Sport has long been intertwined with the study of human movement in North American post-secondary education. Whereas traditionally, the study of human movement and sport was housed within physical education programs, it is now predominantly offered through kinesiology programs that, more than ever before, align with narrowly defined health sciences. Much like how the Olympics celebrate “faster, higher, stronger” sporting bodies and performances, the current focus of kinesiology as a field of study is increasingly linked to an Olympic-like emphasis on educating students on how to produce “faster, higher, stronger” bodies, optimize performance, and individualizing narratives of health promotion. This intense fixation on functional movement and on narrow conceptualizations of health stands in contrast to kinesiology’s origins as “…the best option in promoting a broad-based disciplinary, professional, and performance approach to the study of physical activity” (Newell, 1990, p. 273). As scholars who study sport from a sociological perspective, we are concerned with these approaches to the study of human movement, as they minimize larger social forces and/or societal structures that impact experience of, access to, and opportunity for physical activity and sport.

The dynamics above are complicated by the postsecondary education landscape in which kinesiology programs operate with dwindling public sector funding, growing corporate influences, and the entrenchment of values that overemphasize individual efforts and competition, to name a few. These forces in part have increased the pressures on academic departments to produce work-ready graduates who respond to current labour trends, including the rise in demand for healthcare sector jobs, as opposed to cultivating critically minded graduates with a breadth and depth of theoretical and practical skills that can address challenges facing our communities. Like others in our field, we are troubled by the reproduction of high-performance sport values (i.e., narrow ways of thinking about what a body should be and do) within kinesiology (i.e., narrow ways of thinking about what a student/scholar should be and do), and raise critical questions about the newly revised Olympic motto “faster, higher, stronger – together” and its influence on both the Olympics and kinesiology.

“Together” on the Olympic Stage

The Olympic motto was revised in July 2021 to “faster, higher, stronger—together”;  a noteworthy change made in order to “recognize the unifying power of sport and the importance of solidarity.”  This overture to the concept of solidarity provides opportunity to further reflect on kinesiology in contemporary higher education as described above.  Despite the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) desire to have nothing distract from the spectacle of the Olympics, the Games always reflect, confront, and operate amid a myriad of complex social issues. This in part has led to many athletes over the years using the spotlight of their participation in the Olympic Games to speak out against oppression. In turn, the IOC has routinely attempted to restrict athletes’ agency and their ability to articulate their political views (see Olympic Charter rule 50).

This places some athletes in an incredibly difficult bind as they grapple with how to express their political viewpoints on the international stage knowing full well the risks they may incur. For example, in 2024, U.S. shot putter Raven Saunders drew attention for their brightly dyed hair, manicured nails, and for wearing a full face-mask and sunglasses while competing. However, in 2021, they were investigated but not punished by the IOC for forming an “X” with their wrists as they held their arms above their head while on the podium—what they described as a representation of “the intersection of where all people who are oppressed meet.” Contrast this with Afghan breakdancer Manizha Tanish who, in the inaugural breakdancing competition in the 2024 Games, ended her routine by wrapping herself in a cape (made from a burqa) bearing the words “Free Afghan Women.” She was immediately disqualified from the competition for her political protest, but expressed no remorse for her actions: “I thought: I’ve got one minute when the whole world’s watching me and I thought, what’s more important, my dream, my life, or women in Afghanistan? I didn’t go there to win, that doesn’t matter to me.”

The hypocrisy of the new Olympic motto is not lost on us. IOC President Bach stated in a press release that: “Solidarity fuels our mission to make the world a better place through sport. We can only go faster, we can only aim higher, we can only become stronger by standing together — in solidarity.” However, as shown by the IOC’s own actions, acceptable acts of solidarity are those that narrowly conform to the IOC’s aims and interests. As journalist Shireen Ahmed notes in her analysis of the absurdity of Talash’s disqualification during a Games that professed a commitment to gender parity: “Either you support women in all their entities or you don’t.”

“Solidarity” in Kinesiology?

As a group of scholars who are working in one Canadian kinesiology program, we draw on these Olympic moments as parallels to what we see as pressures on kinesiology to conform to and reproduce narrowly defined understandings of movement and health and to support a political state project aimed at producing work-ready graduates rather than thought leaders of the future. As a part of a larger study that we conducted examining Canadian kinesiology programs, we interviewed academic leaders in kinesiology who routinely pointed to their need to demonstrate the value of their programs in providing work-integrated learning and experiential education opportunities, and to “demonstrate [their] post graduate success [rate] and that there is opportunities and job placements [for students].” In our interviews with kinesiology students, they defined the discipline singularly in bioscientific ways (physiology, anatomy, biomechanics, etc.) and spoke about how they saw kinesiology exclusively as a stepping stone to a future career in healthcare. Whereas our student participants were aware that the study of human movement also required some awareness of historical and sociological forces and structures—including those that work to exclude people and diminish solidarity against injustice—they focused on what they perceived as kinesiology’s unparalleled ability to make them higher, faster, and stronger in their future careers.

The question before us, as members of the kinesiology higher education community, centres on how do we push back against the narrowing of possibilities for students and scholars in our programs. How do we ensure that our students are able to secure meaningful careers for themselves, while also appreciating and protecting themselves as part of local-to-global communities with capacity, if not responsibility, to care for collective interests and identities? Stimulating such awareness and expression runs counter to the mindset that positions both the individual’s and nation’s economic success as dependent upon the protection and stimulation of the marketplace at all costs. One way we see this happening is by creating space for students, staff, and faculty to connect and voice concerns regarding work in a constantly changing healthcare labour market and to think through possible solutions together. In essence, perhaps the best way to promote community and collective action is to start in the very departments and academic units within which we find ourselves located.

Author Biographical Notes:

Parissa Safai, PhD, is Full Professor and Chair of Kinesiology and Health Science at York University. Her academic interests and expertise include: sociology of sport, health and medicine; risk and risk-taking in sport; sport and social inequality.

Alixandra Krahn, PhD, is a Post-Doctoral Visitor in Kinesiology and Health Science at York University. Her academic interests and expertise include: sociology of sport and sport coaching; sport coaching-gender-work nexus; sport, inequity and social change.

Yuka Nakamura, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Kinesiology and Health Science at York University.
Academic interests and expertise: sociology of sport; intersecting oppressions; diaspora, belonging, and community.