many title-hungry athletes.

The 2023 edition will take place in Budapest, Hungary at the National Athletics Center from August 19 to 27. It’s the first World Championships since the pandemic pushed 2022’s event in Eugene, Oregon back a year. The World Athletics Championship is one of the largest sporting events in the world, behind only the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games in terms of number of athletes. The event has nine days of action packed with 49 track and field events.

For those who can’t make it to the event, FloTrack will provide streaming coverage on all platforms. Subscribers will be able to watch all of the races, as well as full replays of each event, for the duration of their subscription.

You may be familiar with the names of a few of the athletes competing, but there are always some surprise performers. Last year’s Championships saw British bright light Keely Hodgkinson powering her way to bronze in the women’s 800m, while the country’s men’s and mixed 4x400m teams clinched medals as well.

Picture a basketball arena or a football stadium — but filled with fans cheering on teams as they compete head-to-head in their favorite video games. Esports tournaments are the gamer’s version of athletic championships, and they draw a massive audience online and in-person. As esports evolve, they’re merging with traditional sports, and that shift points to the future of entertainment.

Despite its recent growth, the esports industry still faces challenges. Rules and regulations vary across countries, creating confusion about player contracts, gambling and intellectual property rights. Many tournament organizers operate at a loss, hoping that future growth will bring profitability. This creates a gap between top events and grassroots competitions, which can struggle to survive.

In 2025’s first month, the esports calendar is jam-packed with international competitions for popular titles like PUBG Mobile, Counter-Strike and League of Legends. PGL Bucharest, BLAST Rivals Spring 2025 and IEM Raleigh highlight a busy calendar that also includes the 2025 League of Legends World Championship in China.

While fighting games continue to dominate the esports landscape, other genres are growing quickly. The first-ever Fortnite World Cup skyrocketed the popularity of the popular Battle Royale title, and a new tournament for TEKKEN 8 is drawing huge audiences. Meanwhile, new hardware is bringing the experience of playing a video game to a whole new level. The latest consoles allow players to move, gesture and interact with the screen in ways that are impossible on a PC or laptop.

During the Civil Rights Movement, Black fans turned their love of sports into a powerful tool of nonviolent protest. They boycotted pro teams with segregated seating and pressed city leaders to integrate housing, schools and public services. They used newspapers to share boycott information and pickets that were placed on public property such as stadiums and bus stops. Black sportswriters like Jim Hall, Marcel Hopson and Marion Jackson encouraged fandom to be a force for change.

Those tactics still work today. The key to any protest is how it’s framed, and it’s important for journalists to report on the full range of fan activism tactics, from rallies to walkouts and boycotts. In addition, the First Amendment protects freedom of speech and assembly, so fans often express their concerns with chants and signs.

For example, a group of Chelsea fans is planning to protest the club’s owner, Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, ahead of the team’s match with Manchester United at Stamford Bridge next week. They plan to wear black to symbolize that the club is “slowly dying,” due to debts and mismanagement.

Gloria Jimenez and Bruce Martin, leaders of the Angel City Brigade that sits during Los Angeles Galaxy home games at Dignity Health Sports Park, have used their stance to highlight the immigration raids in Southern California’s Latino communities. They also have a message for the team’s ownership: “Let’s be a team of color.” Their protest, which will continue until the players and management support their cause, is a prime example of how fans can use their fandom to promote social justice issues.

LOS ANGELES — It was a World Series like no other. After 33 years without a championship team in the nation’s capital, the Washington Nationals took advantage of a shaky start from the New York Yankees and dominated the final four games to win the World Series three-games-to-one on Wednesday night. The clinching victory was only the latest memorable moment in a series full of them, and it also marked one of the most exciting moments since the best-of-seven format was adopted in 1905.

From crazy game-winning home runs to comeback victories, the World Series has always delivered high drama. So we decided to take a look back at the most iconic World Series highlights of all time.

1. Jim Leyritz’s Game 4 home run against Mark Wohlers

While there have been many great World Series moments it is hard to think of any that are more iconic than Leyritz’s game-tying home run in Game 4 of the ’96 World Series. The shot against Mark Wohlers was the defining moment of the Yankees’ greatest dynasty and it is still a famous moment in baseball history.

2. Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series

No one will ever forget Freddie Freeman’s game-winning grand slam in Game 1, which turned Chavez Ravine into blue heaven and won the series for the Dodgers over the New York Yankees. It was a thrilling game and Blue Jays announcer Tom Cheek’s exclamation, “Touch ’em all, Joe!” remains one of the most famous calls in baseball history.

The sport world can be an especially challenging environment for gender equality, with its mix of new and old cases of inequality in sports participation and opportunities, pay, and gender-based harassment. This is why UNESCO is collaborating with the world’s leading players in sports to accelerate efforts to promote women’s leadership and equality in governance models, prevent and respond to gender-based violence, close the gap in investment in girls’ sports and promote equal economic opportunities, ensure women’s equal participation and bias-free representation in media, and promote gender-neutral policies that strengthen, rather than harm, sport for all.

Gender stereotypes in sports still persist, with girls as young as five feeling that they don’t belong in sport. This can be due to an insidious combination of factors, including lack of role models and a perception that sport is only for boys. It also includes the belief that men are better athletes than women, which is based on misinformation and false assumptions.

It is time to dispel the myth that trans athletes have an unfair advantage in sport. The truth is that the vast majority of studies assessing performance in trans athletes have found them to be as competitive as their cisgender counterparts. Moreover, claims that the transgender community poses an “athletic threat” are based on misogyny and not science. It is time to reclaim women’s prizes, their sports and their spaces. This will go a long way toward making the world of sports more inclusive and welcoming to everyone.

The ICC’s World Test Championship has been a success, creating a more structured way of playing the longest form of cricket. The competition has been lauded for its ability to draw crowds to stadiums around the world and for its role in increasing the value of the Test mace. But there are detractors, and many of them are from England. The ECB has a strong aversion to a two-division format, fearing they might miss lucrative rivalries with Australia and India. They also oppose an increase in over-rate penalties, arguing that they penalise players too harshly and can have a negative impact on Test standards.

There’s no denying that the World Test Championship has been a success in bringing crowds back to the game, with both of the finals – between New Zealand and Australia in 2021 and Australia and South Africa in 2023 – being held in sell-out conditions in Southampton and The Oval. But the competition has come under a torrent of criticism, with Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack’s Lawrence Booth branding this week’s final as “a shambles masquerading as a showpiece”.

The criticisms have been numerous, from the scheduling (which saw the Proteas play fewer than the four other top teams in the championship) to a points system that is not well-balanced. But perhaps the most stinging attack has been over the fact that this is the only WTC final to have a reserve day scheduled – a nod to a bygone era of so-called ‘timeless Tests’ and an admission that England’s summer can be fickle.

The 2023 class of athletes who retired includes many names you’ve heard of, like NBA legend Carmelo Anthony and Olympic medalists Megan Rapinoe, Peter Sagan, Tessa Worley and others. But they all have one thing in common: they all walked away from their respective sports in style.

As more and more young athletes train to be elite, they can find themselves facing retirement at a much younger age than in the past. This is especially true for women, who can retire in their late 20s or even earlier. A recent scoping review suggests that this trend may have serious implications for athlete wellbeing.

“Athletes who are unprepared or struggle to adapt to the transition from sport often experience negative psychological states, such as depression and anxiety, which can have a significant impact on their daily functioning,” the report says.

It’s not uncommon for professional athletes to find new careers in business, coaching or politics after retiring from their sport. Many of them also take on public speaking, philanthropy and mentoring roles. Others become product endorsers, such as Charles Barkley, Michael Jordan or Tom Brady.

Athletes often need support after leaving the spotlight, but it can be difficult to find. The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee recently announced a $100 million program to provide post-retirement financial assistance for Olympians. The funding is largely from a gift by Richard Stevens, the CEO of Stone Ridge Holdings Group. The program will pay each U.S. Olympian $100,000 per Olympic Games they compete in — and it will multiply with each additional Olympic Games they participate in.

With the lull of early-season training, testing and tweaking behind us, the club ultimate season shifts gears to one of its most demanding events – the 2025 US Open. The field features all 12 2024 national semifinalists and a host of elite international teams looking to push their American counterparts in some exciting ways.

The tournament, which kicks off with “Fan Week” qualifying from August 18-23 and runs through September 7, takes place at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York. The main draw opens on Sunday August 24 with the first round of singles played over three days (Sunday, Monday and Tuesday) in addition to the usual two-day schedule.

It’s impossible to know what the scheduling will look like this year since the decisions about which halves of each draw play on Day 1 and when aren’t announced until after the final round of qualifying is finished (around Wednesday/Thursday Aug 21-22 2025). However, in the past, it has generally followed a similar pattern to other Grand Slams where the top half of the draws plays a Day 1 match while the bottom half goes into the Night session on Days 2-5.

With all the pieces in place, a new champion could emerge from New York this year. In the men’s division, #1 Boston Brute Squad has a strong team that looked good in a 15-8 statement win over #4 Washington DC Scandal at PEC East last month. And while the defense is still missing top-line defender Calvin Brown, the club is loaded with experienced defensive talent and incoming freshmen such as Raleigh transfer Ben Dameron and Aurora’s Anders Juengst who should provide significant depth.

Any sincere fan will, at times, display what may seem like an inordinate amount of emotional attachment and angst over sports celebrity gossip. Whether yelling at a referee or still in mourning over Brangelina, every fan carries a little bit of sports celebrity gossip inside them.

Whether it’s a megastar of music, film or television spotted in the stands or courtside as spectators at a game, a celebrity presence creates a buzz and excitement that often increases viewership and ticket sales for the event. For example, when singer Taylor Swift started showing up to Kansas City Chiefs home games to cheer on tight end Travis Kelce, the team’s viewership and merchandise sales increased dramatically.

This week, we’ve got the latest on a former WWE star who lost her job over Coldplay cheating drama, a surfing star with a gruesome injury and more. Plus, Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard reveals what it’s really like to live in his Subaru and NBA star Suni Lee and her new beau, OG Anunoby, make their relationship official.

Then we’ll talk about how soccer legend Lionel Messi rolled up to America’s best grocery store in slides and bought some American cereal that his kids probably begged him to purchase. And we’ll discuss how a UFC star faced NSFW messages on TikTok, and why Adam Sandler loved starring with Sam Chalamet in “Happy Gilmore 2.” Plus, WNBA superstar Suni Lee and her NBA player boyfriend OG Anunoby finally make their relationship official.