Brave New Sport

Sport has always prepared people for their life challenges through playful competition. Today, the sports landscape is embedded in a context of unprecedented change: rising health care costs, techno logical disruptions, and climate change pose existential risks for society, economy, and environment. Can sport empower humanity to tackle some of the biggest issues of our time? The answer might be yes because the world of sports is also at a tipping point. Algorithms will replace human decision-making processes both on center stage and behind the scenes. The rise of Asia will reshape how sports are organized, financed, and performed. And athletes will increasingly use virtual platforms to act more independently than ever. Brave New Sport indicates that the next generation of participation and spectator sports has the transformative potential to lead the way into the future. This involves not only integrating sport into the public infrastructure or sensitizing audiences for sustainability, but also redefining how humans interact with autonomous machines in the bigger picture of how sport will empower 21st century society.

A senior project lead and researcher at W.I.R.E., Raphael von Thiessen analyses the impact of trends and technologies on the economy, science, and society. After obtaining his bachelor's degree in political science at the University of Zurich, he launched digital innovations for the media company Axel Springer. He went on to complete an MBA program at ESCP Europe in London, Paris, and Berlin. After a stint as a management consultant focusing on the future of work, he has joined W.I.R.E to manage strategy projects and publications. His first books, "Decoding Artificial Intelligence" and "True Transformers", examined the future of AI and the financial service system. Simone Achermann looks at developments and trends in society, business, and cultural sciences. She is the author and editor of a variety of publications, including the ABSTRAKT book series, "Mind the Future compendium for contemporary trends" and the Suhrkamp series "What counts". Before taking up her role at W.I.R.E. she worked for several years as a communications consultant, focusing on the area of corporate social responsibility and writing texts and speeches for top managers in business and social fields. Simone Achermann studied cultural sciences at the University College London (UCL). A journalist with over a decade's experience working between think tanks and major news publications, Peter Firth's writing for W.I.R.E. examines global affairs, business, technology, and society. Formerly news editor with global media brand Monocle, Peter headed up its daily output and commissioned across the company's flagship magazine and weekly papers. Prior to that Peter worked at business think tank The Future Laboratory, running a research team designed to analyse how consumer behaviours translate to market opportunities for some of the world's biggest brands. Peter studied English Literature and Sociology at the University of Brighton and took a postgraduate diploma at the London School of Journalism. Stephan Sigrist is the founder and director of the think tank W.I.R.E. He has been analyzing interdisciplinary developments in economy, science, and society for years, focusing in particular on the consequences of digitization in the life sciences, financial services, media, infrastructure, and mobility. Editor of the ABSTRAKT book series, author of numerous publications and a frequently invited keynote speaker at international conferences, Stephan supports decisionmakers with W.I.R.E.'s early detection of relevant developments and the corresponding translation into longterm strategies and innovation projects.