While American leagues have embraced commercial storytelling as part of the sports narrative, British sport has historically developed under very different conditions. As a result, the role that commercial statistics play in public conversation around sport has been far more limited in the UK.

If you follow sports in both the United States and the United Kingdom, one difference becomes clear fairly quickly: American leagues are far more comfortable talking about the business of sport in public. Attendance figures, television ratings, social media engagement, and franchise valuations are regularly highlighted as part of the story of a league or competition. In the UK, those numbers exist, but they are rarely central to how sport is discussed.

The International Olympic Committee’s latest policy on the female category marks one of the clearest shifts we’ve seen in this space for years. From LA 2028 onwards, eligibility for women’s events will be limited to biological females, determined through a one-time SRY gene test. In practical terms, that replaces the IOC’s previous, more flexible framework with a firmer, science-led line.