Nikki Dryden

Olympic swimmer turned lawyer champions human rights for athletes.

Nikki Dryden
Sport and Human Rights Lawyer
Fulbright Global Scholar to Canada and the United Kingdom

Nikki Dryden swam in her first Olympics as a 17-year-old, representing Team Canada in five swimming events at the 1992 Barcelona Games. As a student-athlete at University of Florida, she was a five-time Southeastern Conference (SEC) champion and received nine All-American honors. After transferring to Brown University to study international relations, she continued to compete, adding five Ivy League titles to her accolades. Dryden’s career as a swimmer includes medals in the Commonwealth and Pan Am Games, and swimming in two consecutive Olympic Games.

Her experience as an elite competitor reinforced her love of sports, but also drew her attention to the injustices that athletes face. As a high schooler, she had a coach who wielded “control and abuse of power” which was “detrimental to my performance and my long-term development as a girl and woman,” she relates. However, during college, her coaches prioritized her personal growth and “put [her] development as a human first.” Reflecting on her Olympic experiences, Dryden says of the 1992 Barcelona Games that she was overly focused on outcomes, but during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics she immersed herself more fully into the experience by marching in the Opening Ceremonies and watching the other sports. Dryden now advocates for a culture that is “athlete-centered, respectful and inclusive.” Watching the Paris Olympics with her child, Dryden focuses on the athletes who are very clearly enjoying the process, observing, “If you cannot find the joy, then you won’t find success.”

Nikki Dryden starting backstroke in the pool at 1992 Olympic games in Barcelona. — *Dryden competed in the 1992 Olympic games in Barcelona (left, CP PHOTO/ COA/Ted Grant), and at the 1996 games in Atlanta.*

Nikki Dryden at pool edge — *Dryden competed in the 1992 Olympic games in Barcelona (left, CP PHOTO/ COA/Ted Grant), and at the 1996 games in Atlanta.*

After retiring from competitive swimming, Dryden became a sports journalist and began to explore gender discrimination, drawing attention to the relatively few women who held positions of power such as coaches, sports administrators, and members of the International Olympic Committee. She also had a variety of international experiences as a citizen of Canada, the United States, and Australia, serving as a visa officer for the Australian High Commission in Sri Lanka and Kenya and working with Somali immigration officials for the International Organization for Migration. She became a lawyer and practiced immigration law in New York City. She was a pioneer in creating the field of “Sport and Human Rights,” going on to join Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International to support the rights of athletes, and serving on the Editorial Board of LawInSport.

From 2022-2023, Dryden conducted professional research as a Fulbright Global Scholar to Canada and the United Kingdom. She worked with Sport Resolutions UK and the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada to examine how sport disputes get resolved in cases of human rights violations. Dryden defines a human rights dispute as “any sporting matter that infringes upon or violates the athlete’s fundamental human right” for instance, sex discrimination, restrictions of freedom of speech or expression, labor rights, and abuse cases. Dryden says that “Fulbright was important to understanding how domestic and alternative sport tribunals are managing sport and human rights cases. This is in comparison to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) based in Switzerland, to which all Olympic athletes are obliged to use as the ultimate decider of sport disputes. However, the CAS was not set up to hear human rights cases, but anti-doping or other disciplinary matters where the athlete is centered as the perpetrator of the offense.”

When it came to human rights cases, one of the key findings of her Fulbright research was that domestic tribunals “had more transparency, athlete engagement, and athlete support services (including access to legal advice)” as compared with international systems.

Dryden credits her Fulbright experience with empowering her to “clearly articulate the changes needed in the global sport dispute system when it comes to athlete human rights, with a focus on creating legitimate, trusted and effective sport dispute resolution at domestic levels.”

For example, she is aiding a whistleblower in a case of systemic abuse against girls and women that highlights the inadequacies of the current international sport dispute system. The case, according to Dryden, relies upon “the normal international sport dispute system,” but it has been re-traumatizing for the whistleblower-athlete, who is still waiting for “justice or access to effective remedy.”

Nikki Dryden speaking at podium at conference — *Dryden spoke on “Protecting the Activist Athlete” at the 2019 Play the Game International Conference in Colorado Springs, Colorado*

Currently based in Australia, Dryden continues to consult on legal issues at the nexus of sport and human rights, focusing on athlete rights, gender discrimination, sex abuse, and corruption in sporting organizations. She founded a non-profit organization, Lex Athleta, to do pro-bono legal work in the field. Most recently, she worked with the Australian Human Rights Institute and served as a Human Rights Advisor to Sport Integrity Australia.

Dryden has collaborated with global coalitions on several high-profile initiatives. These include securing the release of a refugee footballer, conducting a gender equity campaign ahead of the London 2012 Olympics, and evacuating nearly 100 female athletes and their families from Afghanistan to Australia in 2021. She has successfully advocated for the International Olympic Committee to update their Charter rules on the rights to freedom of expression and due process. She has also served as an athlete ambassador for Right to Play, a humanitarian group that helps refugee children to rebuild their lives through sport. Through her unwavering dedication to justice and advocacy, Nikki Dryden continues to champion the rights of athletes worldwide.

Fulbright Global Scholar Award.
The Fulbright Global Scholar Award enables U.S. scholars and professionals to engage in collaborative research, combine teaching and research activities, or pursue a professional project in their area of specialization in two to three countries in different world regions. Activities may also include consulting on curriculum, program and faculty development and conducting workshops. The activities may consist of one multi-country trip, or two or three single or dual-country trips.