Traditionally, Japanese sport has a tough hierarchy, but in the run up to next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo both the media and the public has begun to critically examine the traditional practice.

Cricket remains in the grip of an elite, whose appetite for growth is typified by the sport’s lack of interest in the Olympic movement, meanwhile, cricket commands higher TV rights than any other sport outside football but is struggling to grow globally due to historical, cultural and structural reasons.

One in five Canadian athletes surveyed in a new report have experienced maltreatment including emotional, physical and sexual abuse, harassment and neglect. In another case, testimonies from dozens of Danish swimmers about a psychologically abusive coaching environment paint a similar picture.

People in the parkour community feel that international gymnastics is annexing their sport after FIG congress votes to include parkour on the gymnastics programme.

A report issued by Women in Sport finds that 38% of women in the UK sports industry experience discrimination at work based on their gender.

In general, European sports clubs are based on volunteerism and clubs weigh conviviality and friendship higher than sporting competition, a new report on European sports clubs shows. However, there are notable differences between sports clubs’ strengths, conditions and challenges across Europe.

David Rowe, professor from the Western Sydney University, looks into why it is so difficult to tackle “epidemic” sexism within sport, why sport is historically a male-dominated sphere and what can be done to counter it.

Rio 2016 was promoted as an engine for urban renewal and lasting change, a positive addition to years of social progress and growth in Brazil. But unfulfilled promises in a country now challenged by a deep economic and political crisis show that the Olympics did not function as a lever of development. This failure might be Rio 2016’s most lasting legacy, reports Julianna Barbassa.