Sports in the Twenty-First Century

As the United States moved into the twenty-first century, more residents played sports than ever before – many of them at far higher levels than in the past. While inequities continued to exist, many of the most obvious obstacles to athletic participation had been breached. Still, twentieth-century athletes, coaches, institutions, and communities continued to face a broad range of sports-related issues. The rewards that came with athletic success intensified pressures on youth sports. Colleges continued to struggle to balance athletics and academics – with many notable failures. Scandals involving performance-enhancing drugs plagued many sports, including cycling, the Olympics, and Major League Baseball. Startling new research on a brain disease known as CTE linked football concussions to permanent brain damage, raising serious issues for the nation’s most popular and most profitable sport.