Ethnic minorities in sport

[Alberto]

Watching football right now, England Netherlands.

How come in many sports, at the highest level at least, are ethnic minorities so much more represented, compared to the numbers on the whole population?

Real question, no spam.

[alma.freya]

England men's rugby squad seems proportional to the general population:

https://www.englandrugby.com/england/senior-men#squad

[Alberto]

Sure it varies hugely from sport to sport.

Running, football, basketball.
Cycling, swimming, skiing.

[Hiyyupduck]

Interesting question that although when you look at the England team specifically the ethnic minority represented are from Afro-Caribbean backgrounds, which does not represent all ethnic minorities in England, I don't see many people from Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi background. Usually because sports is not considered a viable career choice by parents!

[alma.freya]

Interesting question that although when you look at the England team specifically the ethnic minority represented are from Afro-Caribbean backgrounds, which does not represent all ethnic minorities in England, I don't see many people from Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi background. Usually because sports is not considered a viable career choice by parents!

Go and look at the England Cricket Team to find sportspeople with Indian, Pakistani & Bangladeshi backgrounds.

[Hiyyupduck]

Your right Alma that is true those ethnic minorities are definitely represented in the England cricket team. However my stance is that in football, rugby, boxing etc, there is a definite under representation from Asian backgrounds. I mean being a "ethnic" myself growing up in England my parents were always pushing us towards education rather then sports. Further to this there was a lot discrimination in sports teams when I was young, as a Asian I was always pushed towards the cricket team, even though I hate the game, rather then perusing football which I had some moderate talent! Even on the school field you were picked last as nobody wanted the P word on their team.....oh happy days!

[Keleth]

Your right Alma that is true those ethnic minorities are definitely represented in the England cricket team. However my stance is that in football, rugby, boxing etc, there is a definite under representation from Asian backgrounds. I mean being a "ethnic" myself growing up in England my parents were always pushing us towards education rather then sports. Further to this there was a lot discrimination in sports teams when I was young, as a Asian I was always pushed towards the cricket team, even though I hate the game, rather then perusing football which I had some moderate talent! Even on the school field you were picked last as nobody wanted the P word on their team.....oh happy days!

When I was young (a long time ago) the 2 Indians that hung around in our group had absolutely no interest in football. Cricket, cricket, cricket was their mantra.
These were immigrants born in England but with parents who were born and brought up in India and as we know cricket is the national passion in India and football etc almost unknown entities.
I do wonder nowadays if the Indians in England are more passionate about football when both they and their parents were born and brought up in England.

[Alberto]

Today I participated in a sport event, cycling, with almost 4000 people.
I noticed ZERO non-caucasian.
Ok, it was Switzerland, not Germany, but still....

[Krieg]

While it is true that there are not many black route cyclists, the sport has plenty of South Americans. And while seldom they are the team leaders (i.e. Nairo Quintana, Richard Carapaz) almost every professional team has one or two "Gregarios" to give support specially in the mountain terrain, i.e. UAE Team Emirates has two Colombians to support Pogacar, Bora has two Colombians, Ineos has two Colombians and one Ecuadorian, Movistar has four Colombians and a Brazilian, EF Education has two Colombians and two Ecuadorians (one is Carapaz), Bahrain has a Colombian who is the unexpected leader of the team, and so on. Route cycling is very big in South America and we have won all three major races (Tour, Vuelta & Giro). Of course if you go to an amateur event in a predominantly white country, most of the people there will be white.