Pride Month 2024: James Swanson on Pride in Tennis and LGBTQ+ Inclusion in Sport

James Swanson is a man who loves his sport. While the chair of Pride in Tennis, the LGBTQ+ network for tennis in Britain, obviously considers taking to the court his number one passion, he has experience working across basketball, ice hockey, football, and across rugby at a club, national, and international level. So where did this passion for sport begin?

“I was born in Cyprus, and in the years following our family moved to Germany, Italy, and lastly to Denmark. While there was a lot of moving around, the one constant was our engagement in sport; particularly tennis, table tennis, squash, and badminton. These sports formed the structure of our weekends, regardless of what country we lived in. Tennis was the most consistent feature of the four with our interest being both on-court as well as watching grand slams on TV. 

“I vividly remember sitting next to the courts in our apartment complex in Rome watching my parents play mixed doubles, and desperately wanting to participate myself.”

Playing together as a family helped James learn the fundamentals of the game, but it was thanks to an icon of the game that James found himself truly falling in love with tennis.

“I fully fell in love with tennis in the year 2000, when I watched Venus Williams beat Lindsay Davenport to win the women’s singles title at the Wimbledon Championships. Unknown to me at the time, this youthful fandom was the beginning of my inherent celebration of diversity, which has acted as a golden thread throughout my life in sports.

“My adulation of Venus soon resulted in a similar connection to Serena, who alongside Roger Federer and Monica Seles, formed the core pillars of relationship with the pro game on both the men’s and women’s circuits. They all brought something distinctive to the game and changed the landscape of the sport.”

James also recognises the platform that two other icons of the sport helped develop for tennis to be seen as one of the first LGBTQ+ inclusive sports – Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova. “Martina and Billie Jean were incredible trailblazers in a multitude of ways,” he says, “spanning sexual orientation, gender equity, and physicality in the sport.”

While their respective impacts on the game remain hugely significant, given there are a number of openly LGBTQ+ players on the WTA Tour, can tennis now look to build even more upon their legacy?

“I would say… it’s time for tennis to spring forward off the platform they built,” believes James. “We need to see even more celebration of current LGBTQ+ stars, even more fostering of inclusive environments in the sport, and encouraging authentic self-expression on both the WTA and ATP tours.”