Stormzy, two waste paper bins and a hotbed of rebellion
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- Netball is campaigning for Olympic inclusion at Brisbane 2032, with World Netball president Dame Liz Nicholl telling BBC Sport a decision is expected soon and framing it as "future-proofing" the sport for generations.
- Martina Bergman Osterberg, a Swedish suffragist and college principal, developed netball from basketball at her Dartford Physical Training College in the mid-1890s, with students first lobbing balls into waste paper baskets perched on poles in summer 1895.
- England Netball marks its centenary in 2026 (founded 1926), while the Netball Super League is two years into a 10-year pathway to professionalism that drove a 45% attendance jump in its first year.
- Margaret Henley, a netball historian from the University of Auckland, told BBC Sport netball is "the only sport that I have been able to find that is completely controlled, operated, designed by, played by women over its history."
- Stormzy told BBC Sport in May 2026 that netball is "so difficult," having previously ripped ligaments in his fingers the first time he played the non-contact sport.
- Suncorp Super Netball in Australia reportedly pays top players close to six figures, while UK Netball Super League rank-and-file players scrape into five figures and often work second jobs.
- The Commonwealth Games is no longer guaranteed to include netball — only athletics and swimming are now designated core sports — prompting the World Cup to shift from quadrennial to biennial from 2027 as the sport hedges its staging options.
Why it matters: Olympic inclusion at Brisbane 2032 would be the biggest platform upgrade in netball's 130-year history, and the IOC decision is arriving just as the sport loses its Commonwealth Games safety net — only athletics and swimming remain core sports. With 13 million players globally (3 million in England alone, the most of any nation), the participation base has long outpaced elite-level recognition, and the shift to biennial World Cups from 2027 signals netball is building independent infrastructure rather than waiting on multi-sport event guarantees.
