You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day.

I'm your host, Elise Hugh. What does AI have to do with sports equity? I have to admit, it's not a question I've thought about before now, but in this talk, sports scientist Richard Felton Thomas

shares how he's helping to level the playing field

across gender, geography, and background

and reimagining how athletes are discovered and supported

using tools like AI and biomechanics. Now I'm going to start by getting you to visualize sporting greatness.

And what do you see?

It's probably athletes like LeBron James, Caitlin Clarks, Sakeorn, Barclay, Simone Biles,

Ronaldo, Messi. You see, we tend to think of athletes from quite a small

subset of countries, so I'd forgive you for thinking that the best talent in the world just comes

from those places. That's not strictly true, because talent existed long before their sporting

greatness, and many things have to happen along the way for them to realize their potential.

Now, one thing that's commonly overlooked is that they got an opportunity and were visible.

See, talent exists everywhere.

It's finding the talent that can be the challenge.

So how do we do that?

Now, typically, that's scouting.

It's every young athlete's dream to be scouted. You see the old guy up in the bleachers, he's writing

his notes, and late you get the call. He wants you to try out. It's a thrilling fantasy for so many people.

There's only so many scouts. Now I'm from the UK, where Chelsea Football Club have one of the most prestigious and well-funded

youth academy programs in the world.

But each Premier League team, or each Premier League scout, can only see about 2,000 players

...