More York experts available for Olympics commentary

York alumnae Melissa Humaña-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson compete for gold in Paris today, a first for beach volleyball for Canada, cheered on by Humaña-Paredes' father, three-time Olympic coach and York Professor Hernán Humaña who teaches a course on the history of the Olympics and is available for comment to media. Also this week in Paris, breaking makes its debut at the Games, Olympians get sick with bacterial infection and organizers revise the closing ceremony of the Games this Sunday after a controversial opening. York experts are available to comment on this and more.

Danielle Howard

In 2018, a U.S. conservative news commentator said that LeBron James should just “shut up and dribble,” after the NBA star gave his views about then-President Donald Trump in an ESPN podcast. 

Those comments inspired a documentary by the same name that explored the social and political influence of NBA players through the history of the league, which in turn was an inspiration for AMPD Assistant Professor Danielle Howard’s latest research at the intersection of race, sport and performance. 

“The documentary got me thinking, does dribbling have more to say about politics, about Black life, then we have initially given it credit for?” 

Howard is working on a book called Making Moves: Race, Basketball, and Embodied Resistance that spans the twentieth and twenty-first centuries of basketball history. She examines America’s history of white supremacy and how comments like “shut up and dribble” reflect a continued dismissal of Black lives and experiences, images of the Black body on display through history from slave auctions to NBA drafts and how audience and media surveillance impacts movement. “The majority of bodies in the NBA are Black. So from a media standpoint, the majority of the media consumption we have of basketball is represented by Black bodies.”

She also looks at how Black athletes speak with their bodies, and how politics, history and social movements are embodied in athleticism, from the New York Renaissance basketball team to present times.

“Black performance in sport is not merely aesthetic, it has potential and purpose to be disruptive to the political and to ultimately incite change and liberation.” 

Howard is available to comment on: 

• Race, politics and sport
• Theatre and spectacle in the opening and closing Games
• Aesthetics and virtuosity in Olympic sports such as breaking, gymnastics, diving and synchronized swimming
• Sport as performance, particularly basketball
  

J-Rebel

A half century after the birth of Hip-Hop among mostly Black and Latino, working-class youth in the South Bronx, breaking makes its debut as an Olympic sport. For longtime breaker J-Rebel (Joseph Hersco) from the Supernaturalz Crew, who helped develop and co-taught a course on the art of breaking at York with AMPD dance professor Mary Fogarty, he’ll be watching the competition on Aug. 9 and 10 with a mix of emotions and criticisms. 

“There is a political side of Hip-Hop — it comes out of particular socio-economic conditions, right? I think a lot of that can easily get washed out, when the focus is around just who's winning in the competition,” says J-Rebel, who lives and works in the Jane and Finch community in Toronto. “But those things are intertwined in breaking — the politics, the cultural aspects, race, class and gender.” 

J-Rebel, who teaches kids breaking and has travelled the world by competing in international breaking competitions comparable to the caliber we will see at the Olympics, picked up the practice himself decades ago with peers and in community centres in Jane and Finch, Lawrence Heights and Malvern where he grew up and lived. He says that while breaking is more accessible to the youth in his community — predominantly low-income and working-class — than a sport like hockey or football, there are still barriers to who might be able to compete at the highest level due to social inequalities that are still present in many communities in Toronto. 

“It's not necessarily a predetermined thing because youth from these particular places have become resilient out of necessity, but your proximity to privilege and having resources is going to give you a better chance at developing your competencies.”  

J-Rebel is available to comment on: 

• Origins and connections of breaking to hip-hop; roots in New York and Black diasporic cultural expression 
• Why the Olympics need breaking and not the other way around
• Technical, cultural and social aspects of breaking 
• Ensuring access to breaking and sport in low-income and racialized communities. 
• History of breaking in Toronto 

Martin Breaugh

France was on shaky grounds ahead of the Olympics, politically speaking, but the ruling parties dodged a bullet in the snap election by blocking the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party from taking power, says Professor Martin Breaugh in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies and an expert in French politics.  

“The presence of RN ministers at the Olympics would have been an impossible situation to manage with the potential of athletes boycotting such ministers, as well as local officials and maybe even delegations from elsewhere, especially the former French colonies, doing the same,” he says. 

Breaugh is available for email, phone and teleconferencing videos and is currently on Central European Time six hours ahead of Toronto. He is also available for interviews in French and can speak on: 

• The political situation in France in the leadup to the Olympics
• How the handling of the Olympics will impact public perception of the government
• History of politics in France
  
  

Satinder K. Brar 

Despite France spending more than $1.5 billion in cleanup efforts to get it in good shape before the start of the Olympics, the Seine continues to experience problems with water pollution, with the men’s triathlon posted due to unacceptably high levels. Lassonde School of Engineering Professor Satinder K. Brar is an expert in environmental biotechnology and decontamination, with particular expertise in water. Brar is also available for interviews in French, Hindi and Punjabi, and can comment on: 

• Cleanup efforts of the Seine
• Waste water contamination and potential risks to athletes
• Athletes falling ill with Campylobacter jejuni bacteria
• Other pollutants sometimes found in urban bodies of water
  

Lyndsay Hayhurst 

For 15 years, Faculty of Health Associate Professor Lyndsay Hayhurst has been collaborating with self-identified women and youth in Canada, Uganda and Nicaragua to investigate the role of sport for social justice and ‘development’. This includes examining cycling as a possible catalyst for achieving mobility justice and gender equity; investigating how community sport for development programs may create novel possibilities for feminist climate-justice activism; and addressing physical inactivity among marginalized youth and women (cis and trans) through the use of trauma-and violence-informed approaches.

“We're arguing that these trauma-informed approaches can ultimately make sports safer and more equitable, and that certainly flies in the face of some of the approaches to coaching and sport that we sometimes see are taken up at the Olympics,” says Hayhurst, also the York Research Chair in Sport, Gender and Development & Digital Participatory Research. 

Hayhurst and collaborators just launched a short documentary film -Changing Gears  - and she is available to comment on:

• Sport and gender equity
• Gender-diverse youth and sport
• Trauma-and-violence-informed approaches to sport, recreation and leisure

• Sexual and gender-based violence prevention in/through sport for development
• Climate change initiatives and ‘greenwashing’ at the Paris Olympics
• Sport for development and peace initiatives and NGO activisms
• Community sport and recreation initiatives, especially cycling and soccer
  

Please check online for updates to this roster and full list of available experts.

For a list of some of the York-affiliated athletes and medical team members participating in the Games, please see here.

About York University

York University is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change, and prepare our students for success. York’s fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario’s Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. York’s campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.

Media Contacts: Emina Gamulin, York University Media Relations and External Communications, 437-217-6362, egamulin@yorku.ca