Datafied athletes and the limits of human rights in sport: Algorithmic governance and digital inequality in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Abstract

The Fourth Industrial Revolution has produced wide-ranging structural transformations in contemporary sports through the convergence of advanced technologies. However, the structural risks to human rights produced by accelerating technological change in sport – most notably the concentration of data power, the normalisation of surveillance, algorithmic inequality, and data commodification – remain insufficiently examined. Drawing on risk society theory and contemporary digital rights scholarship, this study identifies three domains of technology-related risks in contemporary sport: the datafication of athletes’ bodies and behaviours, algorithmic governance that undermines procedural rights, and the commodification of sport data that concentrates economic value among organisational and technological actors. This study also assesses the adequacy of existing human rights norms in sport, including those emerging from United Nations treaties, International Olympic Committee regulations, and European sport and artificial intelligence (AI) policy instruments, showing a lack of the conceptual, procedural, and enforcement mechanisms needed to address technology-mediated rights harms. Human rights in sport must incorporate data sovereignty, algorithmic transparency, and digital personhood protections. Additionally, robust procedural standards and regulatory coordination are needed across sport and AI governance.