It is part of the wider process of globalisation, in which money, people, ideas and images flow ever faster across borders, mixing, merging, evolving and creating ever new variations of fashion and behaviour. Sport is part of this global interchange. It has become closely bound up with gendered and consumer-driven notions of 'the body'. Images of the 'ideal' male and female body are constructed, consumed and sold in close association with images of sport, health and fitness. The worldwide 'health and fitness' boom has in part been driven by the perceived importance of acquiring the right body shape.
Sport cuts across all language and cultural barriers.
So sport becomes big money. Rupert Murdoch's international T.V. empire has been built largely on the back of sport. Sport attracts ever more commercial interest and investment. It tells us that sport is an arena for racism and sexism - but also for challenging racist and sexist myths. It tells us that sport can be violent, that sport is used by commercial interests, that sportspeople take drugs - in short, it tells us that sport is played by people, watched by people and run by people.