Athletes flexed their muscles off the field on a wide range of social and political issues in 2016.

Star players from the NBA, the NFL and women’s soccer showed their support for the Black Lives Matter movement and eliminating the pay gap between men and women, while the Olympics provided a stage for a marathon runner to highlight a persecuted ethnic group in Ethiopia. Other sports figures made their voices heard on issues like medical marijuana and the refugee crisis.

Here’s a look back at the year in athlete activism.
Black Lives Matter

This year, a black man who told a Minnesota police officer he had a concealed carry license was shot dead anyway. In South Carolina, an officer who’d been caught on video firing bullets into the back of a fleeing, unarmed black man was not convicted.

These events and others made it clear that black Americans still face an unacceptable level of violence and risk in their everyday lives. And more than a few athletes decided it was time to start talking about it.

In July, NBA stars LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade spoke at the ESPY Awards about gun violence and the use of force by police against people of color.

“The system is broken,” Anthony said then. “The problems are not new. The violence is not new. And the racial divide definitely is not new. But the urgency to create change is at an all-time high.”

The powerful remarks came after a week that saw the killings of black men Alton Sterling and Philando Castile by police, as well as the deaths of five police officers in Dallas at the hands of a lone gunman.

“Let’s use this moment as a call to action for all professional athletes to educate ourselves, explore these issues, speak up, use our influence and renounce all violence,” James said. “And most importantly, go back to our communities. Invest our time, our resources, help rebuild them, help strengthen them, help change them. We all have to do better.”



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