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Dr Pete Olusoga @dr-peter-olusoga.bsky.social · 1h

Big problems, nosy co-workers and a little bit of #celebritytraitors chat!

I had the pleasure of joining the always brilliant @claudiahammond.bsky.social for All in the Mind on BBC Radio 4.

Listen here if you like.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

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Dr Pete Olusoga @dr-peter-olusoga.bsky.social · 21h

Youngest ever President of the Women's Sports Foundation

Appointed co-chair of the President's Council on Fitness,Sports & Nutrition by President Obama

Spoke out about abuse in Gymnastics

Now runs the Dominique Dawes Academy, fostering the physical, emotional, and social development of kids.

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Dr Pete Olusoga @dr-peter-olusoga.bsky.social · 21h

7. Dominique Dawes 🤸🏿‍♀️🇺🇸

'Awesome Dawesome'
1st black woman of any nationality to win an Olympic gold in gymnastics (Atlanta, 96).

One of only 4 female gymnasts to be part of 3 different Olympic medal winning teams (92, 96, and 2000).

🌟 4x Olympic medals
🏆 4x World Championship medals

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Dr Pete Olusoga @dr-peter-olusoga.bsky.social · 1d

Common ground and shared goals are important.

But here's the thing.

If my starting point is "let's be nice to everyone" and yours is "let's deport all the browns and create a white supremacist ethnostate,"

...then I've got to be honest, I'm not really sure it's my job to put the work in here!

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Dr Pete Olusoga @dr-peter-olusoga.bsky.social · 1d

Truth.

Dr Tony Kainth @tonykainth.bsky.social · 3d

Living in a country full of racism is physically and emotionally exhausting.

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Dr Pete Olusoga @dr-peter-olusoga.bsky.social · 1d

6. Helmut Köglberger ⚽ #blackhistorymonth

First Black footballer to play for the Austrian national team

Playing for Austria Wien, he won:

🏆 2x Austrian Championships (69 & 70)
🏆 2x Austrian Cups (71 & 74)

⚽ Austrian League top scorer twice (68-69, and 74-45), and played for Austria 28 times.

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Dr Pete Olusoga @dr-peter-olusoga.bsky.social · 2d

You guys remember 2016?

When in just a few months we lost George Michael, David Bowie, Muhammad Ali, Victoria Wood, Alan Rickman, Wogan... fucking R2D2, Princess Leia, AND Admiral Akbar... Ian mcCaskill! Remember him!? Harper Lee...

And we all thought, "ah man, this is the worst year ever."

Mate.

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Dr Pete Olusoga @dr-peter-olusoga.bsky.social · 3d

Cox then won 2 more cycling golds in 2020 and another in 2024, taking her total across para cycling and athletics to

🌟 7 Paralympic medals (5 gold)
🌟 11 World Championship medals (7 gold)

🚴🏿‍♀️🏃🏿‍♀️ Absolute legend.

💪🏿 #blackhistorymonth

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Dr Pete Olusoga @dr-peter-olusoga.bsky.social · 3d

5. Kadeena Cox 🏃🏿‍♀️🚴🏿‍♀️🇬🇧

At the 2016 Summer Paralympics, Kadeena Cox medalled in two different sports.

Not different disciplines.

Two. Different. Sports.

Athletics... (T38)
🥇GOLD in the 400m
🥈SILVER in the 4x100m
🥉 BRONZE in the 100m

AND cycling... (C4-5)
🥇 GOLD in the time trial

#blackhistorymonth

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Dr Pete Olusoga @dr-peter-olusoga.bsky.social · 3d

Gregory Allen, one of the 8, said

"It was a cleansing, a lifting of this baggage that I had been carrying around for years to have someone finally acknowledge that we didn't do this to hurt the university. We were trying to make the university and this world just a better place.”
#blackhistorymonth

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Dr Pete Olusoga @dr-peter-olusoga.bsky.social · 3d

In December of 1970, an independent report called the suspension of the Syracuse 8 “an act of institutional racism unworthy of a great university.”

In 2006, the Syracuse 8 (all 9 of them), returned to their university campus and were honoured with the Chancellor’s Medal.

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Dr Pete Olusoga @dr-peter-olusoga.bsky.social · 3d

Anyway, the Syracuse 8 were actually reinstated just before the first game of the season, because... you know... winning. But they stuck to their guns and continued to sit out, eventually missing the entire 1970 season.

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Dr Pete Olusoga @dr-peter-olusoga.bsky.social · 3d

They would have been allowed back if they’d signed a document to say the suspensions were fair. But because they were total badasses, they refused.

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Dr Pete Olusoga @dr-peter-olusoga.bsky.social · 3d

When the players' demands for better medical care for EVERYONE, equal access to academic resources, playing time and position based on merit not quotas, and a Black assistant coach went unmet (because of course), they boycotted spring practice and were suspended from the team.

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Dr Pete Olusoga @dr-peter-olusoga.bsky.social · 3d

Black players had raised concerns about racial discrimination, including allegations that the team Doctor (a fucking gynaecologist!) had said he “hated touching Black people.” Classy.

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Dr Pete Olusoga @dr-peter-olusoga.bsky.social · 3d

In 1970, a group of 9 (yes, I know) American Football players at Syracuse University boycotted practice and eventually sat out the entire 1970 season.

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Dr Pete Olusoga @dr-peter-olusoga.bsky.social · 3d

4. The Syracuse 8.

Gregory Allen, Richard Bulls, Dana Harrell, John Godbolt, John Lobon, Clarence 'Bucky' McGill, A. Alif Muhammad, Duane Walker, and Ron Womack.
#blackhistorymonth

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Dr Pete Olusoga @dr-peter-olusoga.bsky.social · 4d

Dr Andrew Wood joined us on the latest episode of the Eighty Percent Mental podcast to talk about life, death, and all things in between. This is a good one!

Listen to the full conversation at eightypercentmental.com or wherever you normally get your podcasts.

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Dr Pete Olusoga @dr-peter-olusoga.bsky.social · 4d

For her actions, she was suspended from the team, and although the suspension was rescinded she made the decision to leave the team and not return.

Remember HER name. Ariyana Smith.
#blackhistorymonth

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Dr Pete Olusoga @dr-peter-olusoga.bsky.social · 4d

During the National Anthem, Smith made the “hands up don’t shoot” gesture, walked towards the American flag, and then lay face down on the floor for 4 and a half minutes to represent the four and a half hours that Michael Brown lay in the street after being shot and killed a few months earlier.

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Dr Pete Olusoga @dr-peter-olusoga.bsky.social · 4d

In August 2014, Michael Brown was fatally shot by police in Ferguson, Missouri. Ariyana Smith played basketball at Knox College in Illinois, but in November that year, her team travelled to play against Fontbonne University in Clayton, Missouri.

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Dr Pete Olusoga @dr-peter-olusoga.bsky.social · 4d

Continuing this year's #blackhistorymonth thread with...

3. Ariyana Smith.

Before Colin Kaepernick, the first person to bring the Black Lives Matter movement to the world of sport was 19 year old college student, Ariyana Smith.

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Dr Pete Olusoga @dr-peter-olusoga.bsky.social · 5d

And each year, the Shaq-to-school programme provides basic school supplies for thousands of kids from struggling families.

Dr Shaquille O'Neal. Legend.
#blackhistorymonth

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Dr Pete Olusoga @dr-peter-olusoga.bsky.social · 5d

Shaq also created the Shaquille O’Neal Foundation to provide support and opportunities to underserved youth through a number of different programmes.

Since 1997, Shaq-a-Claus has provided tens of thousands of toys, clothing, meals, shoes, and more to underprivileged kids across the USA.

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Dr Pete Olusoga @dr-peter-olusoga.bsky.social · 5d

Terrible free throw shooter and starred in Blue Chips and Kazaam, but also inducted into the Basketball HoF in 2016, and has been part of one of the best sports programmes of all time, Inside the NBA.

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