Weusi was founded on a simple belief: sport can give us a way into something much bigger than the game itself. Squash may be where many of our relationships begin, but the value of those relationships has never been limited to what happens on court. Through the game, people can encounter new communities, discover different cultures, build confidence, develop friendships, and gain access to experiences that influence how they see themselves and the world around them.

This is why Weusi has always thought about squash differently. We care about who gets to play, but we also care about what happens because they played. We want more young people and more people of color to have the opportunity to discover the game, understand the world around it and use those experiences as part of their own growth. That idea has been part of Weusi from the beginning, and it continues to shape the causes we support, the questions we investigate and the stories we choose to tell.

Play is where the possibility begins

There is something powerful about being introduced to a sport that can take you somewhere you have never been before. Sometimes that journey is literal. Squash can take a young player to another neighbourhood, another city or another country. Just as importantly, it can introduce them to people and environments that might otherwise have remained outside their experience.

For many people, however, that first opportunity cannot be taken for granted. Squash has traditionally required access to courts, equipment, coaching and communities where the game is already established. As we wrote recently in our support of Rally28, making the game more visible is not enough if the people inspired by it have nowhere to play or no pathway into the sport.

This is one reason Weusi supports organizations and initiatives working to broaden access. We want more people to experience squash because we know that the first time someone picks up a racket can lead somewhere unexpected. The game itself matters, but so does everything that can begin around it.

Knowing helps us understand what needs to change

Creating an opportunity to play is an important beginning, but access does not tell us everything about someone’s experience once they arrive. We also have to be willing to understand whether people feel welcome, whether they develop meaningful relationships, and whether they can participate in the wider opportunities that can surround the sport.

This is why research belongs naturally in Weusi's work. Our research with Dr. Eric Legg of Arizona State University grew from a desire to listen more closely to the experiences of racially diverse young adults who have participated in squash in the United States. Their experiences help us look beyond assumptions about what participation means and examine questions of access, belonging, community, and opportunity from the perspective of people who have lived them.

Research gives us a different kind of responsibility. It asks us not simply to celebrate what sport can do well, but to understand where experiences differ and where the community still has room to grow. If we want more young people and more people of color to enter squash and build a lasting relationship with it, then we should be prepared to listen to what makes that possible and what can stand in the way.

For Weusi, knowing more is not an academic exercise. It is part of learning how to make better choices about what we support, what we advocate for, and where we can contribute.

Sign up for the event where we unveil our research on World Squash Day.
‍

Growth should travel beyond the person

One of the reasons sport matters is that its influence can continue long after a match is over. A young person can learn discipline from competition, confidence from improving at something difficult, and perspective from meeting people whose lives are different from their own. They can build relationships with coaches, teammates, and mentors who shape how they navigate education, work, and life.

The most meaningful form of growth, however, is not only about what one person gains. It is also about what they can eventually give to someone else.

That idea appears strongly in the research we have undertaken with Arizona State University. Participants described returning to the game as mentors, coaches, connectors, and advocates, using their own experiences and relationships to create opportunities for younger players. In some cases, what had once been extended to them became something they could extend to another person.

This is the kind of cycle Weusi wants to encourage. A young person enters the game, gains knowledge and experience, grows through the relationships around them and eventually becomes capable of opening possibilities for someone coming behind them. When that happens repeatedly, the impact becomes larger than any individual player.

This is why Weusi gets involved

Supporting Rally28, conducting research with Arizona State University, investing in community initiatives, and sharing the experiences of people across squash may look like different areas of work, but to us they come from the same place.

Weusi was created to explore what happens when sport, culture, knowledge, and community meet. We believe squash can be an extraordinary vehicle for that, particularly when more people are given the chance not simply to enter the game, but to participate fully in everything that can grow around it.

That means we will sometimes support a cause because it can create more opportunities to play. We will sometimes conduct research because the community needs to understand something more deeply. We will sometimes invest in a young person’s experience because travelling, competing or encountering another culture can change their sense of what is possible. We will keep telling stories because seeing someone whose experience reflects your own can change your relationship with a sport that may once have seemed to belong to somebody else.

None of these things sits outside the purpose of Weusi. They are the purpose.

The opportunity in front of us

Squash is entering a period when more people are likely to encounter the sport than ever before. Its Olympic debut in Los Angeles in 2028 will create attention, curiosity and, we hope, new ambition around the game. The question for all of us is what happens after that attention arrives.

For Weusi, the opportunity is not simply to make squash bigger. It is to broaden the possibilities around squash. We want young people to be able to play the game, but we also want them to learn more from it. We want them to encounter different people, places, histories, and ideas. We want them to build confidence and relationships that continue to matter away from the court. Most of all, we want those experiences to shape how they grow through life and, eventually, how they create opportunities for others.

That is why this moment matters to Weusi. It is why Rally28 matters. It is why research matters. It is why access and belonging matter.

The game gives us somewhere to start. What we choose to build from it is up to all of us.

Play. Know. Grow.