British Judo Statement – Racism in Sport

Recently there has been significant high profile media coverage of racism in sport. The sport of Judo is open for everyone and British Judo prides itself on being a welcoming, inclusive, community. The only thing that defines us in Judo is the colour of our belts, not the colour of our skin, we are #JudoUnited.

We write this statement to reiterate our united commitment to drive out racism from sport and to seek your support and help achieve that. It is widely acknowledged that there is still much work to be done in areas of inequality across the societal and sporting landscapes; to eliminate racism and any other form of discrimination within sport, we must be proactive not reactive.

As the Association continues to strive to improve in all areas of Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion, an Inclusion Steering group was formed in October 2020 with volunteers from across the judo community helping to drive forward initiatives and policies. Further development of this has seen a Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing manager recruited and several working groups formed with more volunteers from across our community stepping forward to assist us in striving for sporting equality.

Racism will not be tolerated in our sport and we have put in place support through club welfare officers and our safeguarding and wellbeing team here at the British Judo Association. (safegaurding@britishjudo.org.uk).

We also offer a dedicated Wellbeing Hub on our website which lists useful resources to help you during this difficult time https://www.britishjudo.org.uk/ediw_hub/

We are still looking for more volunteers to help us specifically in the areas of LGBTQ+, Race & Ethnicity and Invisible Disabilities. If you would like to assist in these areas, we would love to hear from you, please contact bja@britishjudo.org.uk