Sustainability in sports: a three-decade scientific review

This study uses text mining to investigate the alignment between scientific research on sustainability in sports and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We analyzed 1499 research papers published between 1991 and 2024, extracted from Scopus using the keywords “sport” and “sustainability”. Using text mining techniques and cosine similarity for topic matching, we categorized each paper according to its most relevant SDG. Our analysis reveals that the most frequently addressed SDGs in sports research are Gender Equality (SDG 5), Decent Work and Economic Growth (SDG 8), and Partnerships for the Goals (SDG 17). However, SDGs focusing on environmental sustainability and technological innovation show relatively lower representation. Some distinct disciplinary patterns show concentrated alignments with specific SDGs, while more multidisciplinary research areas display a more varied distribution across multiple SDGs. These findings provide insight into the evolving sustainability landscape in sports research and highlight areas where further investigation could expand our understanding of the sector’s role in achieving global sustainability objectives.