When "fit" means playing the right sports

1 min read · May 8, 2026
New Power Labs

A 2025 study by Lisa M. B. Sølvberg & Lauren A. Rivera on elite hiring in Norway shows that participation in certain sports (e.g., skiing, cycling, rowing, and football) often serves as a proxy for merit. Employers read athletic history as evidence of discipline, resilience, and leadership potential.

Sustained participation in organized sport requires time, money, and social access that are not evenly distributed. A candidate who spent their adolescence working, caregiving, or navigating under-resourced communities may have developed identical or sharper versions of those same qualities. They just did not develop them on a ski hill.

We expand our viewport of the talent pool by recognizing leadership and commitment as they appear across different contexts, communities, and life paths. The founders and leaders who have been building under constraint, without access to elite networks or leisure-class pathways, are the ones most likely to be screened out before the conversation starts.

Narinder
New Power Labs

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