On Jan. 8, the world lost a pioneer of investigative sports journalism.
Andrew Jennings, 78, died early in a year that includes a Winter Olympics in Beijing and a World Cup in Qatar. He was called “incomparable” in a widely read obituary by Jens Sejer Andersen, the director of Play the Game and the Danish Institute for Sports Studies.
Jens Sejer Andersen (Play the Game)
Andersen is a guest on this week’s edition of theBreaker.news Podcast, celebrating the life and legacy of the reporter, author and documentarian who exposed corruption, bribery, ticket scams and match-fixing at the highest levels of the multibillion-dollar business of world sport.
“Andrew was absolutely unique in being the first who took on the International Olympic Committee, the untouchables, in the 1990s, and then, after the turn of the century, he turned his love at FIFA,” Andersen said.
Laura Robinson and Andrew Jennings in 2002 (Play the Game)
On this edition of theBreaker.news Podcast, hear from Andersen and Canadian journalist Laura Robinson, plus a clip from the late Jennings himself when he was a guest on theBreaker.news Podcast in March 2018.
Robinson received the first Play the Game award in 2002 from Jennings, for her book Crossing the Line, which exposed the culture of violence and sexual abuse in hockey. Robinson is best known for her 2012 exposé that revealed how Vancouver 2010 Olympics CEO John Furlong came to Canada as a gym teacher and allegedly abused indigenous children.
Through his courageous, anti-establishment work, Jennings created an environment that empowered journalists like her to pursue stories that were once considered taboo, including stories about powerful sports figures who abused athletes or covered up abuse.
“The rest of us looked like little shrinking violets compared to him,” she said.
Plus Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines and commentary.
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